Better late than never, Matthew Mitchell and his players must be thinking after Tuesday.

Although its play has probably warranted a ranking far earlier, the UK women’s basketball team finally cracked one of the major top-25 polls. The Cats entered the ESPN/USA Today Poll this week at No. 25, marking the Cats’ first appearance in the top 25 since Nov. 23, 2006.

Head coach Matthew Mitchell took a page out of men’s head coach John Calipari’s book on Tuesday before practice when he joked that his team deserves to ranked 50th and should not have as many wins as it does.

In all seriousness, Mitchell said he was happiest for the fans because they have been concerned with the lack of a ranking.

“The ranking we want to be in is the top 64 and that’s the 64 teams that get invited to the NCAA Tournament,” Mitchell said. “That’s where our focus is and a national ranking or poll will not get you there. You have to win a certain amount of games and that’s where our focus is on. Anything that’s happening positive in the program that shows we’re maybe making some progress is good. It’s just not something we can really dwell on at this point in time.”

UK is coming off a 1-1 week in which it lost on the road at South Carolina but bounced back to defeated Alabama at home by double digits.

With the Cats’ ranking, the Southeastern Conference now has four teams in the ESPN/USA Today Poll.

“That’s a great opportunity for us to be ranked to get recognized like that,” junior forward Victoria Dunlap said. “We just take that and move on and try to get better and better. As a team we want to get recognized. We want people to know we’re out here playing and that we’re a good team. It was bound to happen sooner or later because people were going to realize how we play and our potential.”

With 13 receiving votes, UK sits at No. 33 in the Associated Press Top 25.

Kentucky returns to the court Thursday at Memorial Coliseum vs. Arkansas at 7 p.m.