Going into last week, the Kentucky women’s basketball team had the opportunity to pick up back-to-back power conference wins in the Music City Classic, with one of those games being against a ranked Illinois squad.

Kentucky entered the week ranked #14 in the AP Poll, and most assumed that with a pair of victories in the Music City Classic a top-ten ranking was almost guaranteed to come the next week.

Kentucky won their first game of the classic against Arizona State, 77-61. That outcome was expected as Kentucky severely outmatched Arizona State in every facet.

The second game of the classic was the next day, this time against 19th ranked Illinois. Kentucky utterly dominated the Fighting Illini, winning 76-53 against a top-20 team in the country.

After these back-to-back wins, and especially due to the dominant nature of the Illinois win, most expected a sure-fire top-10 ranking in the upcoming polls. Instead, the AP Poll kept Kentucky ranked exactly the same as they were going into last week… at #14.

To me, there’s really no justifiable explanation for a team to win two games in a week against power conference opponents, with one of those wins being a 23-point victory over a ranked team, and to not move up in the polls at all. Kentucky now holds two top-20 wins in the first seven games of the season, coming against Louisville and Illinois. Kenny Brooks and his team have started the season 7-0 and have looked every bit like a top ten team in the country.

In my opinion, Kentucky should have been ranked in the top ten after this past week, or at the very least should have moved up a couple spots for what they’ve accomplished.

Kentucky takes on #16 North Carolina on Thursday, December 12th. If Kentucky had been ranked properly after this past week, they could have an opportunity to fight for a top 5 ranking if they were to beat the Tar Heels. Instead, a win over UNC would likely nudge them into the top 10, but the Cats should’ve already been there.

Make sure you check out our dedicated UK Women’s Basketball Podcast, ‘Buckets in the Bluegrass’. You can find the pod on the Cats Coverage YouTube channel, or on Spotify.

Thanks for reading! We hope to see you again. To not miss any breaking news, follow us on Facebook and X/Twitter to see our daily content in real time.