CBB Upset Alert, Week 5: Why Kentucky and Ole Miss need to be careful

The college basketball season is just over a month old and Feast Week delivered a truly chaotic twist to the new campaign. 15 teams inside the Week 4 AP Top 25 lost at least a game (including two upsets predicted in this space last week), shaking up the poll with more huge matchups on tap for this coming week.

The highlight of this week in college basketball is the SEC/ACC Men's Challenge, which stacks up a ton of top teams with quality opponents, which makes Wednesday a multi-screen night for fans invested in college hoops. Which teams are on upset alert entering the latest action? Read on to find out as all three of this week's upset specials are contests in the SEC/ACC Men's Challenge.

Which ranked college basketball teams are on upset alert this week?

No. 23 Ole Miss

Amid all the chaos of Feast Week, the Rebels escaped relatively unscathed after making their debut in the poll last week. Ole Miss' loss came by a bucket to No. 13 Purdue at the Rady's Children's Invitational, allowing them to retain their No. 23 spot ahead of this week's SEC/ACC Challenge.

The event is sending the Rebels on the road to take on Louisville, which is off to a fast start after moving past the disastrous Kenny Payne era. The Cardinals made a big statement with a strong performance in the Battle 4 Atlantis, upsetting Indiana and beating West Virginia before losing a hard-fought game to Oklahoma in the championship.

That experience has given Louisville a ton of confidence as they return home to what should be a very fired-up KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night. Ole Miss has yet to play a true road game yet and they may not be up to the task of taking down the Cardinals in this spot.

No. 4 Kentucky

Another SEC team that could be in trouble in the SEC/ACC Men's Challenge is Kentucky, which surged to No. 4 this week by taking care of business at home against mid-majors during Feast Week. While the win over Duke has been Kentucky's calling card, Mark Pope's Wildcats have picked up the rest of their victories in home buy games.

Like Ole Miss, Kentucky's first road test comes this week against an ACC foe in 7-1 Clemson. While the Tigers didn't draw a ton of attention entering the year, Clemson has raced to a strong start with more challenging opponents than Kentucky has faced than this point, including a win over Penn State last week at a neutral site in Florida.

The Tigers are a rugged defensive team, yielding just 62.9 points per game, and like to slow the game down as they are ranked 285th in adjusted tempo according to KenPom. Kentucky hasn't gotten into a real slugfest yet and this kind of rock fight could be what it takes to hand the Wildcats their first loss, particularly if they are looking ahead to Saturday's showdown against No. 7 Gonzaga in Seattle.

No. 18 Pittsburgh

The Panthers made their Top 25 debut this week on the strength of a 7-1 start that has come against quality competition. Jeff Capel's team already has three victories against power conference foes, including a road win at Ohio State last week and a home triumph over West Virginia that has aged well with the Mountaineers' strong performance in the Battle 4 Atlantis last week.

That experience will be helpful as Pitt hits the road for the SEC/ACC Challenge against a Mississippi State team that was ranked last week before falling out after a loss to Butler in the Arizona Tip-Off. The Bulldogs are a high-flying offense that averages 85 points per game, meaning Wednesday's game in Starkville should be a track meet.

Pittsburgh has earned its place in the poll with some strong results early on but winning on the road against a quality SEC program is a challenge for even the best teams. Expect Mississippi State to make life very hard on Pittsburgh and hand the Panthers just their second loss of the year.