Heading into the 2024-25 college basketball season, one of the most interesting teams in all of the nation is the Kentucky Wildcats.

There will be a new style of basketball on display in Lexington this season as Coach Mark Pope has put together a veteran team full of transfer portal players Kentucky fans are not used to. This is the reason this basketball team has so many question marks around it heading into the season.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports ranked the top 101 teams in college basketball ahead of the 2024-25 season, and he ranked the Wildcats 15th. This also means that Norlander had the Wildcats ranked third in the SEC behind only Alabama and Tennessee.

Here is what Norlander had to say about Coach Pope and the Wildcats, “This is going to feel refreshing for everyone. John Calipari’s time at UK needed to end. He did a lot of great things there, but the program was aching for a reboot. In comes affable alum Mark Pope, and what a flip this has been. Big Blue Nation went from despondent to delirious over the course of 48 hours after his hiring became public, a fan reaction reversion the likes of which I can’t ever recall. So, how will the Wildcats look under new management?”

15th is the highest anyone has had the Wildcats ranked this offseason, so Norlander really does believe in Coach Pope’s year one in Lexington. This Kentucky team, thanks to veteran leadership, is more than capable of making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. If the Wildcats start the season with a win over Duke a few games into the season, they will be ranked in the top 15.