There are two different Kentucky teams this season, more if you want to count every iteration of the starting lineup, as Mark Pope has managed the constant bites his roster has suffered from the injury bug.
The first Kentucky team is the one that lost 80-55 to No. 18 Vanderbilt last week, and the second is the one that took it to No. 15 Arkansas in Fayetteville on Saturday. Sophomore Collin Chandler thinks that Saturday is a more accurate representation of the Wildcats in 2026.
“Playing Arkansas, the way they were playing, at home, is about as tough as you can get,” Chandler told the media on Tuesday, ahead of Kentucky’s return to Rupp Arena against Oklahoma on Wednesday night. “So, I think we’ve proved that we can compete at that kind of level, and so that gives us great confidence as a team.”
Collin Chandler: win at Arkansas “proved we can compete at that level” pic.twitter.com/H0FV5jBGE0
— Keith Taylor (@keithtaylor21) February 3, 2026
Kentucky’s ceiling is about as high as any in the SEC
It’s easy to forget because November feels like a long time ago now, but Kentucky was supposed to have Jaland Lowe at point guard and Jayden Quaintance at center this year. Not to mention the time that Mouhamed Dioubate has missed and the time Kam Williams is missing now.
Yet, even with something of a skeleton crew, Mark Pope was able to lead his team to a massive road win over his predecessor in Fayetteville. That was an Arkansas team that had won three straight, including a beatdown of the same Vanderbilt team that pounded Kentucky, and a team that has wins over Tennessee, Louisville, and Texas Tech. Yet, Big Blue Nation is understandably hesitant to buy all the way in on a team that has been so unpredictable.
Kentucky has legitimate shooting and spacing issues, which would have been and were problems when Lowe and Quaintance were healthy. Those issues are further exacerbated by Williams’ injury, and the lack of size with Chandler replacing Williams in the starting lineup has led to rebounding problems. Still, even through all of those issues, when Otega Oweh is right, he had 24 points on 12 shots against Arkansas, and the threes are falling, the Cats went 6-for-13 from deep, Kentucky can compete with the top of the SEC.
How good is the SEC this season?
There is a problem, however, about that. Unlike recent years when the SEC has clearly been the class of college basketball, the league has just one team in the top 10 of KenPom’s rankings, and it’s Florida at No. 7. Arkansas, which fell to 21st in this week’s AP Poll, is 25th, and Kentucky is the seventh-highest-ranked SEC team at No. 30.
The league is deep with fringe contenders, and Kentucky has proven itself capable of knocking those teams off on a given day. But most of those teams haven’t proven to truly be in the Final Four and national title conversation, and when Kentucky did play those teams early in the year, it didn’t go well.
Kentucky may be rounding a corner in the SEC, but how far that will take them beyond conference play is a whole different question. The best glimpse of it will come over the next two weeks as Kentucky hosts Tennessee on Saturday before making the trip to Gainesville a week later.