Women’s SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 9: Are Lady Vols No. 1?

This is not the same Kentucky Wildcats basketball team that Matt Mitchell has been coaching in previous years. These guys have gone to eight straight NCAA Tournaments, including five Sweet Sixteens and three Elite Eights.

But this year, the Wildcats have fallen to 8-9 on the year and are in serious danger of that streak coming undone. Right now, they are on an eight-game losing streak with two bad losses to Florida Gulf Coast and Middle Tennessee St. So what’s been happening?

Well, at 0-3, they did start with a brutal SEC schedule against the Georgia Bulldogs, Tennessee Lady Vols and Texas A&M Aggies. And they were competitive with Texas A&M, so that does warrant some respect. And everybody else outside of those two bad losses were quality teams.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats are relying on lots of freshmen and have limited depth on the inside. That’s not good for a Pat Summitt protege who wants to run elements of her system while coaching the team.

So the first step for Kentucky is to get their confidence up. Some of the issues are due to lack of confidence after playing so many good teams and losing so much.

This week gives them a chance to do that. Mitchell’s team does have two road games, but they are against the Vanderbilt Commodores and Florida Gators, the two teams we had below the ‘Cats in our SEC Power Rankings. As a result, this is a great week for these guys to get back on track.