Kentucky ranked as a top 8 team in the NCAA Tournament field

The time has finally come, as the NCAA Tournament is taking place in Dayton for the First Four.

The Kentucky Wildcats won’t take the floor until Thursday night, but they are a popular pick to be the team that comes out of the East region and reaches the Final Four.

Although there are 68 teams that have the same opportunity to win the National Championship, they all don’t have the same chance.

Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News ranked all 68 teams in the field based on the likelihood of each team winning it all.

Arizona came in at No. 1 as DeCourcy notes that “If they win this, they will not rank with the great champions of history, but they have more of the ingredients those teams enjoyed than anyone else among this year’s 68.”

Kentucky was a little lower than I expected them to be as they came in at No. 7 with Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas, Tennessee, Duke, and Baylor all being ranked ahead of them.

“Consider how great Oscar Tshiebwe has to be in order to keep UK’s defense from leaking baskets, given the smallish backcourt and the absence of dynamic wings. We’ve seen there are limits even to his power, though.”

The teams directly behind Kentucky rounding out the top 10 is UCLA (No. 8), Illinois (No. 9), and Iowa (No. 10).

You can check out DeCourcy’s entire ranking of the 68 teams here.

Do you agree with where he has the Cats ranked? Let us know in the comments section!