One team from Kentucky gets in NCAA field. Another is left hanging on the bubble.
The state of Kentucky entered the 2020-21 men’s basketball season with seven schools eligible to earn bids for this year’s NCAA Tournament.
When the 2021 bracket was revealed Sunday night, the commonwealth was represented by only one school — Morehead State — with the possibility of one more gaining entrance.
Morehead State (23-7) is the No. 14 seed in the Midwest Regional and will open play Friday against No. 3 seed West Virginia.
Louisville (13-7) did not make the field of 68 but was named one of four replacement teams that would gain entry if a school has to drop out because of COVID-19 before 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Louisville would be the first replacement team chosen, ahead of Colorado State, Saint Louis and Ole Miss, in that order.
The five other eligible Kentucky schools that did not make the field of 68 were Eastern Kentucky (22-7), Kentucky (9-16), Murray State (13-13), Northern Kentucky (14-11) and Western Kentucky (20-7). Bellarmine (13-7) played its first season of Division I basketball in 2020-21 but was not eligible for the NCAA Tournament as it continues its transition from Division II.
One — or possibly two — schools for Kentuckians to track in the tournament might feel pretty thin, but there were points this season where it appeared the state might not place even one school in the field for the first time since 1963. Louisville spent its season in and out of COVID-19 pauses. Even though Morehead State put forth its best team in years, the Eagles seemed doomed for most of the season to lose the Ohio Valley Conference’s one automatic bid to a red-hot Belmont team that started the season 24-1 and won 21 games in a row at one point. However, Louisville returned safely to the court in time to secure an at-large bid. Morehead State defeated EKU in the OVC Tournament semifinals and Belmont in the finals to claim its first NCAA bid since 2011.
The NCAA field will be without a University of Kentucky squad for the first time since 2013 and for only the second time in John Calipari’s 12 seasons at UK.
The NCAA Tournament tips off Thursday night with four “First Four” games. The round of 64 gets underway Friday and Saturday. Because of COVID-19, every game of this year’s tournament will be played in the state of Indiana, culminating with the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 3 and 5.