Cats are No. 1 in the land

It was a mere formality that it would happen. UK is the unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press top 25 (and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll).

After previous No. 1 Texas (17-2) lost two games last week, and the Cats (19-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) throttled Arkansas to the tune of 101-70, the Big Blue Nation is celebrating a No. 1 ranking for the first time since the end of the 2002-03 regular season.

Texas ended up dropping all the way to No. 6. Fellow Big 12 member Kansas (18-1) moved up one spot to No. 2 in the land. Villanova (18-1), Syracuse (19-1) and Michigan State (17-3) also each moved up one spot to No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Texas is followed by Georgetown (15-3), which moved up five spots to No. 7. Despite losing by 14 points at North Carolina State earlier in the week, Duke (16-3) only dropped  one spot to No. 8. The Blue Devils had an impressive 13-point victory at Clemson later in the week which likely prevented them from dropping further. West Virginia (15-3) moved up two spots to No. 9 and Purdue (16-3) rounds out the top ten.

Tennessee (15-3, 3-1 SEC) dropped six positions to No. 14 after losing on the road to Georgia (9-8, 1-3 SEC). Mississippi (15-4, 3-2 SEC) moved up four spots this week to No. 18. The SEC’s fourth team to make the top 25 this week is Vanderbilt. The Commodores (15-3, 4-0 SEC) are No. 21 this week after being unranked last week. Mississippi State (15-4, 3-1 SEC) fell out of the top 25 after losing to Alabama this week. The Bulldogs were ranked No. 23 last week and are No. 31 this week.