What did Kentucky’s very weird week of basketball mean for the national rankings?
Last week, the Kentucky Wildcats won on the road as a double-digit underdog and lost at home as a double-digit favorite. It was a strange few days in the world of UK basketball.
The result of the madness was a drop of two spots in the new Associated Press Top 25 poll, which was posted Monday afternoon with Kentucky at No. 12 in the national rankings.
Following the Cats’ shorthanded 78-73 victory over then-No. 8 Tennessee on Tuesday night, Mark Pope’s team was primed to move back into the top 10 as long as they could put away John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks, who came into Rupp Arena on Saturday night with a 1-6 record in SEC play.
In addition to Tennessee’s loss to UK earlier in the week, the teams ranked No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, No. 9 and No. 11 in last week’s AP poll all lost Saturday before the No. 12 Cats’ game against Arkansas tipped off. But the Hogs upset Kentucky 89-79 in Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena.
UK had spent 10 consecutive weeks in the AP top 10 — after starting the season ranked No. 23 — before dropping to No. 12 in last week’s poll.
Kentucky will play at No. 25 Ole Miss on Tuesday night before returning to Rupp to face South Carolina — the last-place team in the SEC at 0-9 in the league — Saturday afternoon.
Auburn retained the No. 1 spot in the Top 25 rankings after road victories over Ole Miss and LSU last week. Bruce Pearl’s team is 8-0 in the SEC, the only team with a perfect record in the best conference in college basketball.
The Tigers’ only loss this season came at Duke, which remained No. 2 in the rankings. Alabama moved up one spot to No. 3, followed by No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Florida, No. 7 Purdue, No. 8 Iowa State, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 Texas A&M.
The Volunteers followed up their stunning home loss to Kentucky by defeating then-No. 5 Florida by 20 points Saturday afternoon, moving up four spots in the rankings despite the defeat at the hands of the Cats.
Next in the new rankings came No. 11 Marquette, followed by No. 12 St. John’s, No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 14 Kentucky, No. 15 Missouri, No. 16 Kansas, No. 17 Memphis, No. 18 Maryland, No. 19 UConn and No. 20 Arizona.
St. John’s, in its second season under former UK coach Rick Pitino, enters this week with a 19-3 record and sits all alone at the top of the Big East standings with a 10-1 mark in the league. The Red Storm haven’t been ranked in the top 10 since the final poll of the 1999-2000 season, but that could change if they keep winning this week. St. John’s hosts No. 11 Marquette on Tuesday night.
Rounding out the Top 25 were No. 21 Wisconsin, No. 22 Mississippi State, No. 23 Illinois, No. 24 Michigan and No. 25 Ole Miss.
Louisville had won 10 consecutive games since losing at Kentucky on Dec. 14 before suffering an upset loss at Georgia Tech on Saturday. The Cardinals were No. 21 in last week’s poll. They fell to 28th in the voting Monday after losing to the Yellow Jackets, dropping out of the Top 25 after spending the past two weeks in the rankings.
The SEC now has nine teams in the rankings, with Vanderbilt, Texas and Oklahoma also receiving votes this week.
