‘Anything is possible’: This Kentucky team has a hard road in the NCAA Tournament
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky enters NCAA as a 7 seed after 12 regular-season losses and SEC quarterfinal loss.
- Kentucky faces Santa Clara Friday; Broncos are No. 23 in KenPom offense.
- UK must win two straight games to reach Sweet 16 amid injuries and doubt.
The last time the Kentucky men’s basketball team was together in a postgame locker room, the mood was somber and the feelings of what could have been were plentiful.
It was Friday afternoon in Nashville, the Cats had just been defeated by Florida — for the third time in a month — and that latest loss to the Gators elicited the collective notion that a wonderful opportunity had been within their grasp and, once again, slipped away.
This UK team has been through a lot together. These players clearly felt that, despite those setbacks and struggles, they were getting better at the right time.
They also knew that the NCAA Tournament was next, and that meant time was in short supply.
“I really do wish there was more time together,” said freshman center Malachi Moreno. “I feel like whenever we would start rolling, we would always have something dwindle on us, have something bad happen. But, I mean, that’s just part of it. And we’ve been battle tested. And now we just have to deal with what we have.”
What these Cats have now is no more room for error.
A Kentucky basketball team that lost 12 games in the regular season and one more to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals Friday can’t afford to fall again. If and when they do, the Cats will be going home for good.
Two days after that SEC Tournament loss, Kentucky’s players gathered at coach Mark Pope’s home in Lexington for a private watch party on Selection Sunday, where they learned their path through the March Madness field.
UK was given a 7 seed by the selection committee — the first time in program history that the Cats will go into the NCAA Tournament with that designation — and game one will come at 12:15 p.m. ET Friday against 10-seeded Santa Clara in St. Louis.
The Broncos are coached by Herb Sendek, a former Kentucky assistant who served under Rick Pitino from his arrival in 1989 until 1993, the same year Pope showed up on campus as a UK player.
Sendek, who made eight NCAA Tournament appearances as a head coach at three previous stops — Miami (Ohio), NC State and Arizona State — is in his 10th season as Santa Clara’s head coach, and this is the first time he’s led the Broncos into the March Madness bracket.
Santa Clara (26-8) finished third in the West Coast Conference, one game behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s in the standings, and the Broncos made the field of 68 as an at-large team after losing to the Zags in the WCC Tournament title game.
Sendek’s team features a potent offense — No. 23 nationally, according to the KenPom ratings — and excels as an offensive rebounding unit. Sophomore guard Christian Hammond is the Broncos’ leading scorer, freshman forward Allen Graves is viewed as a future NBA draft pick, and senior forward Elijah Mahi joined those two on the 10-player All-WCC team.
Gonzaga (a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket) and Saint Mary’s (a 7 seed) are the only opponents that have defeated Santa Clara since December. Sendek is 3-1 vs. Pope as a head coach dating back to their WCC battles between Santa Clara and BYU.
On the CBS Selection Show on Sunday night, former Auburn coach and current analyst Bruce Pearl singled out this matchup for a potential upset in round one, predicting that the Cats could be “vulnerable” against the Broncos’ offensive attack.
The early KenPom projections gave UK just a 55% chance of winning Friday, with a predicted final score of 81-79 in favor of the Cats.
After the loss to Florida two days earlier, Pope knew it would be a tough road ahead.
“We have to go play great teams,” he said in Nashville. “Everybody in the tournament is going to be a great team. You have to find a way to win ’em. Feels very much like the SEC. You play great teams every night. It’s really not any more complicated than that.”
The teams are likely to only get better if the Cats can get past Santa Clara on Friday.
Kentucky’s second-round opponent would almost certainly be 2-seeded Iowa State, which will be the heavy favorite to beat 15-seeded Tennessee State in the other game at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Friday afternoon.
The Cyclones (27-7) finished in a tie for third in the Big 12 behind Arizona and Houston, and they’re coached by T.J. Otzelberger, who has led Iowa State to two Sweet 16 appearances in his four previous seasons with the program.
Otzelberger’s name was alongside Pope’s on Kentucky coaching hot boards after John Calipari left for Arkansas two years ago. The Cyclones were No. 7 in this past week’s AP Top 25 poll.
