Kentucky Wildcats projected as top contender in pre-season poll predictions: hype builds for new basketball season

As the basketball season draws ever closer, the top basketball analysts and experts are beginning to create their power rankings and pre-season top 25 predictions. There is a consistent theme emerging for Kentucky: They are on these lists, which is astounding considering where this program was just a handful of months ago.

Head Coach Mark Pope was hired on April 12, 2024, and walked into an entirely empty locker room. No players were left except a couple of walk-ons. He had to immediately jump into the transfer portal and secure some additions while also trying to grab some last-minute recruits. He was able to land Collin Chandler, who was committed to him at BYU, and grab a local kid in Trevor Noah, who had de-committed from South Carolina.

He added the rest from the transfer portal, which included Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa, Otega Oweh, Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr, Brandon Garrison, Ansley Almonor, and Amari Williams.

To consider that the entire team and coaching staff are brand new, yet we are now flirting with a preseason ranking, this is a huge hats off to Mark Pope and the staff. They have been able to win back the hearts of Kentucky fans and the general consensus of college analysts.

The other day, we posted Jon Rothstein's reaction to his visit to Kentucky's practice. After watching the practice, he gave his starting five prediction and called them an NCAA tournament team. He was very impressed with Andrew Carr and even freshman Collin Chandler.

Fansided's basketball analyst Tristan Freeman of BustingBrackets.com posted his annual "NCAA Basketball: Preseason top 25 power rankings for 2024-25 season," I was genuinely surprised by how high he rated the Wildcats. I won't spoil where he placed them, but he did have them above Ole Miss and Florida. He also said about Kentucky, "It's a roster filled with veteran and proven talent, and based on what Coach Pope did at BYU, the Wildcats should be good this season. But will they be good enough to satisfy the Kentucky fanbase?"

About a month ago, Jeff Borzello of ESPN did his "Way-Too-Early Top 25" and had them break into the top 25 with a ranking of 23, the exact spot where "The Field of 68" Twitter account also placed them.

Where will they be when the official pre-season poll comes out? Time will tell, but the hype around Kentucky is growing. With Coach Pope also making noise in the recruiting circuit, we may have struck gold with one of our own, Mark Pope.