Kentucky MBB barely hanging on in latest Bracketology

Three games into the Southeastern Confernce schedule, Kentucky men’s basketball is just barely hanging on to its postseason hopes.

On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released an updated version of his Bracketology for the 2023 NCAA Tournament. In it, he was not too kind to Kentucky, dropping the Wildcats down to a nine-seed and slotting them in the “Last Four Byes” group. UK (10-5; 1-2 SEC) is coming off a demoralizing 78-52 loss to a Top 10 Alabama squad in Tuscaloosa over the weekend.

Kentucky has been trending in the wrong direction regarding Lunardi’s Bracketology since the season began. Once considered the top overall seed during the preseason, the ‘Cats were down to an eight-seed in last week’s update and continue to fall in the projections.

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— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 10, 2023

Funny enough, Lunardi has a nine-seeded Kentucky taking on an eight-seeded Indiana in the opening round of the Las Vegas Region. The winner of that matchup would take on the winner of one-seed Houston and 16-seed Milwaukee in the Round of 32.

While it’s still early into conference play, Kentucky is firmly “On the Bubble” at this stage and will need to stack up quality wins moving forward. The ‘Cats are 0-4 against Quad 1 opponents this season and currently rank 45th in the latest NET rankings. Joining UK as Lunardi’s “Last Four Byes” are Illinois, Northwestern, and New Mexico.

Looking at other NCAA Tournament projections, the folks over at BartTorvik give Kentucky just a 38.1 percent chance to make the field in March with an expected seeding average of 9.2.

Kentucky has two games this week, with one of them presenting an opportunity for a statement win. The ‘Cats take on a bad South Carolina squad Tuesday night at Rupp Arena before heading down to Knoxville for a road showdown against No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday.

Time to start stacking up some wins.