Kentucky ranked No. 45 in debut of the NET

The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings do not like Kentucky basketball’s early body of work. Listed as the nation’s consensus No. 12 team in the AP and Coaches Polls — both set to be updated later today — the Wildcats open the year ranked No. 45 overall in the debut of the NET.

Replacing the RPI ahead of the 2018-19 season, the NET is college basketball’s primary sorting tool. It factors in the Team Value Index (TVI), a results-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents (particularly away from home), along with net efficiency rating. That values strength of opponent and location across all games played.

And Kentucky doesn’t grade out well in either of those categories, certainly not after suffering a Quad 3 loss to UNC Wilmington on Saturday.

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Average opponent NET rank: 229
Average opponent NET: 194
NET strength of schedule: 263
NET non-conference strength of schedule: 259
Quad 1 matchups: 0-1
Quad 2 matchups: 1-0
Quad 3 matchups: 1-1
Quad 4 matchups: 4-0

Check out the debut of the NET top-25 rankings:

Houston
BYU
Arizona
Creighton
Purdue
Baylor
Colorado State
Princeton
UConn
Marquette
Florida Atlantic
Alabama
Iowa State
Cincinnati
Texas A&M
Kansas
Tennessee
Clemson
Oklahoma
Ohio State
Nevada
Indiana State
Illinois
San Diego State
Iowa

SEC in the NET

Kentucky sits in the middle of the SEC pack at No. 7 overall in the NET, behind Alabama, Texas A&M, Tennessee, South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State.

12. Alabama
15. Texas A&M
17. Tennessee
29. South Carolina
33. Auburn
40. Mississippi State
45. Kentucky
65. Florida
95. Ole Miss
114. Missouri
117. Arkansas
148. Georgia
165. LSU
276. Vanderbilt

Measuring quality of wins (and losses)

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses the NET during the seeding process to come up with the March Madness bracket. In short, Quad 1 victories and Quad 3 and 4 losses carry the most weight when sorting the field.

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353