Bigger expectations for Kentucky basketball? Here are the early 2025-26 rankings
The buzzer had barely sounded on the NCAA title game Monday night before rankings for the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season began pouring in.
And the national experts think highly of Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats.
A flurry of early rankings for next season were posted after Florida’s victory over Houston in the national championship game, with some positioning UK as one of the country’s top 10 teams for Pope’s second year in charge of the Wildcats.
Of the national outlets that are high on Kentucky at this stage in the offseason, On3.com is the most bullish regarding the Cats, who advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament last month, the furthest the program had gone in March Madness since 2019.
The On3.com Top 25 for the 2025-26 season has UK at No. 4 nationally.
“Kentucky will get back a couple key pieces from the roster, which promise to complement a huge recruiting class and plenty of talented transfers,” wrote On3’s James Fletcher III in that roundup. “Mark Pope overachieved in year one and could enter the season as a top contender with the level of talent set to join the roster.”
The Way-Too-Early Top 25 from ESPN posted late Monday night positioned UK at No. 6 nationally, with a projected starting five of Jaland Lowe, Jasper Johnson, Otega Oweh, Mouhamed Dioubate and Brandon Garrison.
Pope has already pulled Lowe, Dioubate and former Tulane wing Kam Williams — also expected to be a major player for the Cats next season — from the transfer portal, and UK is likely to bring in one or two additional impact newcomers this offseason.
Johnson is the highest-rated recruit in Kentucky’s three-player high school class — fellow guard Acaden Lewis and post player Malachi Moreno are the others, and both should be instant contributors — with Oweh and Garrison among the Cats expected to return from the 2024-25 roster.
Longtime college basketball reporter Mike DeCourcy placed Kentucky at No. 9 in the early rankings from the Sporting News, particularly noting the arrival of Lowe — the former Pittsburgh point guard — as a “nice addition” to the roster for next season.
Four more national rankings — from Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, USA Today and 247Sports — all had Kentucky at No. 16 in the country.
“Pope still has work to do in the portal, but this Kentucky roster is already more talented than the 2024-25 iteration,” wrote Isaac Trotter of 247Sports.
Among major national outlets that have released 2025-26 rankings, The Athletic has UK lowest on the list at No. 17.
That roundup projects a Kentucky starting lineup featuring Lowe, Johnson, Oweh, Williams and Garrison, and it does acknowledge the upside that’s forming for Pope’s second season in Lexington, with the possibility of more players to come.
“While Pope has plenty of depth already, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him try to add a few veterans. This is a much younger roster than his first one,” wrote The Athletic’s CJ Moore. “The Cats likely will not be as good early as they were last year, but there will probably be more in-season growth, because last year’s group came pretty ready-made, despite an offseason of changes.”
All of these rankings were posted before Pope added a commitment from former Arizona State big man Jayden Quaintance on Tuesday morning. Quaintance — a 6-foot-10 forward — is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA draft and is No. 6 in the 247Sports transfer portal rankings.
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Early 2025-26 college basketball rankings
Houston — the national runner-up this year — was ranked No. 1 on nearly every one of these lists, with only The Athletic and Sporting News having a different team in the top spot.
Purdue is the No. 1 team on The Athletic’s list, and DeCourcy’s rankings place Duke in the No. 1 position (with the Cougars at No. 3 in both).
Emanuel Sharp and Joseph Tugler are expected to return to Houston, which has three five-star high school recruits coming in and could also bring back point guard Milos Uzan, who is projected as a second-round NBA draft pick.
Duke, which will have the No. 1 recruiting class, was a top five team on every list except for ESPN, which ranked the Blue Devils at No. 8 overall, and The Athletic, which had them at No. 10.
Louisville is also a hot pick going into the offseason.
Pat Kelsey will enter his second season as the head coach of the Cardinals with sky-high expectations following a major haul in the transfer portal this spring. That group includes impact guards Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State).
ESPN and Fox Sports both have Louisville at No. 3 in the country, with The Athletic ranking the Cardinals at No. 4 and On3.com and Sports Illustrated putting them at No. 5. The Athletic’s projected lineup for the Cards features five-star freshman Mikel Brown Jr., along with Conwell and McKneely, returnee Kasean Pryor and Aly Khalifa, who played for Pope at BYU during the 2023-24 season but sat out this past year at U of L as an injury redshirt.
And Kentucky will once again have plenty of ranked company in the SEC.
The Sporting News actually has Arkansas — now coached by John Calipari — at No. 2 on its list. “They also have a chance to carry into next season a roster with the best combination of talent and experience John Calipari has coached since 2014-15,” wrote DeCourcy, who noted he was “not suggesting” a repeat of the perfect regular-season record enjoyed by that UK team.
ESPN has the Razorbacks at No. 7 nationally with a projected starting lineup of D.J. Wagner, Karter Knox, Trevon Brazile and highly touted freshmen Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas.
Others had the Hogs lower on their lists, with Sports Illustrated having them down at No. 20, an indication of the perennial uncertainty around Calipari’s rosters this time of year.
ESPN’s rankings had Kentucky as the top team from the SEC, followed by Arkansas, Alabama (11th), Auburn (12th), Florida (19th), Tennessee (21st) and Texas (24th).
This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
