Kentucky women’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament seed explained by selection committee
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Selection Sunday: Both UK teams headed to Indiana for NCAA Tournament
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The Kentucky women’s basketball team is dancing, and received plenty of love from the NCAA Tournament selection committee when the bracket was revealed Sunday night.
The Wildcats will be a No. 6 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, facing off against No. 11 seed Princeton from the Ivy League in the round of 64 on Saturday.
That game will be played inside Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, as No. 3 seed Indiana is the host school in this bracket pod.
The winner of the Kentucky-Princeton game will play the winner of Indiana and No. 14 seed Charlotte in the round of 32 in Bloomington on Monday.
This is the third time UK has been a No. 6 seed, and it’s the 17th all-time appearance for Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament.
On a conference call with media members after the bracket was revealed, NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee chair Nina King — who also serves as the athletics director at Duke — said Kentucky “vaulted themselves” to a No. 6 seed with its play in recent weeks.
“Their run through the SEC Tournament, a very, extremely strong conference, they have been playing really well,” King said. “Seeding, we really focus on how a team is playing now.”
This was at least one seed line above where most bracketology projections had UK seeded.
In his final projection before the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed, ESPN’s Charlie Creme had Kentucky as a No. 7 seed playing in Austin, Texas.
Just one month ago, Kentucky was 9-11 overall and 2-8 against Southeastern Conference schools.
Since then, the Cats have won 10 straight games, including a fairy-tale run to the SEC Tournament title in Nashville last week, with three wins against teams that received seeds of No. 4 or higher by the selection committee: LSU (No. 3), Tennessee (No. 4) and South Carolina (No. 1 overall seed).
The top-six seed awarded to Kentucky can be directly attributed to UK’s strong close to the season.
“We obviously looked at the entire body of work, but couldn’t discount what they’ve done in the last couple of weeks,” King said of Kentucky.
Kentucky was also a No. 6 seed in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, which took place during Rhyne Howard’s freshman season.
UK also faced a No. 11 seed Princeton team in the round of 64 during that 2019 tournament, defeating the Tigers before losing to North Carolina State in the round of 32.
Kentucky’s seeding and placement in Bloomington for the NCAA Tournament means a trifecta of Kentucky sports will be playing in Indiana this week:
UK baseball plays at Indiana at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Bloomington.
UK men’s basketball, a No. 2 seed, plays in the round of 64 of the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament against No. 15 seed St. Peter’s on Thursday night in Indianapolis.
UK women’s basketball will play Princeton on Saturday in Bloomington.
Tickets for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament games in Bloomington will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. EST through IUHoosiers.com.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 12:30 AM.
