Kentucky holding steady as No. 3 seed in Bracketology ahead of matchup vs. Auburn

On the final day before March, Kentucky is holding steady as a No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament projections; in fact, in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, tomorrow’s game vs. Auburn would be for a spot in the Final Four.

Lunardi still has Kentucky as the No. 3 seed in the South Region, where Auburn is the No. 1 seed. In this hypothetical, the Cats would face No. 14 seed James Madison in the opening round in Wichita for the chance to face No. 6 seed Marquette or No. 11 seed VCU in the second round. Iowa State is the No. 2 seed in the South, with a potential second-round game vs. No. 7 seed Mississippi State. Get past all that, and the Cats could play No. 1 Auburn in the Elite Eight in Atlanta — or rather, Catlanta.

Auburn remains the No. 1 overall seed in Lunardi’s bracket, to the point he said the Tigers could forfeit all of their remaining games and stay on the top line. Kentucky is the No. 10 overall team in his daily seed list, but he replaced Iowa State with Wisconsin on the No. 2 seed line, meaning it might be Cats vs. the Badgers in the Sweet 16. Can you imagine?

Lunardi currently has 13 SEC teams in the field, with Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Georgia all on the bubble. Missouri, next Saturday’s opponent, is now a No. 4 seed on Lunardi’s daily update. Florida and Tennessee are both No. 2 seeds, while Texas A&M is with Kentucky on the No. 3 seed line, along with St. John’s. His No. 1 seeds (in order) are Auburn, Duke, Alabama, and Houston. Tomorrow’s game between Alabama and Tennessee could have a big impact on which of the two teams gets a No. 1 seed.

Kentucky, Texas A&M, Iowa State, and St. John’s are the No. 3 seeds on Bracket Matrix, which aggregates all of the NCAA Tournament projections on the internet. Kentucky is currently the No. 11 team on that list, just above Rick Pitino’s Red Storm.

Something to keep an eye on: Louisville is in the No. 6 seed range. Jerry Palm has the Cards as Kentucky’s potential second-round opponent in his latest bracket for CBS Sports. Lunardi currently has Louisville as a No. 7 seed.

Mike DeCourcy goes a different route, putting Kentucky in the East Region with No. 1 seed Duke as the No. 4 seed. Plenty of familiar names in this region, but Kentucky wouldn’t have to face any of them until the Sweet 16.

If Kentucky can pull off an upset vs. Auburn tomorrow, the Cats will be in the conversation for a No. 2 seed. Show me a team with better “big wins.” Either way, just take care of business vs. LSU on Wednesday and Kentucky should be in a good spot on Selection Sunday.

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