9. Kentucky (3-1)
While the on-court coaching from Mark Pope has clearly been impressive since returning to his alma mater, he and his staff have also done an excellent job building this team from the ground up. The transfer portal became quite a useful research in his first season and after a Sweet Sixteen run he’s hoping to top that this year. There weren’t many complaints about these Wildcats in the opening week of the season but this team is far from perfect.
Kentucky fell in a tough challenge to their bitter rivals, losing 96-88 at Louisville on Tuesday night. Denzel Aberdeen came to play with a 26-point, 7-rebound effort but the defense just couldn’t contain the Cardinals. Fortunately it was business as usual by Friday night, as Kentucky soared to a 99-53 win against Eastern Illinois. Mouhamed Dioubate had 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Wildcats made 61% of their field goal attempts in another blowout win.
In their three wins, Kentucky has looked the part of a dominant team that can make significant moves this season with a balanced offensive attack. The loss didn’t really expose too much about the Cardinals, but it did show that they have work to do defensively moving forward. There isn’t much time for the Wildcats to rest, as they’ll be at the Champions Classic next week against a hungry Michigan State team.