Kentucky has struggled against bottom of SEC

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Kentucky players come out of a timeout - Photo by Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

Kentucky made an appearance as the No. 10 overall seed on Saturday when NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Chair Bubba Cunningham revealed the current top-16 seeds for the Big Dance. The Wildcats are there thanks to a bunch of high-quality wins. UK enters the last three weeks of the regular season with victories over four top-15 teams at KenPom: Duke (No. 2), Florida (No. 4), Tennessee (No. 5), and Gonzaga (No. 11). Those high-quality wins have separated Kentucky from some other contenders.

The Cats enter this final stretch with only one Quad 2 loss, but there has been one worrisome trend for Mark Pope‘s first team. Kentucky can lose to anyone. That has shown up in abundance in conference play.

There are seven teams in the SEC with losing records in conference play. Kentucky is 1-4 against that group and 5-2 against the rest. Those two losses were to ranked Alabama and Ole Miss. The wins included a sweep of Tennessee and a massive home victory over Florida. The losses have people shaking their heads.

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Date	Opponent	Result
01/07/2025	at Georgia (16-10, 4-9)	Bulldogs 82, Wildcats 69
01/25/2025	at Vanderbilt (17-8, 5-7)	Commodores 74, Wildcats 69
02/02/2025	vs. Arkansas (15-10, 4-8)	Razorbacks 89, Wildcats 79
02/08/2025	vs. South Carolina (10-15, 0-12)	Wildcats 80, Gamecocks 57
02/15/2025	at Texas (16-10, 5-8)	Longhorns 82, Wildcats 78

Bracket Matrix currently has Georgia and Arkansas among the last four teams in the tournament along with San Diego State and BYU. Texas is a No. 11 seed and the first team out of the First Four. Vanderbilt is a No. 10 seed. Kentucky is losing to quality teams, but they are just losing more games than they are winning against this type of opponents.

The Cats have home games remaining against Vanderbilt and LSU. There is still a road trip to Oklahoma. The Sooners are still hanging in the projected field of 68 but that could be changing soon after dropping a Quad 3 home game on Saturday. The SEC is likely to get 12-13 teams into the field as this is arguably the best the bottom of the conference has ever been. That explains some of the defeats, but eventually, you have to win some of these games.

Kentucky is losing way too many.