Resume Rundown: Kentucky sits on No. 4 line heading into critical stretch

The Kentucky basketball program has hit a rough patch after a 14-3 start that included wins over Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville, Florida, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M. Only two of those wins occurred at Rupp Arena. Mark Pope‘s team added another big road win with a victory over Tennessee, but that bright spot has been surrounded by a few losses.

Kentucky followed a close home loss to Alabama with a close road loss to Vanderbilt as a small favorite. That was followed by a home loss to Arkansas and a double-digit road loss to Ole Miss.

The Cats are reeling but the resume is still in good shape.

Pope’s first team in the Bluegrass sits at No. 22 in the current NET rankings with a 7-6 Quad 1 record that includes a 5-1 mark against teams ranked inside the top 15. That is enough for Kentucky to sit just outside the No. 3 seed line.

Kentucky is a consensus No. 4 seed at SEC halfway point

Kentucky has a losing mark in conference play, but the Cats still have a top-15 resume. That is largely due to some excellent Quad 1A wins and only one Quad 2 loss. The Cats have the No. 2 overall strength of schedule in college basketball and that matters in seeding.

Bracket Matrix — which spits at a composite bracket using the most popular bracketologists — has Kentucky as the top No. 4 seed ahead of Wisconsin, Texas Tech, and Arizona. This is what the top-24 would like heading into the weekend using this composite rating.

Atlanta	Newark	Indianapolis	San Francisco
1. Auburn (1)	1. Duke (2)	1. Alabama (3)	1. Tennessee (4)
2. Iowa State (8)	2. Florida (5)	2. Purdue (7)	2. Houston (6)
3. Texas A&M (9)	3. Michigan State (11)	3. Marquette (10)	3. Kansas (12)
4. Texas Tech (15)	4. Kentucky (13)	4. Wisconsin (14)	4. Arizona (16)
5. Ole Miss (18)	5. Michigan (20)	5. Missouri (19)	5. Illinois (17)
6. St. John’s (23)	6. Memphis (22)	6. Maryland (24)	6. Oregon (21)

Kentucky is in a good spot and has a game on the regular season schedule against the top five seeds in this tournament. The Cats have wins over three of those teams. UK is likely just a Quad 1A win or two away from getting back into contention for a No. 2 seed.

Weekend games to watch

What are the games that could impact Kentucky’s resume this weekend? These are ones to watch closely.

South Carolina at No. 14 Kentucky	Noon (ESPN)	Kentucky’s resume would take a hit with a Quad 3 home loss.
Oregon at No. 9 Michigan State	Noon (FOX)	A big game for both teams dealing with losing streaks in the Big Ten. Sparty is a potential team that Kentucky could pass up easily due to Quad 1A wins.
TCU at No. 8 Iowa State	Noon (ESPN+)	Cyclones have loss three consecutive Big 12 games and are starting to fade with a Quad 3 loss on the resume.
No. 21 Wisconsin at Iowa	1:00pm (NBC)	The Badgers hit the road for a winnable Quad 1 game.
No. 16 Kansas at Kansas State	2:00pm (ESPN)	K-State has won four consecutive Big 12 games and could hand Kansas a second Quad 2 loss.
No. 11 Marquette at Creighton	2:00pm (FOX)	Creighton has won 8 in a row and could hand Marquette a third consecutive loss.
No. 10 Texas A&M at No. 15 Missouri	3:30pm (SEC Network)	The biggest SEC game of the weekend will occur in CoMo. Mizzou has a losing record in Quad 1 (4-5) and needs more wins to climb up to the No. 4 line.
No. 23 Illinois at Minnesota	6:00pm (Big Ten Network)	Illinois is 3-5 over their last 8 and Minnesota has recently beaten Michigan and Oregon at home.
No. 25 Ole Miss at LSU	8:30pm (SEC Network)	Ole Miss does not have a loss outside of Quad 1. This is a Quad 2 game at the PMAC.
No. 13 Texas Tech at No. 20 Arizona	10:30pm (ESPN)	A huge game in the Big 12 for both teams on the No. 4 line. Two Quad 2 losses are holding Texas Tech down but another Quad 1A win could get the Red Raiders to the No. 3 line.