Kentucky Basketball moves up in new rankings after Mark Mitchell commitment

It’s that point in the college basketball offseason when fans start looking at the full landscape and see where their teams fit in the preseason rankings for the upcoming season. This year especially, there have been some late offseason roster shakeups with dozens of players in lawsuits against the NCAA in pursuit of an additional year of eligibility.

One such player is Mark Mitchell, who received his eligibility recently after a Louisville judge granted an injunction in his case against the NCAA, and committed to Kentucky on Saturday. A top-10-ranked transfer, Mitchell certainly makes the Wildcats’ roster more talented and raises their offensive ceiling even higher, so long as he’s able to stay eligible.

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While preseason rankings don’t come out until mid-October, voting members of the AP poll consistently refresh their rankings to give an idea of where teams will slot in before a ball is tipped, including Gary Parrish of CBS Sports and Jon Rothstein.

New Ranking: 12 (up 4 spots)

Previous Ranking: 16

“Is the third-year UK coach’s seat still hot? Honestly, yes.

A nice season is likely required to restore confidence among diehard fans, and recruiting wins guarantee nothing in that regard. But, that acknowledged, there’s no denying Pope and his staff regrouped impressively from their early misses by luring rotation piece Malachi Moreno out of the 2026 NBA Draft and adding Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic. Then Saturday delivered the latest bit of good news when former Duke and Missouri standout Mark Mitchell committed to the Wildcats one day after receiving a temporary restraining order to pursue a fifth season of college basketball via a Jefferson Circuit Court ruling in Kentucky.

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Mitchell averaged 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 33.8 minutes per game at Missouri last season. His addition to Kentucky’s roster has the Wildcats up to No. 12 in Version 24 of the 2026-27 CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 preseason college basketball…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kentucky-basketball-moves-rankings-mark-101500715.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-30 10:15:00

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