It appears that winning can allow you to still fall in the rankings. Kentucky drops five spots from last week, even after going 1-0 and defeating North Florida between the two consecutive weekly standings.
After entering the week at No. 14, the Wildcats now sit at No. 19 in the AP Top-25. The poll looks like this:
Houston
Texas
Virginia
Arizona
Purdue
Baylor
Creighton
UConn
Kansas
Indiana
Arkansas
Alabama
Tennessee
Gonzaga
Auburn
Illinois
Duke
North Carolina
Kentucky
Michigan State
UCLA
Maryland
Iowa State
San Diego State
Ohio State
You may wonder, "how is that possible?" Well, let me tell you. When you're stuck out in left field, knee-deep into your weak non-conference home schedule, and the other "powers" of the world get invited to select November tournaments out in places like Maui, the Battle 4 Atlantis and the Phil Knight Invitational, you get to play some quality competition. They are the ones that will actually move the needle when it comes to the rankings. If you're sitting back wondering to yourself, "Why doesn't Kentucky play in these?", then you are like the majority of this fanbase. The reason why they don't is because they either choose not to schedule them or they weren't invited. I know for the P.K.I. in particular, they haven't been invited back since declining the inaugural offer to kick it off many years back.
It is what it is, and there isn't anything we can do about it this year, so oh well. I would like to note that our two early-season losses, to quality opponents, don't look nearly as bad as they did originally after things have started to play out. Joining Kentucky with two early-season losses are Gonzaga (5-2), Duke (6-2), UNC (5-2), Michigan State (5-2), and UCLA (5-2). So, it turns out the sky isn't actually falling down on the Commonwealth.
Kentucky returns to the hardwood this week against Bellarmine on Tuesday (Nov. 29) at 7:00 p.m., and on Sunday (Dec. 3) versus Michigan at 1:00 p.m.