Sorry, Kentucky basketball. There’s no time to bask in the win at Mississippi State.

After their impressive 95-90 victory against No. 14 Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday night, Mark Pope’s sixth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats could rightfully celebrate their first SEC road win of the 2024-25 season.

The Cats could celebrate for, oh, all of about 10 seconds.

The good news is that Kentucky returns home for a pair of games this week at Rupp Arena. The bad news is that both games are against teams ranked among the first 10 in the current AP Top 25. No. 10 Texas A&M visits Tuesday. No. 5 Alabama rolls into town on Saturday.

Such is life in the minefield that is this year’s SEC basketball. There’s no letup. None.

Not that Kentucky isn’t up to the challenge. The Cats proved that Saturday night in Starkville. Fresh off that disappointing 82-69 loss at Georgia, Pope’s club “answered specific questions” — according to the coach — and then some against a Mississippi State team that was 14-1 and riding an eight-game win streak.

Jaxson Robinson snapped out of his scoring slump for a game-high 27 points. The BYU transfer was a sizzling 7-for-10 shooting from 3 as UK was a sizzling 16-for-32 from beyond the arc. Otega Oweh added 15 points. Playing in a back brace, Andrew Carr scored 13. Amari Williams scored 10 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished six assists and at one point motioned for the MSU student section to bring it.

Then there was UK’s ace in the hole, Ansley Almonor, who bounced up off the bench to bury a trio of clutch 3-pointers in a crucial two-minute stretch.

Mainly, the Cats answered questions raised about their toughness after the Georgia loss. UK outrebounded State 41-33. And after the home team rallied from a 14-point deficit to claim a two-point lead with 8:16 remaining — and “The Hump” jumping — Kentucky showed its mental toughness by executing game-winning plays down the stretch.

Now 13-3 overall and 2-1 in the SEC, the Cats will need more of where that came from this week.

ESPN2 has Tuesday’s 7 p.m. Kentucky-Texas A&M matchup. The Aggies are also 13-3 overall and 2-1 in the SEC after their nine-game win streak was snapped by visiting Alabama 94-88 on Saturday. Still, Buzz Williams’ team was impressive in defeat, especially considering the Aggies were without leading scorer Wade Taylor IV for the second straight game because of an undisclosed injury.

SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps has stepped up in Taylor’s absence. The 6-foot-4 guard scored 34 points in A&M’s 80-78 win at Oklahoma last week. Phelps took a jaw-dropping 29 shots against Bama — Phelps made nine shots on the way to 24 points — but still impressed Nate Oats.

“The kid’s talented,” the Alabama coach said. “Now that he has his confidence going, when they do get Wade back, they’re going to be a really tough offensive team to guard.”

One more thing about the Aggies: They lead the nation in offensive rebounding percentage at 44.4%. Buzz’s teams have always been known to crash the boards.

ESPN has the high noon Saturday shootout between UK and Alabama. And everyone knows the Crimson Tide is tough to guard. After its College Station win, Alabama is No. 2 in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to the KenPom rankings. Now 14-2 overall, the Tide is one of three teams unbeaten in conference play, along with Auburn and Ole Miss.

Preseason SEC Player of the Year Mark Sears scored 27 points against Texas A&M. He’s averaging 19.1 points per game. And while Alabama is an uncharacteristically low 228th in 3-point shooting at 32.3%, the Tide is No. 3 nationally in 2-point percentage at 61.7%.

Guess who is No. 3 now in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency? That would be Kentucky. (Auburn is No. 1.) Saturday marked the eighth game this season UK has shot better than 50% (53.3) from the field. The Cats are 8-0 in those games. This we know: When they are clicking offensively, they are tough to beat.

The Cats will need to click this week.

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