Kentucky drops in the new Top 25 rankings after rivalry loss to Louisville

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Nov 17, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky’s loss to Louisville last week led to a drop in the new Associated Press Top 25 college basketball rankings Monday afternoon.

The Wildcats fell to No. 12 in the latest poll, down three spots from their position in the previous rankings. UK was also ranked No. 9 in the preseason poll.

Mark Pope’s team suffered a 96-88 loss at Louisville in its first marquee game of the 2025-26 season. The trip to the Yum Center last Tuesday will also be Kentucky’s only true road game in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

The Cats (3-1) beat Eastern Illinois 99-53 in their second game of the week Friday night.

Louisville followed up its victory against Kentucky by defeating Ohio 106-81 on Saturday to improve to 4-0 on the season. Pat Kelsey’s team is now ranked No. 6, moving up six spots in the new poll.

Kentucky will have plenty of opportunities to secure major victories in the near future, starting with the Champions Classic matchup against No. 17 Michigan State on Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden. That game is set for 6:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

UK also has high-profile, nonconference games against No. 18 North Carolina (Dec. 2 in Rupp Arena), No. 13 Gonzaga (Dec. 5 in Nashville), Indiana (Dec. 13 in Rupp) and No. 14 St. John’s (Dec. 20 in Atlanta). The Hoosiers were 27th in the voting in Monday’s poll.

Purdue, a team that UK beat in its exhibition opener last month, reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the new AP Top 25 poll. The Boilermakers had dropped to No. 2 — behind the Houston Cougars — in the first rankings of the regular season last week, but their 87-80 win at Alabama on Thursday night was enough to vault them back into the top spot.

New AP Top 25 college basketball rankings

Purdue secured 44 of 61 total first-place votes in the new rankings.

Houston returned to No. 2 in the new poll, with No. 3 UConn, No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 Duke rounding out the top five.

The rest of the top 10 looks like this: No. 6 Louisville, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Illinois, No. 9 BYU and No. 10 Florida, the top-ranked team from the SEC.

U of L climbed to No. 10 in the final poll of the regular season during the 2024-25 campaign — Kelsey’s first as the team’s head coach — and that was the first time since the 2019-20 season that the Cardinals had reached the top 10. This is now their highest ranking since February 2020.

The rest of the AP Top 25 features No. 11 Alabama, No. 12 Kentucky, No. 13 Gonzaga, No. 14 St. John’s, No. 15 Texas Tech, No. 16 Iowa State, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 19 UCLA, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 21 Arkansas, No. 22 Auburn, No. 23 Wisconsin, No. 24 Kansas and No. 25 N.C. State.

Tom Izzo’s Spartans — the Cats’ opponent Tuesday night — are off to a 3-0 start, and they already have one high-profile victory this season. Michigan State defeated John Calipari and Arkansas 69-66 in East Lansing on Nov. 8.

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