Kentucky's resume compared to other potential No. 1 seeds

Don’t look now but a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament may be on the table for Kentucky. The Cats are No. 4 in the NET Rankings following wins over Vanderbilt and Alabama. That’s up from No. 7 last Monday. A top-five NET ranking is nice, but the number of Quad 1 opportunities left is what’s really exciting about Kentucky’s resume right now.

Before we get into that, here’s a look at the current NET rankings.

NET Top 25 – Feb. 7

1. Gonzaga
2. Houston
3. Arizona
4. Kentucky
5. Purdue
6. Villanova
7. Auburn
8. Kansas
9. Baylor
10. Duke
11. Texas Tech
12. Tennessee
13. Illinois
14. UCLA
15. Texas
16. LSU
17. Ohio State
18. UConn
19. Wisconsin
20. Saint Mary’s
21. Xavier
22. Iowa
23. Michigan State
24. Alabama
25. Marquette

NET changes for the 2021-22 season

This is the fourth season the NCAA has used the NET Rankings as its primary metric to evaluate the strength of teams’ wins and losses. This year, the formula has been tweaked. From now on, the NET will only use two components, adjusted net efficiency rating and Team Value Index (TVI), which is a result-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home. Win percentage, adjusted win percentage, and scoring margin are no longer used in the NET rankings.

Kentucky’s Team Sheet

Kentucky now has a winning record in Quad 1 thanks to the victory at Alabama. Notre Dame’s NET ranking is up to No. 61, keeping the loss in South Bend well inside Quad 1. That means Kentucky has a winning Quad 1 record and zero losses in Quads 2-4, two very good things. Five of Kentucky’s eight remaining games are in Quad 1, another very good thing. This week’s games at South Carolina and vs. Florida are both in Quad 2. As we get closer and closer to March, keeping Quads 2-4 clean is imperative, so the Cats need to take care of business.

Quad 1: 5-4

Home: 1-30, Neutral: 1-50, Away: 1-75

NET Ranking	Date	Opponent	In Conference?	Result
7	01/22/2022	@ Auburn	Y	L 71-80
8	01/29/2022	@ Kansas		W 80-62
10	11/09/2021	Duke (@ New York, NY)		L 71-79
12	02/15/2022	@ Tennessee	Y
12	01/15/2022	Tennessee	Y	W 107-79
16	01/04/2022	@ LSU	Y	L 60-65
16	02/23/2022	LSU	Y
17	12/18/2021	Ohio St. (@ Las Vegas, NV)		Canceled
24	02/05/2022	@ Alabama	Y	W 66-55
24	02/19/2022	Alabama	Y
37	02/26/2022	@ Arkansas	Y
42	12/18/2021	North Carolina (@ Las Vegas, NV)		W 98-69
44	03/05/2022	@ Florida	Y
61	12/11/2021	@ Notre Dame		L 62-66
70	01/19/2022	@ Texas A&M	Y	W 64-58

Quad 2: 2-0

Home: 31-75, Neutral: 51-100, Away: 76-135

NET Ranking	Date	Opponent	In Conference?	Result
44	02/12/2022	Florida	Y
48	01/25/2022	Mississippi St.	Y	W 82-74 (1 OT)
82	01/11/2022	@ Vanderbilt	Y	W 78-66
105	02/08/2022	@ South Carolina	Y

Quad 3: 4-0

Home: 76-160, Neutral: 101-200, Away: 136-240

NET Ranking	Date	Opponent	In Conference?	Result
81	11/19/2021	Ohio		W 77-59
82	02/02/2022	Vanderbilt	Y	W 77-70
104	03/01/2022	Ole Miss	Y
119	12/22/2021	Louisville		Ppd
127	12/22/2021	Western Ky.		W 95-60
139	12/29/2021	Missouri	Y	W 83-56

Quad 4: 8-0

Home: 161-357, Neutral: 201-357, Away: 241-357

NET Ranking	Date	Opponent	In Conference?	Result
185	12/07/2021	Southern U.		W 76-64
205	01/08/2022	Georgia	Y	W 92-77
253	11/16/2021	Mount St. Mary’s		W 80-55
257	11/22/2021	Albany (NY)		W 86-61
268	12/31/2021	High Point		W 92-48
288	11/26/2021	North Florida		W 86-52
315	11/12/2021	Robert Morris		W 100-60
327	11/29/2021	Central Mich.		W 85-57

Kentucky’s resume vs. other potential No. 1 seeds

How does Kentucky’s team sheet compare to the other potential No. 1 seeds? Let’s take a look using the top eight teams in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology.

Kentucky (NET No. 4)

• Record: 19-4, 8-2 SEC
• Quad 1: 5-4 (5 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 2-0 (2 games remaining)
• Quad 3: 4-0 (1 game remaining)
• Quad 4: 8-0
• Road W-L: 4-3
• NET Strength of Schedule (SOS): 30

Auburn (NET No. 7)

• Record: 22-1, 10-0 SEC
• Quad 1: 7-1 (4 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 5-0 (1 game remaining)
• Quad 3: 7-0 (3 games remaining)
• Quad 4: 3-0
• Road W-L: 7-0
• NET SOS: 40

Gonzaga (NET No. 1)

• Record: 19-2, 8-0 WCC
• Quad 1: 5-2 (3 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 2-0 (1 game remaining)
• Quad 3: 1-0
• Quad 4: 11-0 (2 games remaining)
• Road W-L: 3-0
• NET SOS: 72

Purdue (NET No. 5)

• Record: 20-3, 9-3 Big 10
• Quad 1: 6-2 (5 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 4-1 (1 game remaining)
• Quad 3: 3-0 (2 games remaining)
• Quad 4: 7-0
• Road W-L: 4-2
• NET SOS: 33

Arizona (NET No. 3)

• Record: 19-2, 9-1 Pac-12
• Quad 1: 4-2 (1 game remaining)
• Quad 2: 3-0 (4 game remaining)
• Quad 3: 5-0 (3 games remaining)
• Quad 4: 7-0 (1 game remaining)
• Road W-L: 4-2
• NET SOS: 58

Duke (NET No. 10)

• Record: 19-3, 9-2 ACC
• Quad 1: 5-1
• Quad 2: 2-2 (5 games remaining)
• Quad 3: 6-0 (4 games remaining)
• Quad 4: 6-0
• Road W-L: 4-2
• NET SOS: 59

Kansas (NET No. 8)

• Record: 19-3, 8-1 Big 12
• Quad 1: 8-2 (5 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 4-1 (4 games remaining)
• Quad 3: 5-0
• Quad 4: 2-0
• Road W-L: 5-1
• NET SOS: 10

Baylor (NET No. 9)

• Record: 19-4, 7-3 Big 12
• Quad 1: 7-3 (6 games remaining)
• Quad 2: 4-1 (2 games remaining)
• Quad 3: 2-0
• Quad 4: 6-0
• Road W-L: 5-2
• NET SOS: 19

If you take out the teams with Quad 2 losses, Arizona, Auburn, Gonzaga, and Kentucky remain. Of those four, Kentucky has the most Quad 1 games left to play. Purdue is a projected No. 1 seed right now, but that loss at Rutgers sits at the bottom of their Quad 2 column. Duke has two Quad 2 losses (Miami, at Florida State) and zero Quad 1 games remaining, so their case for a No. 1 seed seems the weakest of these eight teams. We’ll see how much the committee factors in Coach K’s Farewell Tour.