Head coach Mark Pope does not get a soft landing into Kentucky basketball, as he will be facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation. There are always teams that are expected to be great that end up being duds, and there are other teams that no one expected to be good that soar into the top rankings. So, the Wildcats could have a big change in how this all plays out, but for now, the schedule is full of challenging opponents.

According to the KenPom Rankings, Kentucky has 18 quad-one games. If you don’t know, that’s a lot of quad-one games. They also have four quad two games. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, first, the KenPom Rankings, according to PointSpreads.com, “Take into account different advanced metrics: offensive and defensive efficiency per 100 possessions, tempo (possessions per 40 minutes), luck (success exceeding the expected win ratio) and strength of schedule in and out of conference.” Second, the quads are groupings of teams based on how good they are; quad-one games are the absolute hardest games, quad-two are tough games, all the way down to quad-four, which are the games a team should definitely win.

Now, if we get to more traditional rankings, Kentucky has four games against preseason top 10 teams. They have 12 total games against preseason top 25 teams. If you throw in Ohio State and Mississippi State, who are both receiving top 25 votes, you have 14 games against teams that are ranked or almost ranked. This, remember, is out of 31 season games. This is nearly half of the games.

Therefore, identifying where the potential challenges are for Kentucky basketball is either really hard or really easy because the answer is everywhere. Half of the schedule is full of challenges, which is good for Kentucky. If they do what we hope they will do, they may end up with one of the best resumes in the country. Here’s a quick breakdown of those preseason top 25 games:

The schedule is actually setup favorable to Kentucky. They start with two quad-four games in Wright State and Bucknell. Giving them a soft start to the season, clean up some more mistakes, and get ready to take on #7 Duke in game three. However, win or lose this game, Kentucky gets a few more games to get things right. Even a win against Duke will expose Kentucky to what needs to be worked on and how they can improve. A loss certainly will, but Duke is going to be a street fight of a game.

They get five games between #7 Duke and #6 Gonzaga. This will be time to get things going. Kentucky needs to win at least one of those, but preferably both. Then, they have a handful of games between Gonzaga and the SEC schedule to continue working on the season, growing together, and getting better as a team. They do have Louisville and Ohio State games mixed in there, but also another couple of quad 3/4 games to round it out.

This is a tough schedule, and the SEC is full of really strong basketball teams this year. Kentucky will have much to prove with its new roster and coaching staff. The schedule is set up well for them to do just that, prove they belong on top, and be ready to chase their next banner.