Kentucky MBB is the 2nd youngest team in the AP Poll Top 25

This season’s Kentucky men’s basketball team is much younger than the last few. Instead of building his team around veterans and transfers, John Calipari went back to his old ways for 2023-24. The head coach brought in eight freshmen — the top-ranked 2023 recruiting class in the nation — during the offseason. There are still a couple of key elder statesmen sprinkled in the mix, but freshmen and sophomores make up this team’s identity.

So just how young is this year’s Kentucky team? Compared to the Associated Press’ most recent Top 25 poll, UK is among the youngest in the country. ESPN states that No. 8 Kentucky is the second-youngest team in the AP Top 25 with an average age of 20.8. The youngest group of the bunch is No. 16 Duke with a slightly lower average age of 20.7.

On the flip side, No. 19 Memphis is the oldest team sitting in the AP Poll Top 25 with an average age of 23.2. For reference, the Oklahoma City Thunder is the youngest team in the NBA with an average age of 23.5 years. Penny Hardaway’s roster at Memphis features seven seniors, six juniors, no sophomores, and three freshmen.

But how does Kentucky stack up age-wise compared to the rest of Division I? Those numbers are tougher to come by, but BartTorvik has similar data. In terms of college experience, Kentucky boasts the seventh-fewest number (1.075) Only UCLA (0.881) and Notre Dame (0.82) are Power 6 schools with less experience than UK. Louisville actually ranks right behind Kentucky in eighth (1.094).

Notre Dame and Louisville are among the two worst Power 6 teams in all of college basketball. UCLA is 5-6 through 11 games this season. Kentucky is just as young as all three but is experiencing much more positive results. Harvard (7-3) is the only team with less experience than UK that also holds a winning record.

Calipari’s formula of choosing talent over experience is working once again.