Kentucky debuts at No. 8 in first NET rankings of the season

Kentucky would be a potential No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament if it were to begin today — quite the starting point for Mark Pope’s Wildcats after opening the season 7-0 overall.

The first run of the 2024-25 NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings were released on Monday, the seventh season of the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams after replacing the RPI prior to the 2018-19 season. Kentucky opens the cycle ranked No. 8 overall and No. 4 in the SEC, behind Tennessee (No. 1), Auburn (No. 2) and Florida (No. 6). Elsewhere, Gonzaga opens at No. 3, followed by Duke at No. 4, Pittsburgh at No. 5 and Marquette at No. 7. Kansas (No. 9) and Illinois (No. 10) round out the top 10.

As for other future opponents, Ohio State comes in at No. 12, followed by Alabama at No. 13, Clemson at No. 18, Georgia at No. 27, Mississippi State at No. 28, Louisville at No. 30, Oklahoma at No. 37, Texas A&M at No. 43, Missouri at No. 46 and LSU at No. 50.

Oh, and we can add Arkansas way down there at No. 51, too, plus Ole Miss at No. 55, Texas at No. 56 and Vanderbilt at No. 62.

The metric gives Kentucky one Quad 1 victory over Duke along with three Quad 3 victories and three Quad 4 victories.

It won’t stand with automatic qualifiers, obviously, but that’s 19 teams deemed worthy of the field of 68 on Kentucky’s schedule as of now. That aligns with ESPN’s BPI, which gives the Wildcats the No. 2 remaining strength of schedule in college basketball, behind only Kansas State.

Take a look at the top 62 because it feels a little unnecessary to go any longer:

