Not to say I told you so … but I told you so.The women’s basketball team is good. Like very good. And really, for the first time this season, Matthew Mitchell and his Cats are finally getting the respect they’ve deserved.The evidence came Monday when Kentucky made its Associated Press Top 25 debut at No. 20, followed by the announcement that the Cats had swept the Southeastern Conference weekly awards. Kentucky’s AP ranking (full poll below) is the first time the Cats have been in the AP Top 25 since the fourth week of the 2006-07 season. The ranking comes on the heels of UK’s first-back-to-back SEC road wins since 2005-06. It’s also the first time in school history the Cats have won five straight SEC wins.UK checked in the rankings just behind LSU, who UK defeated earlier in the week for the first time in a decade. Four SEC teams comprised the AP Top 25.A pair of UK Hoops players also helped the team sweep the SEC awards as junior forward Victoria Dunlap captured SEC Player of the Week honors and guard A’dia Mathies won SEC Freshman of the Week.Dunlap averaged a double-double in UK’s two wins last week, scoring 21.5 points per game while pulling down 11.0 rebounds per game. The third-year forward became the 27th member of the UK’s 1,000-point club on Sunday after registering her 19th career double-double.Mathies, a Louisville native, averaged 11.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals in Kentucky’s wins over LSU and Mississippi State. The Cats return to action Thursday at 7 p.m. vs. Ole Miss in Memorial Coliseum.
AP Top 25   1. Connecticut (40)  21-0 1000   2. Stanford 19-1 960   3. Notre Dame 19-1 896   4. Nebraska 19-0 869   5. Tennessee 19-2 858   6. Duke 18-3 809   7. Xavier 16-3 721   8. Ohio State 21-3 665   9. North Carolina 16-3 655  10. Oklahoma State 18-3 632  11. West Virginia 20-2 593  12. Texas A&M 15-4 529  13. Oklahoma 15-5 493  14. Georgia 18-4 478  15. Baylor 15-5 431  15. Florida State 18-4 431  17. Texas 14-6 357  18. Georgetown 18-3 288  19. LSU 15-5 239  20. Kentucky 18-3 228  21. Georgia Tech 18-5 152  22. Iowa State 16-4 130  23. Wisconsin-Green Bay 18-2 126  24. Gonzaga 18-4 83  25. St. John’s 18-3 78