Kentucky basketball bracketology: Predicting Cat's seed in Men's NCAA Tournament

BBN shined the Lamont-signal brightly in the skies over Lexington, the cries for help were heard

BBN got an early Valentine’s Day present on Saturday with the return of Lamont Butler, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. It was abundantly clear that this Kentucky team just wasn't the same without Butler on the floor. He injured his shoulder during the January 14th game against Texas A&M, and although he played the next two games banged up, he then missed three straight contests. In those two games, Kentucky went 1-2, and in the five-game stretch following his injury, they were 1-4—the only win being the improbable upset in Knoxville against Tennessee as double-digit underdogs. All of that has resulted in Kentucky being projected as a 4 seed by ESPN's Joe Lunardi.

What does it all mean as of today?

Kentucky currently sits at 7-6 against quad-1 competition and boasts arguably one of the most impressive résumés in the country. According to the NET Rankings, the Wildcats have the opportunity to add another six quad-1 victories in their final eight regular-season games. Every win during that stretch will only bolster an already outstanding body of work.

Kentucky has been bad on defense, but Alabama laid the foundation that being bad defensively isn't a death sentence for making a Final Four run.

Yes, Kentucky has struggled on defense, but remember, Alabama has shown that being poor defensively isn’t necessarily a death sentence for making a Final Four run. For those unaware, since KenPom started tabulating his massive stats database back in 1997, predicting the national title winner before the tournament has been pretty straightforward. Every team that has gone on to win it all (with the sole exception of 2014’s UConn) has been in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Right now, only seven teams in the country fit that description: Auburn, Florida, Duke, Houston, Arizona, Iowa State, and Maryland.

Kentucky has a lot of work to do if they want to be in that conversation.

Kentucky has a lot of work to do if they want to join that elite conversation. The Wildcats are the second-ranked offense in the country, but they're the 90th ranked defense. If Kentucky is going to even get close to being one of those teams, they've got their work cut out for them. Luckily for BBN, the SEC is such a strong conference that some of those defensive deficiencies might be slightly inflated due to the level of competition. Outside of the SEC, Kentucky is only allowing about 71 points per game.

The SEC might be the best conference ever, and the bracketologists seem to think so.

The SEC might just be the best conference ever, and the bracketologists seem to think so. With Selection Sunday only a little under five weeks away, the list of teams making the NCAA Tournament is starting to take shape. Joe Lunardi forecasts 13 teams from the SEC in the field of 68, with a possible 14th if Arkansas can somehow find a way in. Thirteen teams from one conference would shatter the previous record of 11 by the Big East in 2011.

Joe Lunardi currently has Kentucky as the #4 seed in the East Region.

Joe Lunardi currently has Kentucky as the #4 seed in the East Region. With all the highs and lows Kentucky has faced this season, BBN fans have to be quite happy with the respect shown by Lunardi. It's clear that the impressive victories that Mark Pope and his staff have put together far outweigh some of the more disappointing losses.

Hopefully BBN fans really liked Seattle, because they could be going back.

BBN fans, hopefully, really liked Seattle, because they could be going back. In Lunardi's very early bracket, he has Kentucky facing off against #13 seed Lipscomb back in Climate Pledge Arena—the same place where Kentucky knocked off Gonzaga in December in an overtime thriller dubbed the "Battle in Seattle." After that, Kentucky would need to knock off either UCLA or Yale to advance to the East Regional in Newark.

Lunardi has filled this theoretical bracket with lots of potential storylines and drama.

Lunardi’s theoretical bracket is packed with potential storylines and drama. Duke, Gonzaga, Ohio State, UCLA, BYU, Kansas, UConn, and Florida are all penciled in the East Region with Kentucky. That bracket isn’t exactly what Kentucky fans want to see, especially since three of those teams are ones that could have extra motivation for revenge after being bested by Kentucky earlier in the season. But if the Wildcats want to make a deep run, they're going to have to face some stiff competition—and this bracket certainly doesn’t lack it.

Kentucky controls their own destiny, what do they need to do?

Even at 5-5 in conference play, Kentucky is still in the driver's seat. The Wildcats need to take care of business at home against Vanderbilt and LSU—losing to quad-2 or quad-3 teams at home would only hurt their résumé further. Assuming they can win those two games, Kentucky also needs to secure wins on the road at Texas and at Oklahoma. If they can pull that off and even steal one of the wins against Tennessee, at Alabama, Auburn, or Mizzou with minimal help, they could upgrade their resume to maybe even higher than the four-seed line. The one seeds are all but spoken for, but if Kentucky gets hot, a two seed is still within reach.