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After an impressive week of basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, the AP Top 25 Poll is out, and they are still the No. 4 team in the country.
Thanks to win at Missouri and a thrashing of Auburn, the Cats are now a consensus top-four team and firmly in the mix for a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Despite a big loss from Duke on Wednesday night to the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Blue Devils only dropped a couple spots to No. 3. This is more than likely due to the fact that they were without Zion Williamson for the entirety of that game.
Tennessee has also seen a drop in these rankings as they took a gut-wrenching overtime loss on the road to LSU, who now is in control of the SEC regular-season race.
Another noticeable jump is the North Carolina Tar Heels who are No. 5 now. As I just mentioned, they thrashed Duke on the road this past Wednesday and they also won in impressive fashion against a really good Florida State team. The Tar Heels have really been playing great basketball as of late as they prepare for March.
Gonzaga is now the new No. 1 team since Duke lost, followed by Virginia. Both of these teams took care of business this week despite a scare on the road for Virginia against Louisville. The Cards just couldn’t hold on to a big lead, at home... again.
Michigan State, Tennessee, Houston, Michigan and Marquette rounded out the top 10 of the new AP Poll.
AP Top 25 Poll
4. Kentucky Wildcats
5. North Carolina Tar Heels
12. Nevada Wolfpack
13. LSU Tigers
15. Kansas Jayhawks
21. Buffalo Bulls
22. Iowa Hawkeyes
24. Wofford Terriers
Andy Katz now has Kentucky ranked No. 3 overall in his Power 36.
CBS Sports now has Kentucky at No. 4.
That’s also where Kentucky sits at in the NBC Sports Top 25.
The same is true in ESPN’s latest power rankings:
EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards appear likely to split the minutes down low while Reid Travis is sidelined. On Saturday against Auburn, Montgomery got the start and played 23 minutes, finishing with six points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Richards played 20 minutes off the bench, also blocking three shots and finishing with four points and three boards. That combined production will make John Calipari happy.
Interestingly enough, the Cats didn’t rise at all in the new NET rankings, as they still check in at No. 5 behind Houston of all teams.
As for the latest round of bracketology, the Cats now find themselves as a No. 1 seed in many different predictions. In the CBS bracket, the Cats are the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region with North Carolina being the No. 2, Houston at No. 3, and a similar foe in Kansas State at No. 4.
Bracket Wag has almost an identical top 4, the only difference is they have Wisconsin in at No. 4 instead of Kansas State.
USA Today has essentially the same with Kentucky and North Carolina as the top two seeds:
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Either way, this looks like a solid spot for the Cats, and if all else holds, they should be happy with these seedings. The biggest hope right now for Kentucky is that they win out and Virginia loses 1 more game. This would give them the No. 1 seed for the South Region where they could potentially play in Louisville.