College basketball expert makes a bold prediction about Kentucky's preseason ranking

Mark Pope is on a mission in year two. After putting the entire roster in just a month last offseason, Pope and his staff had plenty of time to figure out how they want to build the roster, improving on their weaknesses from last season with transfer portal additions. Returning Otega Oweh was Kentucky's biggest haul of the offseason, and that has put Kentucky in contention to be one of the best teams in college basketball next season.

Since the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline passed on Wednesday, a handful of outlets have put Kentucky inside the top 10, including Sports Illustrated, who has the Wildcats at #7 overall, as well as ESPN, who has them at #9, just inside the top 10. When discussing the Wildcats on Monday, The Field of 68's Rob Dauster had some high praise for Pope's squad in year two Lexington.

"With Kentucky, I think that getting Oweh takes them from being a top eight team in America to we really gotta have a conversation about whether or not this team could be the number one team, could be the best team in college basketball. I think it's still probably Purdue, Houston, Florida to me, in that order, but I don't think you can have the conversation about who is the best team in college basketball without having Kentucky in that conversation."Rob Dauster on where Kentucky stands.

Kentucky's depth is something that speaks volumes about the team on paper. The Wildcats are going to be really deep, which is a good problem to have in terms of the coaching staff figuring out the rotation and minutes. Jeff Goodman was also speaking on Field of 68 on Monday with Dauster, where he expressed Mark Pope will have a lot of mouths to feed, specifically in the backcourt.

That depth is exactly why Kentucky will be one of the best teams in the country, but returning Oweh is what could propel them among the top five.