Kentucky drops in new college basketball rankings. UK gets No. 1 Kansas on Tuesday night.
The first in-season college basketball rankings are out.
Kentucky will play the nation’s No. 1 team on Tuesday night.
The Kansas Jayhawks remained at the top of the Associated Press poll — bringing in 51 of 62 first-place votes — following two lopsided victories over North Carolina Central and Manhattan during the first week of the 2023-24 season.
Kentucky also won its first two games — beating New Mexico State by 40 and then defeating Texas A&M-Commerce by 20 — and ended up dropping one spot, from No. 16 to No. 17.
Baylor and Southern Cal, now ranked No. 15 and No. 16, respectively, were the two teams that jumped ahead of UK.
Kentucky and Kansas — the two winningest programs in college basketball — will play in the Champions Classic at United Center in Chicago. The game is set for 9:30 p.m. on ESPN, with No. 9 Duke vs. No. 18 Michigan State as the event opener at 7 p.m.
(The Blue Devils and Spartans both lost during opening week, to Arizona and James Madison, respectively.)
The Jayhawks’ perfect start to the season sets up Kentucky’s first matchup with the country’s No. 1-ranked team in four years. The last time it happened, No. 2 UK defeated top-ranked Michigan State 69-62 in the 2019-20 season opener, which also occurred at the Champions Classic.
The Wildcats have actually won their past two meetings with the sport’s No. 1 team, also beating top-ranked Tennessee 86-69 toward the end of the 2018-19 season.
John Calipari has a 3-2 record against No. 1 teams in his 14-plus seasons as Kentucky’s head coach, with both losses coming against Florida in March 2014, when the Gators were in the midst of an eventual 30-game winning streak and the clear favorites to win that year’s national title. Florida lost to UConn in the Final Four that season, and the Huskies beat Kentucky — led by Julius Randle and several other McDonald’s All-American freshmen — two days later in the national championship game.
Calipari is hoping another bunch of young Wildcats will be able to put it together at the end and make a similar run through the postseason. Their first big test comes Tuesday night, with preseason All-American Hunter Dickinson and the Jayhawks looming in Chicago.
The AP poll has been around since the 1948-49 season, and Kentucky has an 8-15 all-time record against No. 1-ranked teams, though the Wildcats are 8-8 when they’ve gone into such games ranked in the top 20.
Kentucky has never played Kansas when the Jayhawks have been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll.
Calipari is 5-5 against the Jayhawks as UK’s head coach, though the Cats have lost their last three Champions Classic meetings against coach Bill Self’s program. KU has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past nine games between the two sides.
Duke, which fell from No. 2 to No. 9, and Michigan State (No. 4 to No. 18) were the most notable droppers in the first Top 25 poll of the regular season. Arizona was the biggest riser, going from No. 12 to No. 3. The top five this week consists of Kansas, Purdue, Arizona, Marquette and UConn.
The SEC still has five teams ranked in the Top 25, with Tennessee leading the way at No. 7, followed by No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 17 Kentucky and No. 22 Alabama.
Two other league teams (Mississippi State and Auburn) received votes in this week’s poll.
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