Latest Quad 1 win bolstered Kentucky's NCAA Tournament resume

Much of us were caught up in the SEC Tournament scenarios over the weekend. A victory by Kentucky would allow the Wildcats to avoid playing on Thursday in Nashville. With the win over Tennessee now on the resume, the Wildcats did lock up a double-bye, but also improved their NCAA Tournament profile.

We have yet to see Kentucky’s NET ranking make a jump, but John Calipari‘s squad now has six Quad 1 wins. Among teams inside the top 20 in the NET rankings, only Houston (13), Purdue (12), UConn (11), Baylor (nine), Arizona (eight), Creighton (eight), Iowa State (eight), Marquette (eight), Kansas, North Carolina (seven), and Tennessee (seven) have more.

Where Kentucky is separating from the field is with high-quality Quad 1 wins. The Wildcats are now 4-1 against top-10 NET teams. That’s ahead of Purdue, North Carolina, and Tennessee who each have three top-10 wins.

Kentucky is now flirting with the No. 3 seed line entering Championship Week. The Wildcats do have the Quad 3 stain on their resume due to the home loss to UNC Wilmington, but true road wins over Auburn and Tennessee should go a long way on Selection Sunday. The metrics are likely not good enough to push for a No. 2 seed this week, but the Wildcats could become a No. 3 seed for the first time since 1999 with a good weekend in Nashville. That Kentucky team made it to the Elite Eight before falling to No. 1 seed Michigan State.

Kentucky is No. 3 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest update

After the results went final on Saturday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi update his latest bracket projection. We got another update on Sunday afternoon. Kentucky climbed up to the No. 3 line joining Baylor, Creighton and Duke.

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— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 10, 2024

Kentucky is currently projection to land in the Boston regional that features No. 1 UConn, No. 2 North Carolina, and No. 4 Kansas. Jon Rothstein is going to have a field day giving the blue blood region a nickname if that develops on Selection Sunday.

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