Kentucky Basketball: Ranking non-conference opponents for 2022-23 season
12. Florida A&M Rattlers
The Rattlers were a top-half team in the SWAC, with their top six scorers all being four-year players. Just one is back from that group in point guard Kamron Reaves and he’ll lead a new-look roster, featuring a bunch of Junior College transfers. Some of the newcomers to watch includes Jordan Tillmon and Byron Smith. They do have some size in Tre Howard and Legend Stamps but like South Carolina State, Florida A&M is likely to not be very competitive this year.
11. Howard Bison
Just a couple of years ago, the Bison were struggling to win a single D-I game. However, head coach Kenneth Blakeney has done a tremendous job building up the roster, including MEAC Freshman of the Year Elijah Hawkins (13.8 ppg and 5.6 apg). With returning forward Steve Settles and multiple Ivy League transfers (Jelani Williams and Kobe Dickson). It’s a roster that should be the favorites in the MEAC and should be competitive in this matchup for a little bit.
10. Bellarmine Knights
The still fairly new D-I program has become highly successful in the Atlantic Sun, including winning the conference tournament last season (was ineligible to make the NCAA Tournament due to the 4-year transition period). The problem for the Knights is that the two stars of the team (Dylan Penn and CJ Fleming), are gone. That’s two 15+ ppg scorers, with no one returning that averaged more than 7.0 ppg. It does give more opportunity for the three returning starters such as Alec Pfriem, Curt Hopf, and Juston Betz but unless two of them break out as real stars, Bellarmine will likely take a step back.