UK Fans of the Day want National Media Praise for the Cats

After wins over Mississippi State and Tennessee a week ago, Kentucky started popping up in some power rankings from the national media. Two more wins later, one of them an absolute shellacking of Auburn, the Cats are officially back in the AP Top 25 and considered one of the hottest teams in college basketball.

There’s nothing better than reading praise for the Cats from the national media after a big win. Lucky for us, there’s plenty of it out there today.

Kentucky is Field of 68’s Team of the Week

The Field of 68 named Kentucky its “Team of the Week,” heaping praise on the Cats and Oscar Tshiebwe, the newly-named SEC Player of the Week.

Team of the Week: Kentucky Wildcats

Remember when Kentucky stunk? Those days are gone. Over the past two weeks, the ‘Cats are 4-0, each win a Q1 victory. The streak’s most eye-popping game came on Saturday when Kentucky annihilated Auburn, 86-54. Oscar Tshiebwe reminded everyone he’s still pretty good, scoring 22 points and grabbing 17 boards.

The Field of 68

From today’s @TheFieldOf68 Daily!

Team of the week – @KentuckyMBB
Player of the week – @lif3nick @RazorbackMBB pic.twitter.com/LE5OaXKRY0

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) February 27, 2023

Kentucky rises in Power Rankings, gets A+ grade from CBS Sports

Andy Katz bumped Kentucky up to No. 17 in his Power 36 Rankings. The Cats were No. 23 a week ago. Seth Davis put Kentucky No. 24 on his AP Top 25 ballot.

And hey, look who’s back! Kentucky made it easy to re-enter my rankings by following up its sweep of Tennessee with a Quad 1 win at Florida on Wednesday and then by running Auburn out of Rupp Arena on Saturday, 86-54. (By the way, I may be the only AP voter that has never ranked Auburn this season. Just sayin’.) That was Kentucky’s fourth straight win and its sixth in the last eight games. The Wildcats’ metrics (15-28) are not nearly as strong as Tennessee’s (2-11), but when you beat a team twice, and by healthy margins, you deserve to be ranked ahead.

Seth Davis, The Athletic

CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish did NOT include Kentucky in his “Top 25 and One“; however, his college Kyle Boone gave the Cats an A+ for the week.

Two straight A+ weeks for Kentucky as it extended its winning streak to four games with a road win over Florida and a dismantling of Auburn at home by 32 (!) points. UK is playing its best basketball as the postseason approaches and has not only locked up a tourney spot, but looks like it could make real noise when it gets there.

Kyle Boone, CBS Sports

Joe Lunardi picks Kentucky to win SEC Tournament

ESPN’s panel of college basketball writers shared their conference tournament predictions today. Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway, and Myron Medcalf all picked Alabama to win the SEC Tournament. Joe Lunardi, who picked Kentucky to win the title in the preseason, has the Cats cutting down the nets in Nashville.

In his “Bubble Watch” column, Gasaway moved Kentucky from “Work to do” to a “lock” to make the NCAA Tournament.

Tshiebwe has been his usual “reigning national player of the year” self during this impressive four-game run. On the rare occasion when he does not post a double-double, he’s scoring 25 points on 12-of-13 shooting, as he did against the Gators.

Chris Livingston has contributed with two double-doubles of his own over this win streak. Wallace has averaged eight assists in the past four games, during which time Reeves is shooting 48% on his 3s.

Kentucky has games remaining at home against Vanderbilt and on the road at Arkansas. After that there’s an SEC tournament that, if it tipped off today, would seed the Wildcats as a No. 3 in the bracket. That’s not bad considering where UK seemed to be heading just four games ago.

It has been a team effort, and the net result is a profile with top 25 rankings across the board. Whether the standard of measure is the NET, strength of record or KenPom, Kentucky is a lock to make the tournament.

John Gasaway, ESPN

Love to read it.