Jay Bilas' College Basketball Rankings have Kentucky Wildcats in top 20

The Kentucky Wildcats are slowly becoming the team many envisioned they'd become when UK was ranked in the top two of most preseason polls.

Though the Cats already have six losses this season, they've been dominating good teams in recent weeks and almost won at Kansas, a team poised to earn a 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. While this team is far from perfect, UK is slowly looking like a team capable of making it to their fifth Final Four under John Calipari's watch.

ESPN's Jay Bilas is slowly becoming more of a UK believer based on his latest ranking of the 68 best teams in college basketball via Volume VI of the Bilas Index.

19. Kentucky Wildcats

In 15 games this season, Tyler Ulis has been responsible for at least 10 of Kentucky's field goals. He did so only once last season. Kentucky gives up an assist on only 40 percent of its opponents' field goals, the lowest assist rate in the nation.

Bilas has a top five of Oklahoma, Maryland, Villanova, North Carolina and Iowa. Other teams that UK has or will face this season include Kansas (10), Louisville (15), Texas A&M (24), Duke (25), Florida (29), LSU (32), South Carolina (36), Vanderbilt (46) and Georgia (52).

To recap, UK beat Duke (with Amile Jefferson) Georgia, Florida and Vandy by an average of 20.75 points, edged UL by two points and nearly upset Kansas in Lawrence before falling in overtime. All of this shows how much these Cats have improved as the season has gone on, not to mention they're capable of ending the regular season on a high note and earning a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.