The AP Top 25 rankings came out again this Monday, and, to no one's surprise, the Kentucky Wildcats still sit comfortably within them.
At 15-4, this Kentucky team is struggling. At the start of the season, the Wildcats were ranked second in the nation. They had key players returning from last year's nearly undefeated team and, as usual, an elite crop of youngsters coming in for their season of college glory before they skipped off to the big leagues. And, after a “huge” win against Duke, many were led to believe that this was going to be yet another year in which Kentucky dominates college basketball. The only problem is, many still do.
No matter how many awful losses this Kentucky team racks up (which to this point is all four, as every loss has been to an unranked opponent) or how few quality wins they have (one and a half as of now, since that “huge” win at Duke isn’t quite as impressive anymore), the media can’t seem to get it through their heads that Kentucky isn’t that good this year.
The voters for the AP Top 25 seem blinded by the potential for greatness that this Wildcats team is said to have, which, in their defense, is there. Tyler Ulis is one of the premier point guards in college basketball, Jamal Murray is one of the purest scorers and Marcus Lee is able to fill a stat sheet on any given night. There’s no denying any of that. But beyond the first week or two of rankings, you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) rank a team based on what they can do, or how good they could be.
It’s time for reality to finally sink into the minds of the media and everyone who follows or is involved with college basketball: As of right now, at this very moment, this Kentucky team is not deserving of a Top-25 ranking. It’s time for everyone to see past their Hall of Fame coach that paces the sidelines. It's time to see past the ranking of the recruiting class that they brought in. It's time to see past the seemingly infinite amount of future first-rounders on this team. It's time to see past the name "Kentucky" and all the history and greatness associated with it.
It’s time to see this team for what they really are and to (not) rank them accordingly.