Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky got the bump in the national rankings it deserved after its 77-72 win over Duke last week.
The Cats rose to 11th in the coaches poll and moved to No. 9 in the new Associated Press poll. That was a jump of 10 spots from the previous poll and the biggest jump in the AP poll in program history. The 2000-01 team jumped nine spots on Feb. 19, 2001.
Both Auburn (4) and Alabama (8) are ranked ahead of Kentucky in the AP poll. Other SEC teams in the newest AP poll are Tennessee (11), Arkansas (20), Florida (21) and Texas A&M (23). Ole Miss, Texas, and Mississippi State all received votes in the poll.
Remember Kentucky was picked eighth in the preseason SEC poll by the league coaches.
Future Kentucky foe Gonzaga is third in this week’s poll. The Cats play Gonzaga Dec. 7 in Seattle.
Kentucky could have a chance to move higher in the next few weeks.
The Cats host Lipscomb tonight and then have Jackson State (Friday), Western Kentucky (Nov. 26) and Georgia State (Nov. 29).
After that, the Cats have major road tests at Clemson Dec. 3 and Gonzaga.
The Cats have not been better than 7-0 to open a season since the 2014-15 team went 38-0 before losing in the Final Four.
3 Responses
Now is not the time to worry about rankings. Every game on the schedule IS the next BIG GAME. It’s the Evansvilles you have to be ready for. Losing to them is just one loss on the schedule, but it is magnified come NCAA tourney seeding. Likewise, beating a team like Duke is just one win on the schedule, but it also gets magnified in terms of how others see us as a team. Pope has them focused on the next game is the BIG GAME. We are going to become everyone’s Final Four game again. After the 2015 loss to Wisconsin, most of the teams on our schedule going forward thought HOT DAMN, we GET TO play Kentucky! Pope is going to change that to OH SHIT, we HAVE TO play Kentucky. Mark Pope was made to be the coach at Kentucky just as Rick Pitino was. Calipari was a FRAUD from the get go who lost more big games with better talent than he ever won. Pope will take our team back to the top of the college basketball mountain soon enough. Go CATS!!!
We just beat Libscomb by 29.
Arkansas beat them by 16.
People get so caught up in the rankings and really I think they are a distraction. When a team is ranked better and better they think they have arrived already. The good thing about this team is they haven’t been told they are the greatest basketball players ever. Like most of the AAU kids or 5* kids. I think family and friends get in there ear alot of times and it kills there mentality. Look at Bradshaw who played for us last year and now plays for Ohio state. He got more playing time last year at Kentucky then he does as a sophomore at Ohio state. What that tells me is he was promised playing time from cal so he thought he was a lottery pick in the draft before ever playing a game in college. Then we all seen that he’s not good in the post. He’s not strong enough to grab rebounds and his timing is bad at blocking shots. Remember he was a top 5 recruit. Wagner was a top 6 recruit and Edwards was a top 3 recruit. I would really say Wagner had a better year than Edwards. Edwards was the only guy that got drafted besides Reed and Rob. I’m so glad all this is in the rearview mirror. I think the only game we lose is to Gonzaga in the pre conference schedule. In the SEC I think we go 12-4 or 13-3. We finish tied for first with Alabama. Florida is my sleeper team to maybe win the SEC. They look very good. Very deep and talented.