Kentucky back up to No. 2 seed in Bracketology, which has some fun scenarios

Kentucky was down to a No. 3 seed in last week’s Bracketology. After the win over Florida (a projected No. 2 seed), the Cats are moving on up. Kentucky is a No. 2 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket, which is chock full of entertaining scenarios.

Lunardi puts Kentucky in the West Region with No. 1 seed Duke. Before you start to sweat about a potential rematch with the Blue Devils in San Francisco, check out who he has the Cats with in Cleveland. Louisville is in the field as a No. 10 seed, one of Lunardi’s last four byes, and — in this purely hypothetical bracket — could face Kentucky in the second round. That is, if the Cards can get by No. 7 seed Oklahoma, which suffered its first loss of the season at Alabama on Saturday, losing to the Crimson Tide by 28 points.

The one thing that can warm Cleveland up in mid-March? A second-round NCAA Tournament game between Kentucky and Louisville.

Kentucky and Oklahoma are two of 13 SEC teams in the field. Tennessee and Auburn remain No. 1 seeds, both playing first and second-round games in Lexington (that’s probably going to happen, so you might as well prepare yourself now). Lunardi lists Kansas as a No. 3 seed twice, but I think one of those is supposed to be Texas A&M.

• No. 1 seeds: Tennessee (Midwest), Auburn (South)
• No. 2 seeds: Kentucky (West), Alabama (East), Florida (South)
• No. 3 seed: Texas A&M
• No. 4 seed: Mississippi State (West)
• No. 7 seeds: Ole Miss (Midwest), Oklahoma (West)
• No. 9 seeds: Arkansas (East), Georgia (East)
• No. 11 seeds: Texas (West), Vanderbilt (East)

There’s still a ton of basketball to play between now and Selection Sunday, but it’s fun to think about following this team around in March.

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