The Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks eras are off to a nice start.
Ahead of a big week for the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball program, the latest AP Top 25 has been released.
Thanks to impressive outings in wins over Wright State and Bucknell to tip off the Mark Pope era, the Cats moved up to No. 19 overall in the new AP Poll. It’s a four-spot rise that saw Kentucky move past fellow SEC member Texas A&M following the Aggies’ defeat to UCF.
The Duke Blue Devils, the Cats’ opponent in the Champions Classic, moved up to No. 6 overall.
The latest Coaches Top 25 Poll has Kentucky up to No. 18 and Duke at No. 6.
Kentucky actually moved up to No. 15 in the latest On3 rankings, which also have the Blue Devils at No. 6.
In terms of analytics, KenPom has Kentucky up to No. 30 after opening the season at No. 43. Duke is No. 3.
EvanMiya has Kentucky at No. 13 and Duke at No. 2.
Barttorvik ranks the Cats No. 15 and Duke No. 2.
On the women’s side, the Kenny Brooks era is also off to a 2-0 start, which led to his Cats moving up to No. 20 in the latest AP Poll.
However, Barttorvik is not quite sold on the Cats just yet, ranking them No. 62.
We’ll update this post as more rankings come out.