Kentucky sits at No. 42 in KenPom Preseason Rankings

The preseason basketball rankings rollout has begun with the first AP Poll and All-SEC teams set to come out on Monday ahead of SEC Media Day in Birmingham on Tuesday. Until then, all of the national outlets are starting to release their own takes on the upcoming season, starting with KenPom right at midnight to get the week started.

What do the analytics say about Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats? Well, it’s about what you’d expect when you factor in data for a group featuring 12 new scholarship pieces with none previously suiting up in Lexington and just one playing for Pope at BYU.

They don’t favor the Cats, I’ll tell you that much.

While most other publications include Kentucky in their respective top 25 lists, KenPom lists Pope’s group at No. 42 overall with the No. 28 offense and No. 68 defense nationally. That’s good for tenth in the SEC, somehow.

Taking a deeper dive into KenPom’s take on the Cats, there isn’t really much to love. The analytics predict Kentucky to finish 18-13 on the year and 8-10 in the SEC, picked to lose against Duke (neutral), Clemson (road), Gonzaga (neutral), Ohio State (neutral), Georgia (away), Mississippi State (away), Texas A&M (home), Alabama (home), Tennessee (away), Ole Miss (away), Tennessee (home), Texas (away), Alabama (away), Oklahoma (away) and Missouri (away).

On the flip side, KenPom does predict a win over Arkansas on Feb. 1 inside Rupp Arena. Besides that, though, it’s a projected loss in every potential toss-up game on the schedule.

Brutal.

Take a look at the complete top 50, if you dare:

1. Houston
2. Duke
3. Auburn
4. Alabama
5. UConn
6. Kansas
7. Iowa State
8. Arizona
9. Gonzaga
10. Purdue
11. Baylor
12. Creighton
13. Tennessee
14. North Carolina
15. Texas Tech
16. Texas A&M
17. Cincinnati
18. Texas
19. St. John’s
20. Villanova
21. BYU
22. Marquette
23. Illinois
24. Clemson
25. Arkansas
26. UCLA
27. Dayton
28. Florida
29. Oregon
30. Xavier
31. Ohio State
32. Mississippi State
33. Iowa
34. Saint Mary’s
35. Michigan State
36. Michigan
37. Maryland
38. Pittsburgh
39. Indiana
40. Oklahoma
41. VCU
42. Kentucky
43. Memphis
44. Wake Forest
45. Boise State
46. Wisconsin
47. Ole Miss
48. San Diego State
49. Kansas State
50. Northwestern

The Preseason KenPom Top 100 👇 pic.twitter.com/TFgqGWec50

— Andrew Weatherman (@andreweatherman) October 14, 2024

Andy Katz lists Kentucky at No. 14 overall

Shortly after KenPom’s release came Andy Katz’s Power 37 rankings with NCAA.com. The national analyst was much, much higher on the Cats (pun intended) over there, listing Kentucky at No. 14 overall.

“Calipari’s former team comes in right behind the Razorbacks,” he wrote. “The Wildcats may have lost some pieces to the portal, but new head coach Mark Pope has built a solid roster featuring Koby Brea and Lamont Butler in the backcourt and Andrew Carr holding down the paint.”

Check out his top 25:

1. Alabama
2. Kansas
3. Gonzaga
4. UConn
5. Duke
6. Houston
7. Iowa State
8. Baylor
9. North Carolina
10. Purdue
11. Indiana
12. Tennessee
13. Arkansas
14. Kentucky
15. Auburn
16. Creighton
17. Arizona
18. Illinois
19. UCLA
20. Florida
21. Oregon
22. Texas A&M
23. Cincinnati
24. Texas Tech
25. Rutgers

We’re bigger fans of Andy Katz around here for now — always whoever is higher on the Cats.