You Hate To See It: Kentucky Is Currently The 144th Ranked Team In The Nation

The NCAA's first NET rankings — essentially the newer version of the RPI, which the NCAA Tournament committee will use to determine which teams make the Tournament and where they're seeded — came out on Monday and there is one team that you absolutely hate to see bringing up the rear.

Take a look at the top and you'll see the clear best three teams in the country in Gonzaga, Baylor and Tennessee. But if you want to find the University of Kentucky, you'll have to scroll for a while until you get to No. 144, where the Wildcats are ranked just behind the likes of Southern Utah, UMass and Jacksonville State.

Personally, I hate to see it. SEC basketball is far more fun when Rick Barnes and Tennessee get to beat Top 10 Kentucky teams rather than one like this. But them's the breaks.

And many people won't remember this because it was right before COVID changed everything, but a remarkably average Tennessee team went into Rupp Arena on March 3, 2020 and took down No. 8 Kentucky 81-73 behind 27 points from John Fulkerson. I'm not necessarily saying The Incredible Fulk caused a glitch in the matrix and broke UK basketball, but that would be a defensible explanation.

Regardless of how we got here, John Calipari has a horrendous basketball team that is an embarrassment to both the University and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I'm actually sad for the good people of Kentucky — I'm sure there are some — who have to put up with another two months of this basketball team.

It would be a real shame for as many people as possible to see that Kentucky is currently the 144th-best team in college basketball.