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.