Kentucky Unranked Once Again March 5

[KevinHall]

Back in the rankings at 23. Auburn is 14 and the Voles at 16.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1?cid=ncaammsocial_tw_sf181916550&sf181916550=1

[KevinHall]

These polls are just a beauty contest. The real polls are when the NCAA tournament pairings are announced.

[catfaninin]

Duke fell one spot in the polls. And to be fair, they did lose to a team that's ranked #2 and playing the best basketball in the country right now.

[Lighthouse]

seriously on this whole Duke thing...they lose at home and they don't fall at all in the polls

I haven't seen the polls, but that's what BobS said.

[TrueblueCATfan]

seriously on this whole Duke thing...they lose at home and they don't fall at all in the polls

[Lighthouse]

Let's see.

UNC with 2 losses at home to bad teams and 6 total losses is still ranked. And ranked higher than UK. Duke loses at home and doesn't drop. OK

I'm usually against the bias stuff but they sure make it difficult to think there's not.

There sure is. We just have to accept it because complaining about rankings isn't going to change things. They only way for us to be fairly ranked is to win the final game.

[BobS]

Let's see.

UNC with 2 losses at home to bad teams and 6 total losses is still ranked. And ranked higher than UK. Duke loses at home and doesn't drop. OK

I'm usually against the bias stuff but they sure make it difficult to think there's not.

[KevinHall]

After being out of the top 25 for a week, UK is back in it at 21. Auburn,Tennessee and Florida are also in the top 25 from the SEC.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2018/01/29/college-basketball-top-25-rankings/1075223001/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Ratt]

I think there's talent, but this is your prototypical team with pretty high highs (Louisville, Tennessee first half, that stretch early in the Florida game) and very low lows.

"Not that talented" suggests that you've got a player who just doesn't have the requisite tools. I would put somebody like Sheray Thomas in that group. Probably Woo and those guys. Players who come in as freshmen and look pretty much the same when they leave as 22-year-olds.

This is a different thing. I think what you see with this team is more about inconsistency. They use those tools sometimes; other times they try to defer to others, but there's nobody else to defer to on this team because the other guys are just like them.

Agree. There's talent here, it's just not at a spot where we want it to be and it isn't as good as hyped - it happens. Not everyone goes from HS to College at it's biggest stage and produces. Makes teams back in the day like the Fab 5 show how good that team really was.

What's driving me crazy are the UK fans. Just read another fan on a post (not here) talking about how UK needs to go after a solid 3-star point guard to learn/run the offense. I can't stand people that say this - YOU NEVER recruit down. You always recruit the best players you can and go from there. I wished people would stop saying this.

[85 Fly]

I think it bothers the guys that they are not ranked, and for some they are thinking how that affects thier draft stock because they are looking ahead (that may be some of the problem)... I also believe because this team is so young and they were use to being the best player on thier HS and AAU and McDonald picks, they believed "they got this" college thing...SURPRISE! Not as easy as they thought.

[Joneslab]

Does anyone think that maybe we are just not that talented?

We may stay unrated the rest of the season. And at this point I don' care. Just make the tourney.

I think there's talent, but this is your prototypical team with pretty high highs (Louisville, Tennessee first half, that stretch early in the Florida game) and very low lows.

"Not that talented" suggests that you've got a player who just doesn't have the requisite tools. I would put somebody like Sheray Thomas in that group. Probably Woo and those guys. Players who come in as freshmen and look pretty much the same when they leave as 22-year-olds.

This is a different thing. I think what you see with this team is more about inconsistency. They use those tools sometimes; other times they try to defer to others, but there's nobody else to defer to on this team because the other guys are just like them.

[J.Jennings]

Does anyone think that maybe we are just not that talented?

We may stay unrated the rest of the season. And at this point I don' care. Just make the tourney.

Exactly, all i want at this point is a chance lol lol...

[BobS]

Does anyone think that maybe we are just not that talented?

We may stay unrated the rest of the season. And at this point I don' care. Just make the tourney.

[J.Jennings]

This is actually great for the players, stock will drop like the great depression and they may actually get picked up by a late round playoff team so they can sit on the bench and watch a real team play and learn what it takes to be successfull in the NBA...

[Joneslab]

Simple question, should Kentucky’s Basketball team ever be ranked below 25. I say no it shouldn’t. I think it is reasonable to expect our team to be one of the top 25 teams in America. When we are not ,and our current lack of ranking is fair,we should ask what is the problem. I’m not sure many of our fans really are.

I think most fans are in that complicated state where they are both unhappy with the current team but can also see that the current team is a byproduct mostly of everybody leaving last year. And that includes seniors and a couple of non-freshmen who would've helped.

So it's kind of a perfect storm situation. A little different than in the late Tubby years where we didn't have such youth, didn't have any five-star recruits in the pipeline, didn't have really anything to hold out hope for. You would hope this is a stopgap to something better.

If last year's team didn't win 30+ games you'd probably see more exasperation from the fanbase, but I think most fans can understand that we're not in a long-term holding pattern of mediocrity. This seems to be something that can and should pass, but it's going to take some guys returning.