Kentucky stays put in new Top 25 rankings. But Cats could make a move in the next AP poll.
For the first time all season, Kentucky held its spot in the new Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll Monday afternoon. In this case, that’s good news for the Cats.
UK (11-2) remained the No. 6 team in the country in the latest rankings, its weekly gains in the poll stalling out simply because none of the five teams ahead of the Wildcats lost in the seven days since the Top 25 was last updated.
Purdue, Houston, Kansas, UConn and Tennessee remain the top five in the sport, in that order, according to the AP voters. The only change was between Houston and Kansas, which swapped spots in the new poll. And next comes Kentucky, which has won five consecutive games since suffering an upset loss to UNC Wilmington on Dec. 2.
That shocking setback in Rupp Arena dropped the Cats to No. 16 in the country in the poll that came out two days later, but they’ve slowly climbed their way back into the ranks of the elite ever since, picking up spots in each of the four previous polls before this week’s update.
An 87-85 comeback victory at Florida in the SEC opener Saturday sent UK into its first two-game week of league play on a winning note. Where will the Cats go from here?
Kentucky’s slate this week features a home game against Missouri on Tuesday night and another road trip to Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon. KenPom’s latest projections have UK winning both of those games: 87-73 vs. Mizzou, and 80-79 at A&M.
Both of UK’s opponents this week dropped their SEC openers, with Missouri losing 75-68 at home to Georgia, and Texas A&M suffering a 68-53 upset at home to LSU, which entered Saturday as the 13th-rated team in the conference.
On paper, the Aggies should provide the stiffest test for Kentucky this week. They were picked to finish second in the league before the season began — and junior guard Wade Taylor IV was chosen as the preseason SEC player of the year — but they’re 4-5 in their past nine games, though that run included close losses to Houston and Memphis, both top-15 teams, as well as a seven-point defeat to Florida Atlantic, which was ranked in the top 10 two weeks ago and is now 24th in the poll.
Might Kentucky be able to pick up some more ground in the Top 25 with two wins this week?
No. 1 Purdue is projected as the clear favorite against both of its upcoming opponents — Nebraska and Penn State — but things could get interesting elsewhere.
No. 2 Houston — now the only undefeated team in the country — has two potentially tough road games against Iowa State on Tuesday and TCU on Saturday. Both opponents are top 30 nationally in the KenPom ratings going into the week.
No. 3 Kansas will play at Central Florida on Wednesday before getting No. 9 Oklahoma at home Saturday. KenPom is projecting both of those games to be within six points.
No. 4 UConn will play at Xavier on Wednesday night — that’s projected to be a close one — before what should be a walkover at home against Georgetown on Saturday.
And No. 5 Tennessee will get two road games in the SEC: at Mississippi State on Wednesday and at Georgia on Saturday. The Vols are likely to be only slight favorites in the first one.
After Kentucky, the remainder of the top 10 consists of No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 Arizona, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Illinois.
Ten Top 25 teams lose
While there wasn’t much drama ahead of Kentucky in the rankings last week, there was plenty of it further down the Top 25 poll, where a total of 10 teams lost. Among those were No. 19 James Madison and No. 22 Ole Miss, which started the week as two of just three unbeaten teams nationally. James Madison was upset 81-71 at Southern Miss, while Ole Miss got a major reality check against No. 5 Tennessee — losing 90-64 in Knoxville.
Both teams fell out of the Top 25 on Monday.
Ole Miss’ dropout leaves the SEC with just three ranked teams this week. After Tennessee and Kentucky in the top 10 come the Auburn Tigers, who debuted at No. 25 in last week’s poll and moved all the way up to No. 16 on Monday — the biggest jump of any team this week — after an 83-51 rout of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Three other SEC teams also received votes this week: Ole Miss (27th in the voting), South Carolina (35th) and Alabama (42nd).
Other notable moves in Monday’s Top 25 poll:
▪ Coach Mark Pope’s BYU squad dropped from No. 12 to No. 18 after a 71-60 home loss to Cincinnati in the Big 12 debut for both teams. The Bearcats are now 29th in the voting.
▪ North Carolina, which Kentucky beat last month, moved from No. 8 to No. 7 after its 65-55 win at Clemson, which came into last week ranked No. 16 nationally.
▪ Gonzaga, the only non-conference opponent remaining on UK’s schedule, moved from No. 24 to No. 23 following a 101-74 win over San Diego and several losses ahead of them in the rankings. Kentucky will host the Zags on Feb. 10 in Rupp Arena.
▪ Illinois, Marquette, Colorado State, BYU, Clemson, Florida Atlantic, Texas, Ole Miss, James Madison and Providence were the 10 teams that lost as Top 25 squads last week. The latter three all dropped out of the rankings completely, while No. 19 San Diego State, No. 20 Utah State and No. 22 Creighton joined the Top 25 in their place this week.
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