After starting the season with a 5-0 record, Kentucky has earned the top spot in this week’s USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Top 25. The Wildcats edged out UConn (7-1), which had 690 points to UK’s 744. Kentucky topped then-No. 20 Michigan State, 79-74, Saturday before a world-record crowd of 78,129.

“It’s nice for our fans, but our team is a veteran group that doesn’t pay too much attention to those types of things,” UK Coach Tubby Smith said. “I’m proud of the wins we’ve earned thus far against some good teams, but there is a lot of basketball left to be played. We try not to spend too much time thinking about where we are in the polls; we’re just trying to get better every day while working toward our goals.”

Kentucky earned the No. 1 spot in the poll on March 17 last year, but fell to fourth in the final coaches’ poll.

The Cats are second in this week’s Associated Press poll, despite having 26 first-place votes to UConn’s 21. Kentucky is 8-9 all-time as the AP No. 2 team (1949-present). UK finished No. 1 in the final AP poll last year for the eighth time in school history.