Within the past couple hours, the latest version of “Bracketology” came out, and although UK fans know that the Cats will be a No. 1 seed come Sunday, other teams fates rests on the hands of the selection committee. Not much as changed for UK as they will most likely be the second overall No. 1 seed and will play in the East Bracket (Syracuse), where the first two rounds will be played in Milwaukee. What is interesting to note is that after they play the winner of the opening-round game on Friday, on Sunday they will play one of two interesting opponents. In the second round they will either face Matt “Beast” Pilgrim and former UK player Travis Ford as he coaches the No. 8 seed Oklahoma St. Cowboys, or in a rematch, a game against Rick Pitino and his always well-disciplined Louisville Cardinals, a No. 9 seed. A game against someone UK has already played during the regular season so early in the tournament would be very intriguing.
But on a more realistic note, the Cats will most likely play a few different number of teams that could possibly be in their bracket. According to most analysts, the NCAA Selection Committee tries to avoid games that have already occurred in the regular season, so Cards fans don’t be alarmed. The other No. 8 seeds are: Notre Dame (23-11), Marquette (22-11), and Texas (24-9) UK would match up well with these teams, although they have proved to the rest of the nation that they can compete with the likes of the elite as they have created upsets before and would look to do the same in a game against Kentucky. The No. 9 seeds are: Clemson (21-10), UTEP (26-6), and Florida St. (22-9). These games would not even be a challenge for UK unless they came out flat and lets their opponents control the entire game, but if UK comes to play it’s over for the No. 9 seeds. What would be a challenge later in the bracket, if UK did advance to the regional finals in Syracuse, would be the No. 2 seeds: Ohio St. (25-7), West Virginia (26-6), Georgetown (23-9), and Kansas St. (25-6). These teams are among the hottest teams in the country at this point and any team for that matter would need to be at 100% and bring their “A” game to beat these teams. If so, a ticket to Indianapolis is punched.
In the SEC, No. 4 seed Tennessee (25-8) and No. 5 seed Vanderbilt (23-7) are already in. Ole Miss, Mississippi St., and Florida are among three of the other teams that have been sitting on the bubble for a while now, and for two of those teams it appears that the bubble has been popped. Florida and Ole Miss will likely be heading back to the NIT for failure to win convincingly at the end of the regular season and the SEC Tournament for that matter, while Mississippi St. is headed to the SEC Finals against Kentucky tomorrow, as well as the fact that they won their division. That alone is enough for them to gain a No. 13 seed tomorrow. Only time will tell what happens to these teams tomorrow, but time’s a tickin‘. Unfortunately for those teams sweating it out, there’s one less hour on the clock. But for a Kentucky that’s another hour closer to another championship run.
Do check out the Wildcat Blue Blog’s Tournament Challenge page as you can match your NCAA picks against the rest of the BBN. Look to the upper right of this page for a link and it is at the top of that column.
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