The Kentucky Wildcats are entering the 2023-24 college basketball season in an unfamiliar spot, outside the Top 10 in preseason polls and projected to finish fourth in the Southeastern Conference.
The Wildcats are No. 16 in the Preseason AP Poll that was released Monday and are behind Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Arkansas in the projected order of finish the Southeastern Conference released Tuesday afternoon.
The Wildcats return Antonio Reeves, the reigning Co-SEC Sixth Man of the Year, and added veteran forward Tre Mitchell from West Virginia. Kentucky also secured the No.1 recruiting class in the country, a deep class that includes DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw, Justin Edwards, and Reed Sheppard, all McDonald’s All-Americans a year ago.
So, are the Wildcats underrated heading into the season? Kyle Boone of CBS Sports believes so.
Kentucky is one of Boone’s most underrated teams in the preseason AP Poll. Here is what he wrote about the Wildcats in a story published to cbssports.com Monday.
Kentucky is one of the most polarizing teams perennially, and that is especially true this year when you consider how wide the gap is between how voters view this team and how the betting markets view this team. UK landed at No. 16 in both the preseason polls, but in betting markets, its odds to win the 2024 NCAA championship is 12-1 — tied for the second-best odds among all college hoops teams.
Yes, losing to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament two years ago was a disappointment impossible to overstate for a proud program like Kentucky, and yes, 22 wins and failing to make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament last season is underperforming, but John Calipari with his back to the wall has assembled one of the most electric rosters of his tenure in Lexington led by the potential No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft in Justin Edwards. I think we may be factoring recent failures too much into projecting this UK team. On paper, this is a clear top-10 roster from a talent perspective, and I’m not ready to write Calipari off. … yet.
