It’s Selection Sunday. Here’s where Kentucky is most likely to go in the NCAA Tournament.
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NCAA Selection Sunday: Brackets, analysis, predictions and more
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Selection Sunday as brackets are revealed for the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments.
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Selection Sunday has arrived, and that means the season-long college basketball bracketology projections will meet up with reality when the 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament is revealed this evening.
Where will the Kentucky Wildcats be seeded? And which opening site will the selection committee send UK to begin its quest for the program’s first trip to the Final Four since 2015?
The official Selection Sunday show is scheduled to air at 6 p.m. on CBS, immediately following the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
Until then, here’s a look at the latest bracketology projections for Kentucky, which will go into March Madness with a 23-9 record following its loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals Friday night in Nashville. (These projections will be updated, if they change, throughout the day.)
Kentucky bracketology predictions
▪ ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects the Wildcats to be a 4 seed in Spokane, with a first-round game against 13-seeded Vermont and placed in the Detroit regional, where Purdue is the 1 seed and a possible Sweet 16 matchup. Lunardi has Kentucky as the No. 16 overall team on his seed list.
▪ CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has UK as a 3 seed in Brooklyn with a first-round matchup against Morehead State and placed in the Boston regional, where UConn is slotted as the 1 seed and North Carolina is projected as the 2 seed.
▪ USA Today’s final bracketology projection, posted early Sunday morning, has Kentucky as a 4 seed in Pittsburgh, playing 13-seeded Yale in the first round. That bracket places the Cats in the Los Angeles regional, which could set up a rematch with top-seeded North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
▪ The Bracketville blog has Kentucky as a 3 seed in Pittsburgh, playing Akron in the first round. That bracketology projection puts UK in the Boston regional, where UConn and Iowa State are the top two seeds. The Bracketville seed list has the Cats as the No. 12 team in the field, falling behind Illinois after Saturday’s games.
▪ Mike DeCourcy’s bracketology for Fox Sports has Kentucky as a 4 seed in the Detroit regional, playing College of Charleston in the first round. Purdue is expected to be the top seed in that regional.
▪ SB Nation’s Blogging the Bracket projections have Kentucky as a 4 seed, beginning the tournament in Spokane against 13-seeded Vermont in the first round. That bracketology board has UK in the Dallas regional, where it could play top-seeded Houston in the Sweet 16.
▪ The Washington Post bracketology board has Kentucky as a 4 seed in Spokane, playing 13-seeded Samford in the first round. That site has UK in the Boston regional, where UConn is expected to be the 1 seed. This projection would pit the Cats vs. the Huskies in the Sweet 16.
Bracketologists around the country are in agreement that UConn will be the 1 seed in the Boston regional, Houston will be the 1 seed in Dallas, with Purdue as the top seed in Detroit. The fourth 1 seed has been up for debate in recent days, but North Carolina has emerged as the favorite to get that spot, though Iowa State could still end up in that position. The fourth 1 seed will be placed atop the Los Angeles regional, assuming that team is ranked behind UConn, Houston and Purdue on the final seed list.
There are eight first-week sites, and Pittsburgh and Spokane appear to be the most likely landing spots for the Wildcats, who could have clinched one of the spots in Pittsburgh with a win over Texas A&M on Friday night.
Instead, they’ll have to wait until the selection show to see where they’ll be headed. Pittsburgh is a Thursday-Saturday site, and the games in Spokane will be played on Friday and Sunday.
This story was originally published March 17, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
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