Monday Headlines: Kentucky in the College Basketball Rankings

See where the Kentucky Wildcats check in for the latest college basketball rankings.

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

Kentucky basketball is headed into week three of its regular season and traveling to New York City for a matchup against Tom Izzo and Michigan State in Tuesday’s State Farm Champions Classic.

The Wildcats opened as 5.5-point favorites over the Spartans with ESPN’s Basketball Power Index giving them a 77.9% chance to win.

Kentucky is coming off a bounce-back win over Eastern Illinois on Friday, where they were able to get things back on track after a tough loss at Louisville last Tuesday.

Defense was

Mark Pope and his team’s kryptonite last Tuesday, but their efforts were noticeably different on Friday.

The road loss to Louisville was an “upset” when considering Kentucky’s No. 9 slot in the Associated Press Top-25 rankings, but the Wildcats were also listed as underdogs by oddsmakers.

Therefore, the road loss shouldn’t cripple UK as much in the Top-25 rankings that will come out later today.

Sure, Kentucky will slide back a bit, but they are currently ranked No. 10 by Evan Miya and No. 4 by Haslametrics and KenPom.

With point guard Jaland Lowe’s status for Tuesday’s game still uncertain, ball-handling duties will likely fall on multiple Wildcats.

Will they be able to hang with the Spartans? We’ll find out soon enough

Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 PM ET with coverage on ESPN and the UK Radio Sports Network.