Bracketology: Kentucky basketball sitting solidly at a No. 5 seed

The Bracketologists are back. In their latest rankings, Jerry Palm and Joe Lunardi have the Kentucky basketball as a No. 5 seed.

Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Jerry Palm of CBS Sports are back with their latests projections for this year’s NCAA Tournament seeding. They’ve been wrong before, but both Lunardi and Palm have the Kentucky basketball team projected as a No. 5 seed. What does UK have to do in order to move up in the rankings? How high of a seed can the Cats realistically get?

ESPN’s Bracketology has the Kentucky basketball as a No. 5 seed in the Midwest region. Lunardi predicts UK’s first-round match up will be against the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. Loyola-Chicago has won 11 of their last 12 games and are 15-3 in the MVC. The Ramblers are No. 34 in the RPI, but have some bad losses on the season, most notably to Indiana State in early January.

CBS Sports also has the Wildcats as a No. 5, but Palm is putting the Kentucky basketball team in the South region. Coincidentally, both Palm and Lunardi have the Cats squaring off against the same opponent in the first-round, Loyola-Chicago. The Ramblers won the MVC regular-season title earlier this month.

So, can the Kentucky basketball team move off the No. 5 seed line? Of course, they just have to keep winning. I don’t know if defeating a 12-17 Ole Miss team at home will do much to boost their resume`. However, if the Cats can take care of Florida on Saturday in Gainesville, one would suspect a bump in Kentucky’s seeding.

Unlike most other years, winning the SEC Tournament could greatly improve UK’s standing with the selections committee come March 11th. If the Cats can run the table and win their remaining games, I think a scenario exists where they could lay claim to a No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday. Only time will tell, but Kentucky’s last 3 games have given BBN something to hope for come March.