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Lunardi: UK the last three seed, need Arizona to lose

BYU may very well lose a seedcline to accomodate their request to not play on Sunday. Has happened in year's past. The committe won't move them up to accomodate it.
Yeah and we are going to play on Friday Sunday aren't we? Kentucky can't play the same day they host so Kentucky will have to be Friday and Sunday if they win.
 
If we are 12th we go out West ? Is that good or bad ? Do we get Cleveland or Milwaukee for first 2 rounds or are they taken already ? We don't want to double down going West for 1st/2nd rounds.

Rather have a 4 seed in South or East or a 3 seed in the West ?
3 seed anywhere>4 seed anywhere.

There's a little gap between the top 3 teams and teams 4-6. Then there's a huge gap between the top 6 and the field.

If we're a 3, we don't see the 1 seed until the Elite 8. If we're a 4, we see them in the Sweet 16. You also play a 5 instead of a 6 in the 2nd round. Minor, but it matters.
 
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Remember all those years under Calipari where we would nitpick every possibly seed outcome, only to watch Cal lose in the first weekend anyway?
 
A reasonable Spring for UK fans:
1. Pope wins round one of the tournament
2. UK signs Nate Ament
3. UK locks up four high-level portal players
4. Oweh returns

That's reasonable. What won't be reasonable is watching UK go soft on portal offers again.
Talking to some people that have some booster friends:

My understanding is that the boosters are blown away with Pope's success this season and love the guy. Pope has the financial commitment to get whoever he wants.

There's an atomic bomb of a transfer name floating around, and some people are claiming it's already a done deal. And Pope has been assured there's plenty of money to make it work .
 
Here is another guy I follow that has won bracket matrix contest before and is one of the best


Updated: March 15, 2025 | 10 a.m. ET

Seeds 1-24Seeds 25-50Seeds 51-68First 4 OUT
1) Auburn25) Saint Mary’s51) High PointXavier
2) Duke26) Kansas52) YaleBoise State
3) Houston27) Illinois53) TroyNorth Carolina
4) Florida28) Gonzaga54) AkronUC-Irvine
5) Alabama29) Marquette55) LipscombNext 4 OUT
6) Tennessee30) Memphis56) Utah ValleyOhio State
7) Michigan St31) Creighton57) NC-WilmingtonDayton
8) St. John’s32) Miss State58) MontanaWake Forest
9) Texas Tech33) Connecticut59) Robert MorrisNorth Texas
10) Kentucky34) New Mexico60) Wofford
11) Texas AM35) Georgia61) OmahaNext In Line
12) Iowa State36) Oklahoma62) Norfolk State
13) Wisconsin37) Arkansas63) Bryant
14) Maryland38) West Virginia64) SIU-Edwardsville
15) Arizona39) Drake65) American
16) Purdue40) Vanderbilt66) Iona
17) Michigan41) Utah State67) Jackson State
18) Oregon42) Baylor68) St. Francis (PA)
19) Ole Miss43) San Diego St
20) Clemson44) Texas
21) BYU45) Indiana
22) UCLA46) VCU
23) Louisville47) Colorado State
24) Missouri48) UC-San Diego
49) Liberty
50) McNeese
 
Remember all those years under Calipari where we would nitpick every possibly seed outcome, only to watch Cal lose in the first weekend anyway?
I think the Tyty year, they got a better seed than most people expected. And I really felt like it was the best possible bracket given our season.

Some joke team called St. Peter's. Murray State, LOL. We're not losing to some mid major in state team. And then we'd get Purdue. And while Jayden Ivey was nice, he did a lot of hero ball and loved tough shots. Maybe they were banged up too? I'm not sure. But I honestly remember thinking we'd have SMOOTH sailing until we saw UNC in the Elite 8.

And then St. Peter's happened. I was sick at my stomach. Questioned everything in my life.
 
Talking to some people that have some booster friends:

My understanding is that the boosters are blown away with Pope's success this season and love the guy. Pope has the financial commitment to get whoever he wants.

There's an atomic bomb of a transfer name floating around, and some people are claiming it's already a done deal. And Pope has been assured there's plenty of money to make it work .
That's awesome news. It just didn't make sense to me that we could offer Hurley $11 million + but not compete with programs like UT for Lanier or UNC for Wilson.

I figured it was always just a degree of reallocation of funds. UK has always had money for hoops. It paid Calipari a king's ransom while he was here. The deflective fans found a way to paint the UK program as a "poor state" that couldn't get it done, however. It became a comical caricatured narrative at a certain point.
 
