Saturday night, Kentucky closed out an impressive 72-67 victory over Florida, moving the Cats to 16-7 on the year and 7-3 in conference play. Ever since the head-scratching loss to South Carolina at home, the Cats are on a six-game SEC winning streak. They have apparently turned the corner and are looking to finish the year on an upward trend.
The Season’s Home-Stretch Schedule
The final half of the schedule contains the best of the conference opponents. A golden opportunity lies ahead for this group.
The Cats are tied for third in the SEC with Auburn. They are only one game behind Tennessee and Texas A&M, who are tied for second. No reason they can’t finish the year second in the conference and avoid playing in the Thursday games of the SEC Tournament.
The next big question that everyone has is, what will our seed in the NCAA Tournament be? As of now, most bracketologists have the Cats in the 10-11 range – but they can easily fight their way into a 4-5 seed with a strong finish to the season.
Kentucky currently sits at 31st in the NCAA’s NET Rankings. Their record by “Quadrants” are as follows:
Q1: 1-6
Q2: 6-0
Q3: 3-0
Q4: 6-1
Here are the remaining games on the schedule and the quadrant each of them fall into:
Q1 – Six Games
- Arkansas
- @ Miss St
- Tennessee
- @ Florida
- Auburn
- @ Arkansas
Q2 – 1 Game
- @ Georgia
Q3 – 1 Game
- Vanderbilt
It is also worth noting that if Texas A&M and Florida can both finish the year strong and move into the Top 30 of the NET Rankings, then the two victories that we already hold over them will classify as Q1 wins. As of now, UF sits at 43 and A&M is at 40.
If we were to win out, Kentucky would finish the regular season above .500 in Q1 Games – then add a few with a deep SEC Tournament run. That’s a resume as strong as any that you’ll find in college basketball.
The stars are aligning at the perfect time for this group. Let’s keep it up and keep our eyes on chasing Number 9!
