Monday Headlines: Kentucky in the College Basketball Rankings

SB Nation

Kentucky women’s basketball is playing lights out to start Southeastern Conference play.

Head coach Kenny Brooks and his team have started the new year with wins at No. 5 LSU and at home over Missouri.

They boast a 15-1 overall record and have strung together eight consecutive victories.

Joining Kentucky with a 2-0 start to conference play are Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vanderbilt.

Next up for Brooks and his Cats is a road trip to Alabama on Thursday (1-1 in SEC play), followed by a home matchup against Oklahoma (2-0) on Sunday.

Kentucky is currently positioned as the No. 11 team in the Top-25 rankings and should definitely move up into the Top-10 — especially after their big win over No. 5 LSU.

Unfortunately for the men’s team, they’ve all but hit rock bottom.

Despite finally being healthy, they were never really in the game in what was an embarrassing loss at No. 14 Alabama this past Saturday.

Head coach Mark Pope and his staff had 10 days to prepare for the Crimson Tide, but were completely out-classed for most of the day on Saturday.

They’ve fallen to 9-5 on the season with their only “quality” wins over Indiana and St. John’s teams that haven’t proven to be that good.

On deck for the unranked Wildcats are matchups with Missouri (Wednesday at home) and Mississippi State (Saturday at home), with both opponents currently unranked.

The time to win games is now or never for Pope and his team. Continuing to play the way they have will lead to being left out of the NCAA Tournament, which is a major step backwards after a solid first season for Pope a year ago.