Talking to some people that have some booster friends:

My understanding is that the boosters are blown away with Pope's success this season and love the guy. Pope has the financial commitment to get whoever he wants.

There's an atomic bomb of a transfer name floating around, and some people are claiming it's already a done deal. And Pope has been assured there's plenty of money to make it work .
Talking to some people that have some booster friends:

My understanding is that the boosters are blown away with Pope's success this season and love the guy. Pope has the financial commitment to get whoever he wants.

There's an atomic bomb of a transfer name floating around, and some people are claiming it's already a done deal. And Pope has been assured there's plenty of money to make it work .
It’s Braden smith isn’t it.
 
That's awesome news. It just didn't make sense to me that we could offer Hurley $11 million + but not compete with programs like UT for Lanier or UNC for Wilson.

I figured it was always just a degree of reallocation of funds. UK has always had money for hoops. It paid Calipari a king's ransom while he was here. The deflective fans found a way to paint the UK program as a "poor state" that couldn't get it done, however. It became a comical caricatured narrative at a certain point.
I think that's right.

I think we're 1 of a very small group of schools that care more about basketball than football. And now that Pope has smashed expectations year 1, the money is there.

We have rich people like a lot of other states. The Club Blue should also blow up now that we've seen Pope's genius at work. Basketball is the #1 sport in the state. And even the non-rich people are fired up about Pope and the cats. I think we'll see a huge influx where regular folks give what they can give to help Pope.

I think Calipari had become a bad financial advisor. You gotta give him your money for him to double it. But if he keeps proving incompetent with the money he's already been given--at a point--why keep giving him more to hope for a different result?
 
That's awesome news. It just didn't make sense to me that we could offer Hurley $11 million + but not compete with programs like UT for Lanier or UNC for Wilson.

I figured it was always just a degree of reallocation of funds. UK has always had money for hoops. It paid Calipari a king's ransom while he was here. The deflective fans found a way to paint the UK program as a "poor state" that couldn't get it done, however. It became a comical caricatured narrative at a certain point.
Kentucky has money. Horse farms and bourbon run this Commonwealth. Also soybeans.

There is money here, the issue is the NE states and the west coast will always have more. We should however be able to compete with the likes MS, AL, and others though.
 
I'm only big on Ament because I think Pope needs the "can he recruit guys from outside the state" monkey off his back, but I also see the Rick Pitino rationale of recruiting only portal players.

Ament will cost UK a pretty penny. Some are saying as much as $2 million. There's probably 2 to 3 high level portal guys we can have for that price.
That's where I think It can get dangerous going heavy into one player. Injuries or a bad transition from H&S to college can hijack a year. If you look at TN, if Lanier goes down like Jax, butler, Kerrisa they would've been done!
So it'll be a interesting balance!
 
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Kentucky has money. Horse farms and bourbon run this Commonwealth. Also soybeans.

There is money here, the issue is the NE states and the west coast will always have more. We should however be able to compete with the likes MS, AL, and others though.
We have a 4 million person fan base. At least 3 million of those people are adults who can contribute to the nil fund.

What schools on the northeast or West Coast have remotely close to that type of fan interest?

People talk about major media markets, but they forget that you have to have fans that care. What schools on either coast in the big cities have fans that care?
 
We are losing in the 1st weekend. We just lost by 30, and our PG won't be fully healthy in a week.

This team even at full strength was losing head scratching basketball games.
Wow. 😮 I can’t get onboard with this.
 
Here is another guy I follow that has won bracket matrix contest before and is one of the best


Updated: March 15, 2025 | 10 a.m. ET

Seeds 1-24Seeds 25-50Seeds 51-68First 4 OUT
1) Auburn25) Saint Mary’s51) High PointXavier
2) Duke26) Kansas52) YaleBoise State
3) Houston27) Illinois53) TroyNorth Carolina
4) Florida28) Gonzaga54) AkronUC-Irvine
5) Alabama29) Marquette55) LipscombNext 4 OUT
6) Tennessee30) Memphis56) Utah ValleyOhio State
7) Michigan St31) Creighton57) NC-WilmingtonDayton
8) St. John’s32) Miss State58) MontanaWake Forest
9) Texas Tech33) Connecticut59) Robert MorrisNorth Texas
10) Kentucky34) New Mexico60) Wofford
11) Texas AM35) Georgia61) OmahaNext In Line
12) Iowa State36) Oklahoma62) Norfolk State
13) Wisconsin37) Arkansas63) Bryant
14) Maryland38) West Virginia64) SIU-Edwardsville
15) Arizona39) Drake65) American
16) Purdue40) Vanderbilt66) Iona
17) Michigan41) Utah State67) Jackson State
18) Oregon42) Baylor68) St. Francis (PA)
19) Ole Miss43) San Diego St
20) Clemson44) Texas
21) BYU45) Indiana
22) UCLA46) VCU
23) Louisville47) Colorado State
24) Missouri48) UC-San Diego
49) Liberty
50) McNeese
So SEC Tournament today and tomorrow is like the NCAA Final Four level games.
 
