NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Kentucky Wildcats continue to slide closer to the bubble

Joe Lunardi from ESPN dropped Kentucky one seed line in his latest bracketology released Thursday.

The Wildcats now sit at a 9 seed, after previously being placed as an 8 seed by Lunardi on Monday.

In this projection, Kentucky is placed in the West Region, headlined by (1) Purdue and (2) Kansas.

Kentucky would open up play in Detroit against Butler, who have defeated Ohio State and Villanova this year but are 2-7 against RPI top 50 teams.

Lunardi is currently projecting 8 SEC teams to make the tournament field, second-most of any conference behind 9 teams from the ACC.

The Bracket Matrix is also a tool that projects the NCAA Tournament field. It’s been fairly reliable in the past of placing teams within one seed of their actual seed come selection Sunday.

Granted, it is just one person compiling various projections together, so it isn’t always completely up to date, but as of right now, the average seed projection for Kentucky is a 6. That would seem to indicate Kentucky isn’t close to the bubble at all.

However, these will likely change soon, as it seems the most recent projections were made yesterday.

If I’m taking a guess right now, if the bracket was completed today, Kentucky probably draws an 8 seed, but a lot is going to come down to the home games against Alabama, Missouri, and Ole Miss. Kentucky can’t really afford to lose any of those three games, in my opinion.

This final stretch of games is going to be interesting, as how they respond to this losing streak could ultimately define their season.

Where do you think the Cats will be seed in the Big Dance?