Updated college basketball rankings after Kentucky slide worsens, St. John’s rolls

Kentucky is officially in trouble.

After establishing positive vibes out of the gate, Mark Pope is going through his first real slide as the Wildcats' head coach. Kentucky has now lost four of its last five, with a nice win over top-10 Tennessee sandwiched between four losses to quality SEC opponents.

This should not come as a huge shock. It takes time for a new coach to reshape such an illustrious program in his image. That said, Kentucky's March Madness hopes are starting to drag a bit. This is a postseason team, to be clear, but Pope basically constructed this roster from the ground up. He hammered the transfer portal, focused on vets instead of top recruits, and changed the DNA of Kentucky basketball. Now, all these new faces are enduring their first significant test as a team. It is going rather poorly.

A loss to Ole Miss on Tuesday dropped the Wildcats to 4-5 in conference play. This comes just a few days after John Calipari and the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks walked into Rupp Arena and held court, putting Pope in the meme cycle as Cal asserted his dominance in his old stomping grounds.

Kentucky has plenty of great wins on its resume — Gonzaga, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee — but a slide like this won't go unpunished in the polls.

Meanwhile, St. John's won a huge conference showdown against Marquette to advance to 11-1 in Big East play. The Red Storm have eight straight wins, with the Golden Eagles marking their most impressive victory of the season so far. Expect the voting body to award them accordingly.

Here's an updated look at the potential college basketball rankings following an eventful Tuesday evening.

Projected college basketball rankings after Ole Miss stomps Kentucky, St. John's unseats Marquette

1. Auburn Tigers
2. Duke Blue Devils
3. Alabama Crimson Tide
4. Tennessee Volunteers
5. Houston Cougars
6. Florida Gators
7. Purdue Boilermakers
8. Iowa State Cyclones
9. Michigan State Spartans
10. Texas A&M Aggies
11. St. John's Red Storm
12. Texas Tech Red Raiders
13. Marquette Golden Eagles
14. Missouri Tigers
15. Kansas Jayhawks
16. Memphis Tigers
17. Maryland Terrapins
18. UConn Huskies
19. Arizona Wildcats
20. Kentucky Wildcats
21. Wisconsin Badgers
22. Mississippi State Bulldogs
23. Ole Miss Rebels
24. Illinois Fighting Illini
25. Michigan Wolverines

There are plenty of consequential games left on the docket this week, including St. John's at UConn on Friday. That will be an important bellweather for the Red Storm. It has not been a dream season for the two-time reigning champs, but UConn is a talented, experienced group starting to pick up some momentum. Dan Hurley, as he will tell you himself, is the best coach in the sport. A St. John's win would go a long way toward establishing the Red Storm as a legitimate title threat.

As for Kentucky, the schedule won't lighten up much. The SEC is a bloodbath this season. A struggling South Carolina team awaits on Saturday, followed by a rematch with Tennessee, home games against Texas and Vanderbilt, then a tough road game in Tuscaloosa.

Mark Pope is a Kentucky legend with a loyal following in that fanbase, but Big Blue Nation recently forced the second-winningest coach in program history out the door. If Calipari was subject to the vitriol of impatient and demanding fans, you can bet Pope will feel that same heat — probably much sooner, since he's less proven at this level.