UK basketball gets more love from AP voters in first Top 25 rankings of regular season

On the eve of the Kentucky-Duke game in the Champions Classic, the Wildcats and Blue Devils both moved up in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

The first new rankings since the 2024-25 college basketball season began were released Monday afternoon, and UK jumped four spots — from No. 23 to No. 19 after lopsided victories against Wright State and Bucknell last week. Only Auburn, which moved from No. 11 to No. 5 after defeating fourth-ranked Houston over the weekend, made a bigger jump than Kentucky in the first poll of the regular season.

Duke moved up one spot to No. 6 in the rankings. The Cats and Blue Devils will face each other at 9 p.m. Tuesday in Atlanta as part of the annual Champions Classic on ESPN.

Mark Pope’s team was No. 23 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, and seven teams ranked ahead of them last month lost during the season’s opening week, with three of those defeats coming to unranked teams.

▪ No. 13 Texas A&M lost 64-61 to UCF on Monday night.

▪ No. 19 Texas lost 80-72 to Ohio State, also on Monday night.

▪ No. 22 UCLA lost 72-64 to New Mexico on Friday.

Meanwhile, top-ranked Kansas defeated No. 9 North Carolina, No. 11 Auburn beat No. 4 Houston, No. 6 Gonzaga beat No 8 Baylor (by 38 points), and — five days after that one — Baylor defeated the No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks, now coached by John Calipari.

Kentucky moved past Texas A&M, Texas and UCLA — and the Cats also jumped Florida — to get to the No. 19 position in the rankings. UK is now one spot behind Arkansas, which is No. 18 in the new poll.

Kansas held on to the No. 1 ranking, followed by No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 UConn, No. 4 Gonzaga and No. 5 Auburn.

UK will play Gonzaga on Dec. 7 in Seattle.

Alabama and Auburn lead a total of eight SEC teams in the latest rankings, with Tennessee at No. 11, Arkansas at No. 18, UK at No. 19, Florida at No. 20, Texas A&M at No. 23 and Ole Miss at No. 25. Texas is now 30th in the voting, and Mississippi State is 35th.

Another future Kentucky opponent, Ohio State, entered the Top 25 on Monday, coming in at No. 21 following their victory over the Longhorns. The other newcomer to the poll was Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad, which is now 22nd in the country.

The Wildcats started the Pope era with a 103-62 victory against Wright State in Rupp Arena on Monday night. Kentucky defeated Bucknell 100-72 at home Saturday, marking the first time since the 1978-79 season that the Cats have scored 100 points in each of their first two games.

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