Just hours after garnering a top-five ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, the UK men’s basketball team did one better in the Associated Press Poll.
The Cats are ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP poll, the highest ranking since the Cats checked in at No. 4 in week 17 of the 2004-05 season. It is also the highest preseason ranking since the 2001-02 season, when the AP voted UK at No. 4.
Kansas is the runaway preseason No. 1 choice in the AP, picking up 55 of the 65 first-place votes. Michigan State, Texas, UK and Villanova round out the top five. Kentucky picked up three of the first-place votes.
Southeastern Conference foe Tennessee is ranked No. 10, and SEC West favorite Mississippi State is No. 18, according to the ballots. Four other SEC teams – Vanderbilt, Florida, South Carolina and Ole Miss – received votes.
