Where Kentucky MBB stands in September Bracketology update

No one asked for it, but we’ve got another update to the 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracketology.

On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi updated his Bracketology projections for the upcoming 2023-24 season. This is his first update to the projected 68-team field since early August, although not much has changed for Kentucky men’s basketball’s roster during that time. With that in mind, Lunardi kept the Wildcats as a six-seed, a spot they’ve held down for a few months now.

In this edition of offseason Bracketology, Kentucky matches up against 11-seeded Dayton in Pittsburgh as part of the West Region. The winner of that game would take on the winner of Marquette and Eastern Kentucky in the Round of 32. This was the same four-team scenario that Lunardi had in his last update.

The only notable change to Kentucky’s roster since Lunardi’s most recent Bracketology was the addition (or potential non-addition) of 7-foot-2 Croatian center Zvonimir Ivisic. In Lunardi’s August update, Ivisic had just announced his commitment to the ‘Cats. But over a month later, questions surrounding Ivisic’s enrollment at UK have his eligibility status for this season in doubt. That remains the case as we reach the under-two-month mark until the season begins. Regardless, it didn’t appear to impact Luanrdi’s thinking of Kentucky.

Looking at the rest of Lunardi’s bracket, he has a total of eight SEC teams making the field — tied with the Big 12 for most of any conference. Along with Kentucky (6-seed), the likes of Tennessee (2-seed), Texas A&M (4-seed), Arkansas (4-seed), Alabama (5-seed), Auburn (7-seed), Mississippi State (8-seed), and Florida (10-seed) make up the SEC’s projected tournament teams. Also of note, St. John’s and new head coach Rick Pitino snuck in as the “Last Team In”, coming in as an 11-seed with a first-round play-in game against 11-seed Virginia.

Compared to fellow ESPN colleague Jeff Borzello, Lunardi is seemingly lower on the Wildcats at this stage in the offseason. Last week, Borzello updated his “Way-Too-Early Top 25” preseason rankings where he tabbed Kentucky as the No. 17 spot, pointing to the team’s plethora of future NBA Draft selections as a reason for optimism.

But if you ask the oddsmakers, they’re buying into what head coach John Calipari is selling. So much so that the folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook have given Kentucky the fifth-highest odds to win the 2024 NCAA Tournament at +1600 behind only Kansas (+1000), Duke (+1200), Purdue (+1400), and Michigan State (+1400).