Kentucky is No. 23 in both the AP and Coaches’ Preseason Polls. The Athletic’s CJ Moore and Sam Vecenie dropped their preseason rankings this morning, which take into consideration exhibitions, secret scrimmages, and intel. Your University of Kentucky Wildcats did not make the cut.

Alabama is the No. 1 team in the land in the eyes of Moore and Vecenie, whose rankings are based more on the long-term potential of each squad than their current state. Houston is No. 2; Gonzaga, which Kentucky plays in Seattle on Dec. 7, is No. 3; defending champs UConn No. 4; and Duke, the Cats’ date in the Champions Classic on Nov. 12, is No. 5. Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg made The Athletic’s Preseason All-American First Team, as did Alabama guard Mark Sears and Auburn center Johni Broome.

Six SEC teams made the Top 25: Alabama, at No. 1, Tennessee at No. 10, Auburn at No. 11, Texas A&M at No. 12, Florida at No. 21, and Arkansas at No. 25. That’s well below the AP’s total of nine SEC teams in its preseason Top 25. When it comes to the Razorbacks, Moore and Vecenie give John Calipari props for putting together a talented roster, but still have questions over whether or not he can maximize it, something that plagued Cal in his final years at Kentucky. This blurb may bring back some bad memories.

The issue largely lies in a retrograde offensive scheme that saw Kentucky finish middle-of-the-pack nationally last season in 3-point attempt rate despite making a higher percentage of its 3s than any other team in the country. Consistently, Cal’s teams have just lost the math game, and it’s a huge reason why Kentucky posted double-figure losses in three of the last four years and hasn’t made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019.

Arkansas has the talent required to contend near the top of the SEC. But Calipari needs to prove that the game hasn’t passed him by on the offensive end, given how big-heavy his roster is.

The Athletic

It is odd to see absolutely no mention of Kentucky in an article like this but think of how many years the Cats were near the top just to disappoint coming out of the gates and again in March. I’ll take flying under the radar it if means reversing that trend.