Kentucky squarely in NCAA Tournament with a week remaining in regular season

DanielHagerKSR

Kentucky-safely-NCAA-Tournament-with-week-remaining-regular-season — Kentucky's Ben Cleaver (Photo via UK Athletics)

After a strong weekend in which Kentucky swept No. 17 Oklahoma at home, the ‘Cats are safely back in the latest NCAA Tournament projections.

Things looked gloomy for Nick Mingione’s program after last weekend’s series at Mississippi State, where Kentucky was swept for the first time this season by a team that had just fired its head coach. The ‘Cats slipped to the bubble of the Tournament, but climbed out of that spot with its stellar performance at home over the weekend.

Kentucky comes in at a No. 3 seed in On3’s latest Field of 64 Projections, paired with No. 1 seed Oregon State (No. 7 overall seed), No. 2 seed TCU and No. 4 seed Nevada. The ‘Cats hosted Oregon State in last season’s Lexington Regional, in which they won en route to their first ever Men’s College World Series appearance.

The Wildcats’ RPI jumped all the way back to No. 33 and they improved to 9-15 against Q1 teams. Kentucky’s starting trio of Nate Harris, Nic McCay and Ben Cleaver allowed just nine earned runs across 16 1/3 innings and its lineup hit for a .289 average across the three-game span. Its sweep of No. 17 Oklahoma was its first sweep of a ranked team since it swept No. 11 Alabama last April in Lexington.

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“There’s been games like [Friday’s game] that earlier in the year we were losing,” Nick Mingione said following the win on Saturday. “This team has figured out and is figuring out how to win those games now.”

With all the trials and tribulations that this season has brought, two more wins and Kentucky would complete four straight 30-win seasons for the first time since 2015-2018. The ‘Cats have multiple opportunities to reach this threshold, as they will host Northern Kentucky Tuesday night (although that game will likely be canceled) and then head to No. 9 Vanderbilt this weekend.

Following that four-game span, it’s on to Hoover and then whatever Regional they draw in the NCAA Tournament selection show. Buckle up, because it’s nearly once again postseason baseball time in the Bluegrass.