Kentucky men’s basketball was given a No. 3 seed by the NCAA Selection Committee Sunday evening as part of the annual “Selection Sunday.”
The Cats will be kicking off yet another quest to bring home championship No. 9, this time in the first season under Head Coach Mark Pope after John Calipari’s disastrous first-round loss to Oakland last year in Pittsburgh.
Being sent to Milwaukee in the Midwest Region, Kentucky will first face off with the Troy Trojans, the automatic bid winner out of the Sun Belt, before facing either Illinois, Texas or Xavier.
The one seed in the Midwest, Houston, ran through the Big 12, winning both the regular season and tournament championship with Kelvin Sampson at the helm. This is the second season in a row that the Cougars are the No. 1 in UK’s bracket.
Looking throughout the region, UK would have to go through any combination of No. 2 Tennessee, No. 7 UCLA, No. 10 Utah State or, far less likely, No. 15 Wofford in order to make it to the Elite Eight.
Kentucky’s bracket also features No. 5 Clemson, which beat Kentucky in South Carolina in the regular season, No. 9 Georgia, which bested Kentucky in Athens, No. 8 Gonzaga, which UK beat in Seattle, and No. 4 Purdue. McNeese State, SIU-Edwardsville and High Point round out the Midwest.
Selection Sunday also saw the Cats’ league, the SEC, make history, sending 14 teams into the big dance to break the all-time record of 11 teams from one conference set by the Big East in 2011.
The 13 other SEC schools, in unison with Gonzaga, Clemson, Louisville and Duke, which Kentucky also faced in the regular season, gives the Cats a record of 12-10 against 2025 NCAA Tournament teams.
The NCAA Tournament is set to kick off as it always does, in Dayton with the First Four. The 2025 edition of the First Four will feature Texas, Xavier, North Carolina, San Diego State, American, Mt. St. Mary’s, Alabama State and St. Francis (PA) and tip off on Tuesday with either the Tar Heels and Aztecs or Red Flash and Hornets.
Kentucky’s contest against the Trojans will tip off on Friday, March 21, from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Kentucky has been injury-ridden all season, but news of Lamont Butler’s return does provide a sense of optimism for the Cats even with Kerr Kriisa and Jaxson Robinson done for the year.
Regardless, there is no more room for error for this Kentucky team as March Madness will continue its unforgiving nature and exemplify the phrase “win or go home” for UK’s six seniors that are out of eligibility at the end of the season.
