Kentucky soars in new college basketball rankings. NCAA Tournament outlook getting clear.
The regular season is over, and the new AP Top 25 college basketball rankings are out.
Kentucky made a big move.
The Wildcats jumped six spots to the No. 9 position in the final men’s college basketball poll heading into the SEC Tournament later this week. The new rankings, which were released Monday afternoon, saw UK pass Kansas, Auburn, Illinois, Baylor, Duke and Marquette to give the Cats their highest ranking in nearly two months.
Kentucky (23-8, 13-5 SEC) finished the regular season on a high note, beating No. 4-ranked Tennessee 85-81 in Knoxville on Saturday for its fifth consecutive win to close out the campaign. UK also defeated Vanderbilt 93-77 last week in its final home game of the 2023-24 season.
The Cats clinched the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament with the results of Saturday’s league games, and they’ll play either Texas A&M or Ole Miss in their postseason opener at 7 p.m. Friday in Nashville.
Kentucky spent six consecutive weeks in the AP top 10 earlier this season — rising as high as No. 6 on three separate occasions — but the Cats fell as far as No. 22 in the poll in recent weeks. This is the fourth straight week that UK has moved up in the rankings.
The Wildcats were ranked as high as No. 5 in Monday’s poll by three different voters. A total of 43 (out of 62) voters had Kentucky in the top 10 on their ballots, and no one had the Cats ranked lower than 14th in the country. Only two voters had UK in the top 10 in the Top 25 poll last week, when the Cats were ranked No. 15.
There could be more room to rise between now and next week, when the final AP poll of the 2023-24 season will be released, just days before the NCAA Tournament begins.
Kentucky enters the SEC Tournament with a 6-5 record in Quad 1 games and the No. 19 spot in the NET ratings, both important factors in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s seeding process.
If UK plays Texas A&M on Friday — and the Aggies will be favored over Ole Miss — that would represent another Quad 1 game. Alabama or Florida would be the Cats’ most likely opponent if they reach the SEC semifinals, and both of those would be Quad 1 opportunities. Four teams on the other side of the bracket — Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State — are also in the Quad 1 range, should Kentucky make it to the SEC Tournament final Sunday.
The Cats have not won the league tournament since 2018.
New AP Top 25 poll
Houston (28-3) held on to the No. 1 spot in the new AP Top 25 rankings following a week that included a 76-46 victory over Kansas to close out the regular season.
The Cougars were followed by No. 2 UConn, No. 3 Purdue, No. 4 North Carolina and No. 5 Tennessee. Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 Arizona, No. 7 Iowa State, No. 8 Creighton, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 10 Marquette.
Five teams in the previous top 10 — Tennessee, Arizona, Iowa State, Marquette and Duke — lost last week.
The Volunteers remained the SEC’s top-ranked team despite the home loss to Kentucky, and they clinched the league’s regular-season title earlier in the week. The SEC has five Top 25 teams going into the conference tournament: No. 5 Tennessee, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 12 Auburn, No. 15 South Carolina and No. 19 Alabama.
Other notables in the Top 25 include No. 17 Gonzaga, which was unranked when it defeated Kentucky in Rupp Arena on Feb. 10 and has risen steadily in the AP voting since then; and No. 20 BYU, coached by former UK player Mark Pope, who will lead the Cougars into their first Big 12 Tournament this week.
Kentucky in bracketology
UK’s win at Tennessee on Saturday — coupled with some stumbles from teams around the Cats in the NCAA Tournament seeding projections — meant a rise in bracketology fortunes.
Generally considered to be a 4 seed — and still rated a 5 seed in some places — heading into Knoxville, the Wildcats are now clearly in play for a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament with Selection Sunday just days away. And a 2 seed might even be achievable if UK can win the SEC Tournament.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi moved Kentucky up to the 3 seed line with his weekend update following the Wildcats’ win over the Vols, bumping Kansas down to a 4 seed in the process.
The CBS Sports bracketology board — after sticking UK with a 5 seed in recent weeks — finally moved the Wildcats onto the 4 seed line due to Saturday’s victory.
The tournament projections on the Bracketville website — managed by longtime bracketologist Dave Ommen — now have the Cats as the No. 11 overall team in the field, making them a 3 seed. UK is now above both Duke and Kansas in those projections.
The win at Tennessee on Saturday clearly boosted UK’s résumé, and it might have gone a long way in ensuring a shorter trip for the first week of the NCAA Tournament.
If Kentucky can stay in its current projected range, that would put Pittsburgh — the second-closest first-round site to Lexington — on the board as the Cats’ most likely destination for next week. To start March Madness in Indianapolis (the nearest opening site to Lexington), the Wildcats would need to pass Marquette — currently No. 7 on Ommen’s board — and Creighton (No. 8) to join Purdue as the second high seed there.
That might be a tough task at this stage in the calendar — Creighton and Marquette are on the same side of the Big East Tournament bracket, so one of those teams is expected to make that league’s championship game — but the current projections have UK in a good position to get one of the two Pittsburgh slots.
If the Cats finish in the 14-16 range on the final seed list, it’s likely that they’d be sent to one of the two farthest first-round locations — Salt Lake City or Spokane — to begin the NCAA Tournament.
The selection show will be televised on CBS at 6 p.m. Sunday.
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