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At 3:39 PM ET they interviewed the committee chair and he said all but 4 at large teams have been put in the field and he expects the final 4 to be put in before dinner. He also said the top 9 seed lines have already been set. Which means Kentucky is set already as their seed.
Now of course he said there is final scrubbing coming later today and tomorrow so they could get moved up or down still.
Also contingency brackets will be made for those final 4 at large for bid stealers.

Also was noted the number of times in a conf played this year affect when they can play in the tournament
once - round 32
twice - S16
three - E8

So Kentucky if a 3 seed and Bama if a 2 seed won't be in same region since they would meet in S16.
 
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We have a 4 million person fan base. At least 3 million of those people are adults who can contribute to the nil fund.

What schools on the northeast or West Coast have remotely close to that type of fan interest?

People talk about major media markets, but they forget that you have to have fans that care. What schools on either coast in the big cities have fans that care?
$10.00 @ person would go a long way!
 
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Lunardi is an idiot. We're a 3 seed. All of the bracket matrix people are tweeting out their seeding lists this morning, and we're still the 1st or 2nd 3 seed. A 2nd round conference tournament loss isn't dropping us to a 4 seed.
How’s Lunardi an idiot? He still has us a 3. 😂
 
Arizona will absolutely not jump us. We have 11 quad 1 wins. Lmao
Yeah, Arizona is absolutely not jumping Kentucky to get a 3 seed and knock us down to a 4. We're a 3 seed. I'm hopeful for a Texas Tech (2) in our region. So that'll probably not happen, knowing the S.C. They'll make sure to pair us up with Michigan State as our (2).

Just a feeling. Been wrong plenty of times before, I just don't see them taking us off the 3 line since the reveal weekend, we've stayed right there.

Lunardi's opinion notwithstanding .... he's just flat out wrong with his takes. Take them with a huge grain of salt.
 
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The biggest glaring weakness for Kentucky compared to all the teams vying for the 3/4 seed lines is quad 2 games

We only have 1 win in quad 2 while the others have 6,7,8 of them.

So what is better 11 quad 1 wins plus 1 quad 2 win
or
Maryland 8 quad 1 + 6 quad 2
Wisc 7 quad 1 + 10 quad 2
Iowa St 9 quad 1 + 7 quad 2
Texas A&M 7 quad 1 + 9 quad 2
Arizona 10 quad 1 + 4 quad 2
Hard to get quad 2 wins when pretty much everyone in the conference is a quad 1.
 
We are losing in the 1st weekend. We just lost by 30, and our PG won't be fully healthy in a week.

This team even at full strength was losing head scratching basketball games.
We don't need him to be fully healthy to play much better than we played last night. We just need someone who can competently get the ball across halfcourt and get us into our offense. This would help Oweh from feeling like he has to do things that he can't.
 
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We are losing in the 1st weekend. We just lost by 30, and our PG won't be fully healthy in a week.

This team even at full strength was losing head scratching basketball games.
We also beat both teams playing for the acc championship. Beat Tennessee TWICE. Beat Florida. yeah, we crapped the bed last night but we had a late game before and no Lamont Butler. Not to mention that our best player was basically knocked out of the game early. Yes, he came back but was not the same.
 
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My NCAA Tournament Top 16 Projections:

South

1 Auburn(1)
2 Michigan St.(7)
3 Texas Tech(10)
4 Purdue(16)

East

1 Duke(2)
2 Tennessee(6)
3 Iowa St.(12)
4 Maryland(14)

Midwest

1 Houston(3)
2 Alabama(5)
3 Wisconsin(11)
4 Texas A&M(15)

West

1 Florida(4)
2 St. John’s(8)
3 Kentucky(9)
4 Arizona(13)
 
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