Kentucky basketball has built a solid resume early into the 2024-25 season

Mark Pope's team is collecting very important Quad 1 wins.

Dec 14, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope and forward Andrew Carr (7) celebrate with forward Brandon Garrison (10) during the second half against the Louisville Cardinals at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

There are a lot of factors that go into having a successful record in the non-conference schedule, and the Kentucky Wildcats have succeeded at all of them. Those are collecting as many Quad 1 wins as possible but also not losing any Quad 3/4 games. Last season, the Wildcats collected a few Quad 1 wins, but the ugly home loss to UNC Wilmington gave the Wildcats a bad loss that hurt seeding.

With only two games left in the non-conference slate this season, the Wildcats have done an incredible job of these two things. Mark Pope's team is 2-1 in Quad 1 games, and they will have another opportunity to pick one up on Saturday against Ohio State.

The Wildcats have also taken care of business in games against their mid-major opponents, avoiding any of those Quad 3/4 losses. If the Wildcats are able to take down Ohio State and Brown, they will finish with a 12-1 record in non-conference play, which would be huge for this team.

Let's take a look at Kentucky's record broken down into Quad's on the ever-important NET Rankings.

Quad 1: 2-1
Quad 2: 1-0
Quad 3: 3-0
Quad 4: 4-0

The start to the 2024-25 season has gone just about perfectly for Coach Pope and his team. If they can finish out these next two games strong, the Wildcats will have a lot of momentum heading into SEC play.

SEC play is going to be a gauntlet which will give the Wildcats a lot of opportunities to pick up Quad 1 victories.