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After a short tussle with LSU at the SEC tournament, the Cats walk into today's tournament rested, refreshed and looking to conquer the field. (And hopefully with their offense rekindled, because the Hittin' Kittens were definitely AWOL at the tourney!) Kentucky is hosting unranked teams, but in order or RPI are #27 Utah, #47 Illinois, and #131 Butler. You can read the full overview of the Lexington regional here. There's one familiar face in the field with the Utah Utes but Illinois and Butler represent completely fresh challenges. This may seem like an easy field but ask Notre Dame's 2015 squad: overlook NO ONE in the NCAA tournament.
Originally scheduled for late afternoon/evening, today' games have been moved up due to anticipated inclement weather. The revised schedule for today is:
- 11 AM EDT: Utah vs. Illinois
- 1:30 PM EDT: Kentucky vs. Butler
The opening weekend is a double elimination format, so Kentucky will need at least two wins in order to advance. If another team wins 2 in a row, there is a final elimination game on Sunday afternoon.
For now, Saturday and Sunday's game schedules are intact. They are as follows:
Saturday
- 1 PM EDT: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
- 3:30 PM EDT: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
- 6 PM EDT: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Sunday
- 1 PM EDT: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5
- 3:30 PM EDT: (if necessary) Rematch of teams in Game 6
Sadly, none of this is televised but you catch all the action on ESPN3/the WatchESPN ap. Please feel free to use this thread for today's action....we will have a more detailed thread for tomorrow's games.
Until 1 PM EDT, Cat fans - Go Big Blue!