The #6 Kentucky Wildcats, prior to their late Senior night tip against the un-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, moved up into the #2 seed line in some NCAA Tournament projections. Having already clinched the SEC regular season title, for the first time since 2017, they entered the home finale having already accomplished a lot this season.
Up double digits for more than half the contest, it looked like win #25 was just a matter of when, not if. With a 51-34 lead with 16:26 to go, the ESPN win probability index, gave them a 97.7% chance of closing the deal. Well, so much for that, as the Cats collapse was totalitarian, and UK fell to the Volunteers 81-74. So after that 25 point pendulum swing, where do the Kentucky Wildcats go from here?
Having lost to a team that was struggling to hang on to a NIT bid, let alone trying to play their way into the NCAA bubble, well, this was severely damaging. But if you are betting with Draftkings this March Madness, they’re still a team you should consider backing. Don’t gauge their tourney chances by Tuesday night’s performance.
“We got manhandled tonight,” Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari said in post game. “I got manhandled tonight. I don’t want to watch this tape.”
“For Tennessee to come into this building tonight and come back the way they did and, I hate to say it, to run away with it, I mean, come on, man. That’s impressive.”
On Saturday, Kentucky will look to complete a season sweep of Florida, their fiercest conference rival. After the trip to the swamp, it’s off to the SEC Tournament, where they’ll be the #1 seed. If you’re betting on college hoops this weekend or championship weekend, then you might want to use this promo code. If Kentucky runs the conference tourney table, then likely a #2 seed comes back into play.
Maybe that’s possible even if they only reach the title game, and win at Florida of course.
And a #3 seed isn’t the end of the world, but they got to watch out now, or they may fall all the way down to the #4 seed line.
Still, let’s remember how far UK has come this season. It was Earth shattering when the Evansville Purple Aces came in and won at Rupp Arena early on in November. With a NET ranking of 267 that L is to the Kentucky Wildcats resume what a donut is to sitting in the pit of your stomach.
However, the Cats have overcome that setback (Utah is ranked 85 in NET, so that’s bad too) big time. Look at all the key wins, they’ve racked up this season:
Louisville (Net 8), @ Texas Tech (Net 22), Michigan State (Net 7), @ LSU (Net 32), Alabama (Net 42) @Arkansas (Net 47), Auburn (Net 28) and Florida (Net 33).
In other words, yes, it was a completely disastrous and totally inexcusable choke job tonight. However, seeing how well the Kentucky Wildcats have recovered from disasters earlier this season…they’ll be fine.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link
