By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kansas coach Bill Self won’t be surprised if Kentucky is in the hunt for a national championship this season.
“That was a great basketball team we played (Saturday night),” he said following the Jayhawks’ 80-62 loss to the Wildcats. “We were not good at all. I’m not sure how good we could be to keep them from being that great. That team that we played tonight could win it all. I know that we contributed to them playing well, but they were dominant, athletic and they shot it.”
Largely because of a dominating performance on the road, the Wildcats jumped from 12th to No. 5 in the latest Associated Press Top-25 rankings released Monday. Kansas dropped from fifth to No. 10 following the loss to Kentucky. The Wildcats’ win over Kansas marked the Jayhawks’ 16th home loss in 302 games in the Self era at Kansas and was Kentucky’s largest margin over a top 5 ranked team on the road in school history.
“Every time we play like a team, I don’t think anybody can stop us,” Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe said after the win over the Jayhawks.
Auburn (20-1) remained No. 1, followed by Gonzaga, UCLA and Purdue. The Tigers have won 17 straight games coming off a win over Oklahoma in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. For the first time in three years, the Southeastern Conference has two teams ranked in the top 5.
Brooks Honored
Kentucky junior forward Keion Brooks was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week after he scored a career-high 27 points in the win at Kansas. He averaged 19.5 points over the two victories last week and is the fourth Kentucky player to be honored by the league office this season.
“The way he came out tonight was unbelievable,” Tshiebwe said. “I’m so proud of him and I want him to keep coming like that every night. That’s how we are going to be a top team.”
Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt Wednesday night, followed by a road game at Alabama on Saturday.
Wolford leaving football staff
Kentucky offensive line coach Eric Wolford is leaving to take a similar post with the University of Alabama.
Wolford spent just one season as Kentucky’s offensive line coach and helped the Wildcats to a 10-3 record this past season and a win over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl earlier this month.
Wolford also coached at South Florida, North Texas, Arizona, Illinois and South Carolina under Steve Spurrier.
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytodaycom and via twitter at keithtaylor21.