Kentucky keeps moving up college basketball rankings. What about the Cats’ bracketology?

For the third consecutive week, the Kentucky Wildcats made a move up the rankings.

UK was listed at No. 15 when the new men’s college basketball Associated Press Top 25 poll was released Monday afternoon, a rise of one spot from last week. Another positive move for the Cats coincided with the team’s first three-game winning streak since SEC play began in January.

Kentucky’s week consisted of a 91-89 win at Mississippi State — with Reed Sheppard providing the buzzer-beating shot — and then a nail-biter of a 111-102 victory over heavy underdog Arkansas on Saturday in Rupp Arena, where Rob Dillingham went off in the final seven minutes to lead the Cats’ comeback. UK also beat Alabama 117-95 the previous weekend.

The series of victories means Kentucky will avoid becoming the first team in program history to fail to win three games in a row after the beginning of SEC play. (The league was formed in 1932.)

UK has now moved up in the poll for the third week in a row after dropping to a season-low ranking of No. 22 in the Feb. 12 edition. The Cats have been ranked as high as No. 6 this season (three times, all of which came in January).

Houston held on to the No. 1 spot in the new Top 25 rankings Monday, with UConn jumping Purdue to No. 2, the Boilermakers dropping to No. 3, and Tennessee maintaining its position at No. 4 in the poll. Arizona moved up one spot to take the No. 5 position.

Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 Iowa State, No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 Marquette, No. 9 Duke and No. 10 Creighton.

Kansas was the big dropper this week, falling from No. 7 to No. 14 following losses to BYU and Baylor last week. This is the Jayhawks’ worst ranking since the 2020-21 season, when they briefly fell out of the poll and ended the season in the No. 12 spot. Until Monday’s rankings, KU had been in the top 10 for 55 straight weeks, the longest active streak in college basketball.

BYU, coached by former UK player Mark Pope, moved back into the Top 25 poll at No. 20 in the rankings after the win at Kansas and a weekend victory over TCU. The Cougars were 26th in the voting last week.

The SEC has five teams in this week’s poll: No. 4 Tennessee, No. 13 Auburn, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 16 Alabama and No. 17 South Carolina, with Florida at 27th in the voting.

What’s next for UK?

Kentucky (21-8, 11-5 SEC) will hold its Senior Night — featuring the final home games for Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves — on Wednesday against Vanderbilt (8-21, 3-13 SEC), the lowest-rated team in the SEC at No. 207 in the KenPom ratings.

The Wildcats beat the Commodores 109-77 on Feb. 6 in Nashville, their most lopsided victory since November.

UK will end the regular season Saturday in Knoxville in a rematch with Tennessee (23-6, 13-3 SEC), which sits atop the league standings with a one-game lead over Alabama and South Carolina. The Vols are in the hunt for a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and they beat Kentucky 103-92 in Rupp Arena on Feb. 3.

Tennessee won games over Alabama and Auburn last week, and it’ll have a tough road trip to South Carolina on Wednesday night before meeting UK this weekend.

The Wildcats appear most likely to get either the 4 or 5 seed in the SEC Tournament, but several scenarios still remain due to the logjam at the top of the league standings. The top four teams in the conference get a bye into the Friday quarterfinals of the tournament next week in Nashville. The 5 seed would play around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, while the 4 seed would play in the 3:30 p.m. slot Friday, which is also where the 5 seed would end up if that team advanced to the quarterfinals.

The SEC Tournament bracket won’t be finalized until after Saturday’s games.

Kentucky in bracketology

The Wildcats are generally projected to be a 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament going into the final week of the regular season.

Longtime college basketball reporter Mike DeCourcy’s board for Fox Sports — updated Sunday afternoon — featured Kentucky as a 4 seed and the No. 15 overall team in the March Madness field. No regions or matchups were listed in those projections.

Neither ESPN’s bracketology nor the Bracketville tournament projections were updated after Kentucky’s win over Arkansas on Saturday, but — exciting as it was to watch — that victory over one of the SEC’s lesser-regarded teams wasn’t going to do much to move UK’s needle anyway. Both of those websites had the Cats as a 4 seed. ESPN slotted UK into the Spokane first-week site and the Boston regional, while Bracketville had Kentucky beginning in Salt Lake City before going to the Boston regional.

CBS Sports’ bracketology, which has rated UK low all season, relative to other projection sites, still had the Wildcats as a 5 seed following Saturday’s win over Arkansas. CBS has UK in Spokane to begin the tournament, staying out west in the Los Angeles regional.

Kentucky starts the week at No. 20 in the NCAA’s NET ratings with a 5-5 record in Quad 1 games, an important measure for the tournament selection committee. The Cats’ game at Tennessee on Saturday will be another Quad 1 opportunity.

The SEC Tournament should also give UK additional chances at Quad 1 wins, which — on a neutral court — are games against teams in the top 50 of the NET ratings. There are currently five other SEC teams safely in that range (Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State and Florida), with South Carolina (No. 47) and Texas A&M (No. 54) near the cutline.

Last year’s Kentucky team — a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament — was 6-7 in Quad 1 games at the end of the regular season before losing a Quad 2 matchup to Vanderbilt in its SEC Tournament opener.

Selection Sunday is set for March 17.

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