AP Poll Notes: Observations From College Basketball's Preseason Top 25

Earlier today, the Associated Press revealed its Preseason Top 25 for the upcoming 2023-24 college basketball season. At the top, the Kansas Jayhawks earned the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll, followed by Duke, Purdue, Michigan State, and Marquette, rounding out the top five vote-getters, in that order.

Eleven spots further down the list, your University of Kentucky Wildcats earned a No. 16 ranking in the AP’s first Top 25 of the new season. Kentucky is one voting point ahead of defending national runner-up San Diego State and one place behind Texas A&M, a league opponent on Kentucky’s schedule.

BREAKING: College Basketball Preseason AP Poll🏀https://t.co/bZ9nSquaey pic.twitter.com/XkX4ZS1Ihr

— On3 (@On3sports) October 16, 2023

Here are some immediate reactions and observations to the new AP Poll and Kentucky’s place among the 25 preseason-ranked teams.

AP voters ranked Kentucky fourth in the SEC

The first poll of 2023-24 included five teams from the Southeastern Conference, three of which earned more votes than Kentucky. Tennessee at No. 9, Arkansas at No. 14, and Texas A&M at No. 15 are three league teams ranked above the Wildcats. The fifth SEC team is Alabama at No. 24.

Kentucky will play all four of those teams and two of them twice:

• Sat. Jan 13….. at (15) Texas A&M
• Sat. Jan 27….. at (14) Arkansas
• Sat. Feb 3…… vs (9) Tennessee
• Sat. Feb 24…. vs (24) Alabama
• Sat. Mar 2…… vs (14) Arkansas
• Sat. Mar 9…… at (9) Tennessee

Kentucky will play 10 games against preseason ranked teams

In addition to the six games against ranked SEC opponents, Kentucky has non-conference games against four teams in the AP Top 25.

There is the game against No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic, No. 13 Miami in the first ACC/SEC Challenge, No. 19 North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic, and No. 11 Gonzaga will travel to Rupp Arena in February.

• Tues. Nov 14….. vs (1) Kansas – Champions Classic, Chicago
• Tues. Nov 28…. vs (13) Miami
• Sat. Dec 16……. vs (19) North Carolina – CBS Sports Classic, Atlanta
• Sat. Feb 10…….. vs (11) Gonzaga

The Champions Classic is a big draw

As Kyle Tucker noted on Twitter/X, three of the top four teams in the country are in the four-team Champions Classic field early in the season in Chicago. Kentucky is the lone Champions Classic participant not ranked inside the top four. Purdue at No. 3 joins Champion Classic-goers No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Duke, and No. 4 Michigan State at the top of the AP.

Kentucky’s lowest ranking of the John Calipari era

While excitement is high in Lexington around Calipari’s talented rebuild, this year’s team is actually Calipari’s lowest-ranked Kentucky team in the preseason poll. The previous low was No. 11 in 2010, the season Calipari took his second Kentucky team to his first Final Four with the Wildcats.

No other Kentucky team started the year outside the top 10 until 2020 when the first of three teams in four years failed to crack the preseason top 10.

• 2009: 4th
• 2010: 11th
• 2011: 2nd
• 2012: 3rd
• 2013: 1st
• 2014: 1st
• 2015: 2nd
• 2016: 2nd
• 2017: 5th
• 2018: 2nd
• 2019: 2nd
• 2020: 10th
• 2021: 10th
• 2022: 4th
• 2023: 16th

Feeling like ’74

The only other time Kentucky was the preseason No. 16 team, the year was 1974, Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” was the No. 1 hit, and Joe B. Hall’s Wildcats were about to begin a special season that would end in the national championship game. That 1974-75 season, Kentucky played its way from 16th to a runner-up finish, losing to John Wooden in Wooden’s final game.

Kentucky’s highest vote was at No. 8 on one ballot

College Poll Tracker does just that: tracks college polls, and the breakdown of the preseason AP voting shows Brian Holland of WVLA-TV/WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has the most faith in the Wildcats. Holland ranked Kentucky eighth on his ballot, the highest place for the Cats on any of the AP ballots.

You can come hang out in the Bluegrass anytime, Brian Holland of WVLA-TV/WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You, too, David Jones from Pennsylvania, for ranking Kentucky at No. 10.

And without naming names (because I am trusting College Poll Tracker here), there are six voters who don’t believe Kentucky is a preseason top-25 team.