Kentucky will open the 2017-18 season ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25 Poll.
Duke is No. 1, followed by Michigan State, Arizona and Kansas.
Here’s a look at the preseason poll:
1 Duke (33) 0-0 1,572
2 Michigan State (13) 0-0 1,520
3 Arizona (18) 0-0 1,506
4 Kansas (1) 0-0 1,439
5 Kentucky 0-0 1,340
6 Villanova 0-0 1,284
7 Wichita State 0-0 1,270
8 Florida 0-0 1,100
9 North Carolina 0-0 1,047
10 USC 0-0 995
11 West Virginia 0-0 840
12 Cincinnati 0-0 837
13 Miami 0-0 836
14 Notre Dame 0-0 814
15 Minnesota 0-0 642
16 Louisville 0-0 570
17 Xavier 0-0 544
18 Gonzaga 0-0 500
19 Northwestern 0-0 473
20 Purdue 0-0 362
21 UCLA 0-0 340
22 Saint Mary’s 0-0 333
23 Seton Hall 0-0 274
24 Baylor 0-0 163
25 Texas A&M 0-0 130
Others receiving votes: Alabama 86, Virginia 57, Rhode Island 49, TCU 46, Providence 34, Missouri 19, Virginia Tech 16, Wisconsin 14, Butler 13, Texas 10, Oklahoma 7, Maryland 7, Nevada 7, Michigan 6, Dayton 5, Middle Tennessee 4, Ball State 4, SMU 3, Oakland 2, Oregon 2, UCF 1, South Carolina 1, Harvard 1
Here’s a release from UK:
LEXINGTON, Ky. – National expectations, at least among national media, have not changed for the Kentucky men’s basketball team despite arguably John Calipari’s biggest roster reload yet.
Tasked with replacing 92.6 percent of its scoring and 76.6 percent of its rebounding from a season ago, the Associated Press has tabbed Kentucky No. 5 in its first AP Top 25 rankings of the season.
Duke will begin the season at No. 1, followed by Michigan State, Arizona, Kansas and UK.
The full AP Top 25 preseason poll can be viewed here. The Wildcats were voted No. 4 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll two weeks ago.
It’s the ninth consecutive season under Calipari that Kentucky will begin the season ranked among the top 25 teams in the country, as voted on by a national panel of select media members from across the country. The Wildcats have been ranked preseason top five in the AP Top 25 in eight of Calipari’s nine seasons, including seven straight.
With the 2017-18 preseason ranking, UK has been ranked in the AP Top 25 for the 57th consecutive week.
A team receives 25 points for a first-place vote, 24 points for a second-place vote, and so on through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking.
Kentucky will start the season among the early title contenders despite losing eight players from last season’s roster, including three first-round draft picks. Calipari, as he does so every season, has reloaded with a talent-rich recruiting class.
The Recruiting Services Consensus Index, which tallies major recruiting rankings and plugs them into a formula to calculate a consensus ranking, measured this group as the best ever. The highly touted signing class joins returners Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones and Hamidou Diallo, among others. Diallo was named to the preseason All-Southeastern Conference First Team while freshman forward Kevin Knox was tabbed to the second team.
Six Kentucky opponents enter the 2017-18 season ranked, including two top-10 opponents in No. 4 Kansas (Nov. 14) and No. 8 Florida (Jan. 20, March 3). UK will also face No. 11 West Virginia (Jan. 27), No. 16 Louisville (Dec. 29), No. 21 UCLA (Dec. 23) and No. 25 Texas A&M (Jan. 9, Feb. 10).
Reinforcing the league’s strength, fellow SEC members Alabama (Feb. 17), Missouri (Feb. 3, Feb. 24) and South Carolina (Jan. 16) received votes in the poll. Virginia Tech, who UK hosts at Rupp Arena on Dec. 16, also received votes.
Kentucky was picked by the media to win its 49th SEC regular-season crown. UK, after victories over Thomas More College and Morehead State, will finish its exhibition schedule Friday at Kentucky’s regular season opens on Nov. 12 with a 7 p.m. tilt against Vermont in Rupp Arena.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