RANK	PREVIOUS	SCHOOL	CONFERENCE	RECORD	ROAD	NEUTRAL	HOME	QUAD 1	QUAD 2	QUAD 3	QUAD 4
1		Tennessee	SEC	7-0	1-0	2-0	4-0	2-0	0-0	3-0	2-0
2		Auburn	SEC	7-0	0-0	4-0	3-0	4-0	0-0	1-0	2-0
3		Gonzaga	WCC	7-1	1-0	2-1	4-0	2-1	2-0	1-0	2-0
4		Duke	ACC	5-2	1-0	0-2	4-0	1-2	0-0	2-0	2-0
5		Pittsburgh	ACC	7-1	1-0	1-1	5-0	3-1	0-0	3-0	1-0
6		Florida	SEC	8-0	1-0	3-0	4-0	1-0	1-0	2-0	4-0
7		Marquette	Big East	8-0	1-0	1-0	6-0	3-0	0-0	2-0	3-0
8		Kentucky	SEC	7-0	0-0	1-0	6-0	1-0	0-0	3-0	3-0
9		Kansas	Big 12	7-0	0-0	2-0	5-0	3-0	0-0	2-0	2-0
10		Illinois	Big Ten	6-1	0-0	1-1	5-0	0-1	1-0	1-0	4-0
11		Cincinnati	Big 12	6-0	2-0	0-0	4-0	0-0	0-0	1-0	5-0
12		Ohio St.	Big Ten	5-2	0-1	1-0	4-1	0-2	1-0	0-0	4-0
13		Alabama	SEC	6-2	0-1	3-1	3-0	2-2	2-0	1-0	1-0
14		Utah St.	Mountain West	6-0	0-0	3-0	3-0	0-0	3-0	1-0	2-0
15		Oregon	Big Ten	8-0	1-0	3-0	4-0	3-0	1-0	2-0	2-0
16		UCLA	Big Ten	6-1	0-0	0-1	6-0	0-0	0-1	1-0	5-0
17		Wisconsin	Big Ten	8-0	0-0	2-0	6-0	1-0	2-0	2-0	3-0
18		Clemson	ACC	7-1	0-1	2-0	5-0	1-1	1-0	2-0	3-0
19		Iowa St.	Big 12	5-1	0-0	2-1	3-0	1-1	1-0	0-0	3-0
20		Houston	Big 12	4-3	0-0	1-3	3-0	0-2	1-1	0-0	3-0
21		Purdue	Big Ten	7-1	0-1	2-0	5-0	1-1	2-0	2-0	2-0
22		Baylor	Big 12	5-2	0-1	2-1	3-0	1-2	1-0	1-0	2-0
23		Maryland	Big Ten	7-1	0-0	1-0	6-1	0-1	1-0	0-0	6-0
24		UC Irvine	Big West	7-0	3-0	3-0	1-0	0-0	1-0	5-0	1-0
25		Saint Mary’s (CA)	WCC	6-1	0-0	2-1	4-0	1-1	0-0	3-0	2-0
26		North Carolina	ACC	4-3	1-1	1-2	2-0	1-3	0-0	2-0	1-0
27		Georgia	SEC	7-1	1-0	1-1	5-0	1-1	0-0	2-0	4-0
28		Mississippi St.	SEC	6-1	1-0	2-1	3-0	1-1	1-0	1-0	3-0
29		West Virginia	Big 12	5-2	0-1	2-1	3-0	1-2	1-0	0-0	3-0
30		Louisville	ACC	5-2	0-0	2-1	3-1	1-2	1-0	0-0	3-0
31		Memphis	The American	6-1	1-0	3-1	2-0	2-1	2-0	1-0	1-0
32		Nevada	Mountain West	6-1	0-0	2-1	4-0	0-0	1-1	4-0	1-0
33		Arizona St.	Big 12	7-1	0-1	4-0	3-0	1-1	1-0	5-0	0-0
34		Penn St.	Big Ten	7-1	0-0	2-1	5-0	0-1	0-0	1-0	6-0
35		Michigan	Big Ten	6-1	0-0	2-1	4-0	0-0	0-0	3-1	3-0
36		Texas Tech	Big 12	6-1	0-0	1-1	5-0	0-0	0-0	2-1	4-0
37		Oklahoma	SEC	7-0	0-0	3-0	4-0	1-0	1-0	1-0	4-0
38		Boise St.	Mountain West	4-2	0-1	2-1	2-0	1-1	1-0	1-1	1-0
39		UConn	Big East	5-3	0-0	0-3	5-0	0-2	0-1	0-0	5-0
40		Dayton	Atlantic 10	5-2	0-0	1-2	4-0	1-2	1-0	0-0	3-0
41		Michigan St.	Big Ten	6-2	0-0	2-2	4-0	1-2	1-0	1-0	3-0
42		St. John’s (NY)	Big East	6-2	0-0	1-2	5-0	0-2	1-0	1-0	4-0
43		Texas A&M	SEC	6-2	0-1	2-1	4-0	1-1	2-1	0-0	3-0
44		Nebraska	Big Ten	6-1	1-0	0-1	5-0	0-1	1-0	2-0	3-0
45		Drake	MVC	6-0	0-0	3-0	3-0	0-0	1-0	3-0	2-0
46		Missouri	SEC	6-1	0-1	0-0	6-0	0-1	0-0	0-0	6-0
47		Butler	Big East	6-1	0-0	2-0	4-1	1-0	2-0	0-0	3-1
48		BYU	Big 12	6-1	0-0	1-1	5-0	0-0	1-1	0-0	5-0
49		Oregon St.	WCC	4-2	0-1	0-0	4-1	0-2	0-0	0-0	4-0
50		LSU	SEC	6-1	1-0	1-1	4-0	0-1	2-0	0-0	4-0
51		Arkansas	SEC	5-2	0-0	0-2	5-0	0-2	0-0	2-0	3-0
52		San Francisco	WCC	6-2	0-0	1-2	5-0	0-2	1-0	1-0	4-0
53		Liberty	CUSA	6-1	2-0	4-1	0-0	0-0	3-0	1-1	2-0
54		Iowa	Big Ten	6-1	0-0	1-1	5-0	0-1	1-0	0-0	5-0
55		Ole Miss	SEC	6-1	0-0	2-1	4-0	1-1	0-0	0-0	5-0
56		Texas	SEC	6-1	0-0	2-1	4-0	0-1	0-0	2-0	4-0
57		St. Bonaventure	Atlantic 10	6-1	2-0	1-1	3-0	0-1	1-0	3-0	2-0
58		Rhode Island	Atlantic 10	6-0	0-0	2-0	4-0	0-0	0-0	2-0	4-0
59		North Texas	The American	4-2	1-1	1-1	2-0	0-2	1-0	2-0	1-0
60		San Diego St.	Mountain West	3-2	0-0	2-1	1-1	1-2	2-0	0-0	0-0
61		Utah	Big 12	6-1	0-0	0-1	6-0	0-1	0-0	0-0	6-0
62		Vanderbilt	SEC	7-1	0-0	2-1	5-0	1-1	0-0	2-0	4-0

A couple of top-20 wins this week would be enough to put the Cats in the top five next week, surely.

We’ll take it.