Joe Lunardi wasn’t a very popular name with the BBN when he dropped the Cats in his Bracketology despite big SEC wins just before the rest of the 2019-20 season was canceled.
However, after the NCAA Tournament was officially canceled, Lunardi has decided to do a Twitter tournament based on the last bracketology that he released.
The Kentucky Wildcats were a 2 seed in the Midwest region and Lunardi has the Cats in Atlanta as the winners of the region and in the Final Four.
See you in Atlanta! #TwitterTourney2020 pic.twitter.com/JzMuQMTHAT
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 29, 2020
The Cats defeated (15) North Dakota State 71-58, (10) Arizona State 88-81 to advance to the second weekend of the tournament.
The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games were set to take place in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. He has Kentucky beating (3) Duke 104-103 in overtime in a Christian Laettner-type finish but for the Wildcats. He then had Kentucky beating (4) Wisconsin 71-64 to advance to the Final Four which was the same score that the Badgers beat Kentucky back in 2015.
Joining Kentucky in Atlanta is (2) Florida State out of the East, (1) Gonzaga out of the West, and (3) Michigan State out of the South.
Chris Fisher of Cats Pause noted that after going 25-6, this gave John Calipari his 10th 25 win season in 11 season at Kentucky and also his 7th time finishing inside the top 10.
Immanuel Quickley won SEC Player of the Year, Nick Richards was First Team All-SEC, Tyrese Maxey was Second Team All-SEC and was on the SEC All-Freshman Team, and Ashton Hagans was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team and is one of four finalists for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year.
Kentucky’s last game of the season was an unexpected 18-point comeback on the road against Florida and had not only the BBN excited for the post season but also Cal had a good feeling heading into the tournament.
“How this team came together and the vibe that this team had. I felt this was a vibe that my best teams have had. Our energy, our vibe, their togetherness. I looked at my staff and said, ‘Guys, we could be winning this whole thing” Calipari said last week.
This team was one of the more fun teams for me personally to watch play and develop throughout the season. While we will never know what this team would’ve done in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, there is no doubt that they were one of the best teams in the country when the season ended.