If you look at our draws since Cal has been here

[bigblueinsanity]

I agree it was a good draw. Yet we had Indiana in our path, one of two teams that had a win over us.

Both iu and Baylor were under seeded that year, specifically to match up with us in the tournament.

Plus duke was our 2 (of course no storyline sought there) had they not lost to Lehigh in the opening round.

So we actually had a really tough draw considering being the #1 overall.

 

[EvilMD]

Can anyone think of times we eluded a really good team early on? I can think of two...in 78 Marquette lost to Miami of Ohio in the first round, and in 99 Utah lost to Miami of Ohio. I guess you could include Wisconsin losing to Cornell in 2010. We've never had an entire region clear out for us the way they do so often for UNC.

 

[Kentuckee]

Can anyone think of times we eluded a really good team early on? I can think of two...in 78 Marquette lost to Miami of Ohio in the first round, and in 99 Utah lost to Miami of Ohio. I guess you could include Wisconsin losing to Cornell in 2010. We've never had an entire region clear out for us the way they do so often for UNC.

The NCAA plans the entire tournament around setting up a marquee type ratings draw involving Kentucky for every round of every tournament. It is the priority around which the entire bracket revolves.

For example, here's what they had planned for us this year:

Kentucky -vs- Northern Kentucky > Wichita State>UCLA>North Carolina>Kansas>Duke.

Year after year they manipulate the seedings and the regions however they need to in order to make something like the above happen. Fairness has zero to do with any of it. Other teams they will throw at us if possible are Indiana and Louisville.

And they get away with it year after year! Because they are accountable to no one and there is no way to even effectively vocalize a complaint about it all if your jersey says Kentucky on it.

 

[skcatfan]

In 2015 there was no problem with our draw until the Elite 8. That year three teams (UK, Duke and Wisconsin) were clearly above everyone else then two other teams (Arizona and Notre Dame) were a notch below but definitely were better than the rest of the tournament field. At 34-0 and the unanimous top ranked team UK should've had the best draw but somehow Duke was set up to only have to potentially play one of the other 4 teams because they were all put on the other side of the bracket. That is the kind of crap that most UK fans are pissed about. No way should we have had to beat Wisconsin and Duke to win it all that year.
And has been pointed out already in this thread that kind of draw is the norm not the exception for UK pretty much since Cal has been there. In 2011, 2014 and 2016 we were definitely underseeded and placed in stacked regions. We would've have to beat three 30 win teams this year just to make it to the FF. Then you throw in some very shady officiating in numerous years and it adds up to a very frustrated and angry fan base. And it doesn't help much to complain about it because we're labeled as being crazy or just whiners.

 

[wcc31]

So the 8th seed should receive a favorable draw? Or at best should have been a 6th seed? Totally laughable.

No, of course not, but point to another time anyone in the NCAA beat three Top 10 teams in a regional? Crappy draw as usual.

 

[morgousky]

It's crazy how successful we've been in the tournament despite the NCAA being hellbent on giving us the hardest path every single year. Not only do they put the best teams in our region, they misseed either us or the opponent to make the matchup happen earlier than it should. 2012 was the only year since Cal's been here where it didn't feel like we got screwed

That's only because we won. That was a screw a screw job too. Baylor was legit that year and Indiana as a sweet 16 game was an absolute joke. They also threw one man wrecking crew Iowa state in as our 2 game which was probably the hardest second round game there was.

 

[HenryMuto]

I can only think of two seasons where we didn't get the toughest draw on our seed line.

In 2010 we got the "fifth one seed" as our two, West Virginia.
In 2011 we got Ohio State as our 1. We beat Florida two out of three that year, the Gators got a two and we got stuck with that 4.
In 2012 we got the easiest of the four.
In 2014 we got hosed the worst of all. Wichita State, then Louisville as our 4?
In 2015 the only complaint we could make is that Duke got what should have been our draw. Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin were three historically good teams.
In 2016 we again got hosed, big time. Texas A&M got our seed, we got stuck with Indiana then North Carolina.
This year was yet ANOTHER screw job of historic proportions. Wichita State should have been a five or a six. UCLA was 31-4. We and UNC should have been playing in the title game.

Everyone was thrilled to have Wichita State as the 1 seed to our 8. I remember people posting how happy they were to get Wichita State as opposed to any of the other 1 seeds.

 

[mj2k10]

Everyone was thrilled to have Wichita State as the 1 seed to our 8. I remember people posting how happy they were to get Wichita State as opposed to any of the other 1 seeds.

True, but why the hell was UK an 8? It was ludicrous.

I don't have that big of a problem with years like 2010 (though it was infuriating that Duke got what should have been UK's region), 12, 15, or this year. Nothing was done that seemed blatantly out of form. UK might have had some difficult match-ups, but UK was seeded rationally, as were the other teams in UK's region.

11, 14, and 16, I'm not so forgiving. All just BS rationalizations so that they could find excuses to get marquee games involving UK. "Oh, wouldn't a second round game between preseason #1 UK and the undefeated mid-major be cool" is not a reasonable foundation for putting together a bracket.

 

[HenryMuto]

I had Kentucky as the the #23 ranked S- Curve team so that would been the 3rd 6 seed. Kentucky was 29th on the S-Curve so while a 6 vs 8 seed is a bit of a difference we were the top 8 seed. Had we just got 1 higher on the S-Curve we would have been a #7 seed. So while it seemed crazy it wasn't that crazy it was only 6 difference on the S-Curve.

 

[RMorris33]

True, but why the hell was UK an 8? It was ludicrous.

For the story line. If you remember there was a lot of 40-0 hype preseason that year (the year before it actually almost happened) and UK struggled for the most part and ended up with 10 losses heading into the tournament. Wichita was undefeated instead of us ironically so that was the committee's way to troll. We all know what happened after that

 

[51stFan]

Everyone was thrilled to have Wichita State as the 1 seed to our 8. I remember people posting how happy they were to get Wichita State as opposed to any of the other 1 seeds.

Thrilled because we were so bad under seeded that the only good thing that could possibly come from it was playing a 1 seed that might come a little tight because they were a mid major playing Kentucky. Didn't work out like that though, because they played great. Just because people were happy doesn't mean that it was what they wanted.