UK has several quality victories this season — the Cats won at Arkansas, beat St. John’s on a neutral court, defeated Vanderbilt in Rupp Arena and swept the series with Tennessee — but Florida and Michigan State are the only top-10 teams from the most recent Top 25 poll that Pope’s team has played. Kentucky went 0-4 in those games.
The Cats did play Florida close at the end Friday afternoon, though, something that UK’s players said afterward could give them some confidence moving forward. Sophomore guard Collin Chandler called the Gators — defending NCAA champions and the 1 seed in the South Region — as good as any team in the country, and he and his fellow Cats clearly thought they were good enough to beat them.
“We can compete,” Chandler said. “And we have a lot of confidence in that.”
If Kentucky can get past Santa Clara and then pull an upset in what would likely be a matchup against Iowa State on Sunday in St. Louis, the Cats would advance to the Sweet 16 at the United Center in Chicago, which will host the final Midwest Region games March 20 and 22.
The most likely Sweet 16 opponent would be 3-seeded Virginia or 6-seeded Tennessee.
The Cavaliers, who lost to Duke — the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed — in the ACC title game Saturday, will play 14-seeded Wright State on Friday. Tennessee will play the winner of a First Four game between Miami (Ohio) and SMU.
The 1 seed in Kentucky’s region is Michigan, which won the Big Ten regular season championship and lost to Purdue in the conference tournament title game Sunday afternoon. The other top teams on that side of the Midwest bracket are 4-seeded Alabama and 5-seeded Texas Tech.
Pope led Kentucky to its first Sweet 16 appearance in six years during his first season as UK’s head coach, with the Cats earning a 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, beating Troy and Illinois before losing to Tennessee in the third round.
Expectations were even higher for year two, but UK lost starting point guard Jaland Lowe to a shoulder injury in October — he’s since been ruled out for the season — and projected NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance has appeared in only four games due to issues with his surgically repaired knee. Quaintance has not played since early January.
Starting wing Kam Williams also missed nearly two months of action with a broken foot before making his return in the SEC Tournament.
Beyond the injuries, Pope’s second team struggled to find its footing all season, losing at Louisville in week two before lopsided defeats at the hands of Michigan State and Gonzaga and then a home loss to North Carolina in early December. The Cats went 10-8 in the SEC regular season.
Neither Pope nor his players were available for comment on Selection Sunday, which the team spent together at the head coach’s house. That’s a switch from recent years.
Pope presided over a watch party at Rupp Arena for the selection show last season, with a large number of supporters, UK staff members and reporters in attendance. During his 15 years as UK’s head coach, Calipari typically hosted a Selection Sunday event at his home near downtown Lexington, with media members invited to watch the show alongside his team.
The Cats will do plenty of talking about this tournament in the coming days. The odds for a deep run are long, but there was still optimism in the postgame locker room Friday in Nashville.
“We know what’s coming our way,” Moreno said. “And in March, anything is possible. So we just gotta stick to ourselves, stick together, and be the best versions of ourselves.”
Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament opener
No. 7 seed Kentucky vs. No. 10 seed Santa Clara
What: NCAA Midwest Region
When: 12:15 p.m. ET Friday
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
TV: CBS
Records: Kentucky 21-13, Santa Clara 26-8
About Santa Clara
Location: Santa Clara, California
Enrollment: 9,178 (6,115 undergrad)
Nickname: Broncos
School colors: Red and white
Head coach: Herb Sendek (187-128 at Santa Clara; 600-423 overall)
Conference: West Coast Conference
NCAA berth: At-large
All-time series: Kentucky leads 1-0
Previous meeting: Kentucky won 74-60 on Dec. 19, 2006, at Rupp Arena. Randolph Morris led the Cats with 23 points and 13 rebounds.
Common opponents with Kentucky: Santa Clara lost at Gonzaga 89-77 on Jan. 8; at home to Gonzaga 94-86; and vs. Gonzaga 79-68 on March 10 in the West Coast Conference Tournament. Kentucky lost to Gonzaga 94-59 on Dec. 5 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Other notable games this season: Lost to St. Louis 71-70 on Nov. 27; beat Minnesota 86-75 on Nov. 28; beat St. Mary’s 62-54 on Jan. 17; lost to St. Mary’s 86-67 on Feb. 25.
This story was originally published March 15, 2026 at 9:05 PM.
