Kentucky men’s basketball has earned a No. 7 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament and will face the No. 10 seed Santa Clara Broncos of the West Coast Conference (WCC) in the Round of 64 on Friday, March 20, in St. Louis. 

If head coach Mark Pope’s squad advances past the Broncos, it will either face No. 2 seed Iowa State or, less likely, No. 15 seed Tennessee State in the Round of 32.

This will be the UK’s 63rd time in the NCAA Tournament, yet, through all those punched tickets, this is the program’s first time playing as a No. 7 seed.

The last time the Wildcats played in St. Louis for the NCAA Tournament was in 2014.

As a No. 8 seed, they beat No. 9 seed Kansas State and No. 1 seed Wichita State, led by Ron Baker and Cleanthony Early, in the Round of 32. 

After getting out of St. Louis alive, UK danced on as far as the National Championship before falling to No. 9 seed UConn in Arlington, Texas.

With that nugget in mind, the Cats can only hope that history will be on their side this time around. 

All about the Broncos: 

Santa Clara finished third in the WCC standings and strung together some quality wins, beating No. 12 seed McNeese State, Nevada, which finished 22-12 and made the Mountain West Tournament semifinals and No. 21 Saint Mary’s twice (once in the regular season and once in the WCC Tournament). 

In the WCC Tournament, No. 3 seed Santa Clara beat No. 6 seed Pacific 76-68, No. 2 seed Saint Mary’s 76-71 in the semifinals.

The Broncos inevitably fell to the No. 1 seed, Gonzaga, 79-68 in the finals. However, they did go into halftime of that final game with a 33-29 lead. 

Led by head coach Herb Sendek, who was Rick Pitino’s assistant at UK from 1989 to 1993, the Broncos have a very high-tempo offense, finishing No. 23 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency rankings, while averaging 82.9 points per game.

It’s worth noting that as a head coach, Pope is just 1-3 against Sendek, with all four matchups coming during his time at BYU while Sendek was at Santa Clara.

Pope and the Cougars got Sendek in the two’s first tilt during Pope’s first season in Provo, Utah, but since then, Pope dropped the next three matchups between the two. 

Santa Clara is top 20 in offensive rebounding percentage, will take a ton of 3-pointers, and will press as much as any team in the country. 

The Broncos have strong depth, rostering three players who average double figures and five players who are shooting 48% or better from the field. 

In terms of offense, sophomore guard Christian Hammond is the main threat.

The 6-foot-4 Colorado native leads Santa Clara in points per game with 15.8 while shooting 49% from the field, 40% from deep and 79% from the free-throw line. 

Hammond scored a career-high 27 points in the Broncos’ 98-83 win over Nevada back on Nov. 10 and has scored 15-plus points in 19 contests this season. 

Aside from Hammond, Big Blue Nation should jot down forward Elijah Mahi and forward Allen Graves, two scoring threats that can explode on any given night. 

Mahi is averaging 4.7 rebounds per game, which is the 3rd most on the team.

When it comes to putting points on the board, the 6-foot-7 Canadian is averaging 13.9 points per game while shooting 44.8% from the field.

As for Graves, a 6-foot-9 freshman, he earned a ton of conference awards, including WCC sixth man of the year, WCC freshman of the year and first-team All-WCC.

The Louisiana native is averaging 11.6 points per game while leading the team in rebounds per game with 6.5 and in terms of efficiency.

Graves is shooting 51.7% from the field and 41.6% from deep on an average of 2.6 3-point attempts per game.

All things blue and white:

Kentucky finished the season with a 21-13 overall record and a 10-8 record in SEC play, achieving notable wins over No. 22 St. John’s, No. 24 Tennessee, No. 25 Tennessee, No. 15 Arkansas and No. 25 Vanderbilt.

UK is engineered through Otega Oweh, who is averaging a team-high 18.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game.

Oweh has reached double-figures in 33 of the 34 games that Kentucky has played this year, and he has reached 20-plus points in 18 of those games.

While Oweh has been its steady scorer, Kentucky will need production from nearly everyone if it wants a shot at a deep run in the tournament.

Outside of Oweh, most of the offensive production has come and is expected to come from Denzel Aberdeen, who is averaging 13.2 points per game, and Collin Chandler, who is averaging 9.9 points per game while ripping a team-high 42.7% from downtown.

Malachi Moreno and Mo Dioubate are each averaging around eight points per game, relieving a little bit of stress off those main scorers mentioned above.

Overall, Kentucky is currently averaging 80.8 points per game.

Moreno and Dioubate also lead the team in rebounding as well. Moreno is averaging a team-high 6.4 rebounds, while Dioubate is averaging 5.5 boards per game. 

The Cats are looking to bounce back from a decent SEC Tournament run, where they advanced as far as the Quarterfinals as a No. 9 seed.

Kentucky beat No. 16 seed LSU 87-82 in the first round and No. 8 Missouri in the second round 78-72 before falling to No. 1 seed Florida 71-63.

Mark Pope in the NCAA Tournament:

In terms of NCAA Tournament history, Pope holds a 2-1 NCAA Tournament record with UK. 

Last year’s team, led by Oweh, Lamont Butler and Koby Brea, beat No. 14 seed Troy in the Round of 64 and No. 6 Illinois in the Round of 32 before getting bounced by No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Sweet 16.

Overall, as a head coach, Pope is 2-3 in the NCAA Tournament.

Prior to Kentucky, with BYU, Pope finished with a 0-2 March Madness record, losing in the first round as a No. 6 seed to No. 11 seed UCLA in 2021, and once again in the Round of 64 to No. 11 seed Duquesne in 2024. 

Tipoff for No. 7 seed Kentucky’s Round of 64 matchup with No. 10 Santa Clara is set for 12:15 p.m. EST inside the Enterprise Center. That contest can be viewed on CBS.