UK's Latest AP Ranking Following UT Loss & Bama Win
Stop me if you heard this one before, but Kentucky lost a road matchup to an SEC opponent in which Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington both got hurt mid game. This past Tuesday, Kentucky had fallen 76-63 to their rivals, 16th ranked Tennessee. Unfortunately, for the Cats, the AP Poll usually does not account for injuries, and treats a loss as any other loss. Fortunately for the Cats, Kentucky rebounded strong on Saturday with an impressive 90-81 win over 25th ranked Alabama, still playing without Wheeler and Washington.
Due to both matchups this past week being against ranked teams, as well as finishing the week off strong with a ranked win, Kentucky's loss only drops them a pair of spots in the latest AP Poll. Kentucky comes in at 6th, coming behind Gonzaga, Arizona, Auburn, Purdue, and Kansas (Auburn dropping 1 spot after an unranked loss is hilarious). As we are now only 20 days away from Selection Sunday, the bracketology rankings start to become a lot more important and the significance of the AP Poll starts to wind down. Kentucky will have a pair of great opportunities this week to move up in both rankings.
Wednesday, the Cats will host LSU (currently in "Others Receiving Votes" category), a team who beat us earlier in the season and has bounced in and out of the AP Poll all year. And Saturday, Kentucky will have one of their most difficult tasks of the season; traveling into Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks (currently #18) who have won 11 of their last 12 contests, including a win over the at-the-time #1 team in the country, Auburn.
The full AP Poll for this week is as follows:
Gonzaga
Arizona
Auburn
Purdue
Kansas
Kentucky
Duke
Villanova
Texas Tech
Baylor
Providence
UCLA
Wisconsin
Houston
Illinois
USC
Tennessee
Arkansas
Murray State
Texas
Connecticut
Ohio State
Saint Mary's
Alabama
Iowa