Kentucky is officially the new #1 team in the country
After Duke lost to Kansas, this doesn’t come as a surprise, but it’s still nice to see Kentucky is the number one team in the country in the new AP poll, which was just released. Read it and puff your chest out like a proud Cats fan:
| RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
| 1 | Kentucky (40) | 4-0 | 1,494 |
| 2 | Villanova (20) | 5-0 | 1,469 |
| 3 | Indiana (1) | 3-0 | 1,348 |
| 4 | North Carolina | 4-0 | 1,319 |
| 5 | Kansas | 2-1 | 1,284 |
| 6 | Duke | 4-1 | 1,253 |
| 7 | Virginia | 3-0 | 1,126 |
| 8 | Arizona | 3-0 | 1,066 |
| 9 | Xavier | 5-0 | 1,039 |
| 10 | Louisville | 3-0 | 893 |
| 11 | Gonzaga | 3-0 | 816 |
| 12 | Creighton | 4-0 | 716 |
| 12 | Oregon | 2-1 | 716 |
| 14 | UCLA | 4-0 | 681 |
| 15 | Saint Mary’s | 3-0 | 665 |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 2-1 | 623 |
| 17 | Syracuse | 3-0 | 576 |
| 18 | Purdue | 2-1 | 571 |
| 19 | West Virginia | 3-0 | 466 |
| 20 | Baylor | 3-0 | 326 |
| 21 | Iowa State | 3-0 | 283 |
| 22 | Texas | 3-0 | 237 |
| 23 | Rhode Island | 4-1 | 198 |
| 24 | Michigan State | 2-2 | 184 |
| 25 | Florida State | 4-0 | 89 |
The Coaches Poll will be released later today.
23 Comments for Kentucky is officially the new #1 team in the country
Meanwhile in Bloomington, IU will be holding a net cutting ceremony to commemorate their 3rd place ranking, and they will sell special popcorn boxes during the next home game. 😉
Crean is wondering where the trophy is …ha ha
Jeff Goodman has Indiana as number 1 in his ESPN Power Rankings. Kentucky is second.
What a joke!
Indiana is celebrating that they got 1 vote for #1, there will be a commemorative popcorn box at this week’s games
That target didn’t stay on Duke’s back very long.
I suspect this will be a year where Kentucky, Duke and Villanova all get one, perhaps two, shots at being # 1.
Why would Duke drop to #6 when they lost to Kansas at the buzzer while missing their three of their top five players?
Because until they have those players (who ESPN spends half the broadcast reminding everyone that they’re hurt) in the lineup, that’s about where they should be.
Seriously, they flash to shots of the 3 of them after every dead ball. It’s like, timeout Blue Devils- hey did you know that Duke has 3 McDonalds All-Americans hurt right now? Oh you heard about it the last time we told you that 3 minutes ago after the TV timeout? Well, just in case here they are sitting together looking hurt and stuff.
Kansas also had a loss going into that game. It’s just the way these meaningless popularity things go. There are teams above them with no losses. I don’t feel too sorry for Duke considering how nice the tournament committee is to them year in year out and that actually matters.
a loss is a loss. if two teams are equal – give the edge to the team with three injured starters. but undefeated teams (with quality wins) deserve to be ranked ahead of duke because of that loss
I don’t really get the logic there- if the teams records are equal give the edge to the team with 3 starters injured that have never played an NCAA game yet?
So if Skal got hurt before the first game last year, UK’s rank shouldve been buoyed by him just being on the roster despite being unable to play? Not saying any of those guys are Skal but let’s see how they do first before naming them All-Americans. It could also take a significant amount of time for them to figure out how to play well together with the existing team since they really haven’t even gotten to practice together yet. I say rank the team that can actually suit up and play that week- who cares about the guys wearing street clothes.
The current rankings are just that, current. They’re supposed to be a snapshot of who’s playing the best college basketball in a given week. With their injuries Duke is not the best team in the country. When they’re at full strength they’ll be reevaluated by the voters and (probably) rise up to the top 3 or 4 again.
The other good news… nobody cares what you’re ranked in NCAA Basketball at the end of the year. That’s not how titles are decided.
These early season polls are pretty much a guessing game, my only question is how is Michigan State still in the top with a 2-2 record?
AND they got lucky to escape their last game against mighty Florida Gulf Coast who is sitting KenPom 85 right now.
I’m ok with that. their 2 losses are to top 10 teams. and although their wins aren’t great, i’m not surprised they didn’t OVER-react to them losing and slingshot them all the way out of the rankings. Howver they will live in the 20s until they beat somebody, lose another game, or until teams in that 25-30 range start racking up wins (and people ahead of them don’t lose -they will get squeezed out of the top 25 eventually anyway)
Indiana got 1 vote for the top spot. I wasn’t aware that Jerry Tipton was given a ballot.
UK carrying the SEC on its back when it comes to basketball. No other SEC teams ranked.
Yet we still have 5* basketball recruits sticking with the hometown SEC school. Just don’t understand – the sure path to irrelevance is to play at an SEC school OTHER than Kentucky for an unproven coach.
Oh and where is William and Mary? According to Pitino they’re a great team. Can’t believe they aren’t up there 🙂
Hilarious considering William and Mary has NEVER made the NCAA tournament.
Funny how the votes changed after the poll was first released. The numbers above show the initial vote totals: Kentucky with 40 first-place votes, Villanova with 20, and Indiana with 1. Later, it showed Kentucky with 42, Villanova with 22, and Indiana with 1. Now it shows Kentucky with 42, Villanova with 21, and Indiana with 2.
It’s like four voters had forgotten to vote, were reminded when the poll came out, and asked that their late votes be included (after seeing how everyone else voted). Syracuse ended up falling a spot from the initial release. And Michigan fell out completely.