AP voters include Mark Pope’s first UK basketball team in preseason Top 25 rankings

ben roberts

Mon, Oct 14, 2024, 12:08 p.m.·4 min read

Mark Pope’s first Kentucky basketball team will start the season in the Top 25 rankings.

The preseason Associated Press poll was released Monday afternoon, and the Wildcats came in at No. 23.

While the early ranking — under unique circumstances — is a vote of confidence for Pope’s roster, this will be the lowest ranking for the Wildcats to start the season since UK was unranked in the 2008-09 preseason poll. That was the team’s final year under head coach Billy Gillispie.

In the previous 15 seasons under John Calipari, the Cats were ranked no lower than No. 16 — their ranking last fall — to start the preseason. Other than that 2008-09 season, this will be the program’s lowest preseason ranking in the AP poll since 1990-91, the team’s second year under head coach Rick Pitino and when the program was still under NCAA probation.

Pope had to build his first Kentucky team completely from scratch, and while there’s plenty of individual talent on this Wildcats’ roster, the uncertainty that comes from a brand new group of players likely gave AP voters some pause in the preseason.

All 12 of Pope’s scholarship players are new to the program, and Jaxson Robinson — the leading scorer at BYU last season — is the only Wildcat who has ever been coached by Pope, who was hired in April as Calipari’s replacement.

Pope, who spent the past five seasons at BYU, will coach his first game with the Wildcats on Nov. 4 against Wright State in Rupp Arena.

Kansas tops the AP preseason poll for the second consecutive year, with Alabama, UConn, Houston and Iowa State rounding out the top five. Gonzaga is No. 6, followed by Duke at No. 7, Baylor at No. 8, North Carolina at No. 9 and Arizona at No. 10.

Kentucky will play seventh-ranked Duke in the Champions Classic in Atlanta on Nov. 12 — the first marquee matchup of the Pope era — and the Wildcats will travel to Seattle to play No. 6 Gonzaga on Dec. 7.

Alabama is the only SEC program in the preseason top 10, but a total of nine teams from the league were featured in the Top 25 poll. No other conference has more than six teams in the first Top 25 rankings.

Auburn was No. 11 in the voting, followed by Tennessee at No. 12 and Texas A&M at No. 13.

Calipari’s first Arkansas Razorbacks team is No. 16 in the initial rankings.

The Arkansas roster features former UK players Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic, as well as freshman recruits Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond, who were all committed to play for the Wildcats before Calipari left Lexington.

SEC newcomer Texas is No. 19 in the poll, with Florida at No. 21, UK at No. 23 and Ole Miss at No. 24. Mississippi State also received votes in the poll.

All told, Pope’s first UK team will play 12 games against teams in the AP preseason Top 25, with two matchups each against Alabama and Tennessee.

The Cats will have another five games against teams that received votes in the poll. Kentucky plays Mississippi State twice, as well as non-conference matchups against Clemson (Dec. 3 on the road), Louisville (Dec. 14 in Rupp Arena) and Ohio State (Dec. 21 in New York).

U of L, which is entering its first season with head coach Pat Kelsey and will also feature a completely new roster, tied for 47th in the preseason AP voting. The Cardinals haven’t appeared in the actual AP Top 25 since January 2021.

Pitino, who coached UK to the 1996 national title — with Pope as a captain on that team — and made a triumphant return to Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness on Friday night, nearly made the preseason Top 25 going into his second year with St. John’s, which was No. 27 in the voting.

Pope’s former team, BYU, was 35th in the voting released Monday.

Kentucky is No. 42 in KenPom

The first edition of the 2024-25 KenPom ratings, which were also released Monday, are not as high on the Wildcats.

The preseason KenPom list ranked Kentucky at No. 42 nationally and 10th in the SEC, behind Auburn (No. 3), Alabama (No. 4), Tennessee (No. 13), Texas A&M (No. 16), Texas (No. 18), Arkansas (No. 25), Florida (No. 28), Mississippi State (No. 32) and Oklahoma (No. 40).

Houston is No. 1 in the first KenPom ratings, followed by Duke, Auburn, Alabama and two-time defending champion UConn at No. 5. The AP preseason No. 1 team, Kansas, is No. 6 in the first KenPom ratings.

Louisville is No. 64 on the list.

Other computer rankings were kinder to Kentucky this preseason.

The Torvik ratings have UK at No. 23 nationally, and EvanMiya.com’s rankings place the Wildcats at No. 22 in the preseason.