Lunardi's way too early Bracketology

[Creed Bratton]

I know some of you guys lose your minds over a Bracketology out this time of the year and for those of us who wish to discuss it you don't have to remind us it's 340-350 days before the tournament. Anyway, he has UK as a 2 seed in the Midwest with Purdue as the 1 seed. Other notable teams I found interesting are as follows, Duke (1 East), Arkansas (5 West), U of L (5 Midwest) and the SEC with 13 teams in.

Link here

 

[WyleECoyote]

I just wonder what roster he's basing UK off of, with or without Oweh.

 

[know1]

Pre Season Polls

I think this is way to early for something like this but here ya go. https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2026-march-madness-men-field-predictions

kentucky.forums.rivals.com

 

[BelfryKYCatFanatic]

Another 2nd Round matchup with Illinois?? This time in St. Louis.

(7) Illinois a higher seed gets to play closer to their campus (again) in Round Two against (2) Kentucky.

Champaign, IL to St. Louis, M0 - 181 Miles
Lexington, Ky to St. Louis, MO - 333 Miles

In what world does this make sense??

 

[TheRaunchyRupp]

I personally hate that these are literally nothing more than to garner clicks. Any poll / braketology this far out is completely useless. I won’t even validate it with a click

 

[wccat2969]

13 SEC teams in. Amazing with all of the polls, some have UK in the top 5 and some in the latter part of top 20.

 

[blue cincy]

No imagination. Just put UK against a team we have played recently. I would say we will be in running for the #1 overall seed if things come together they way it could. It will all depend on guys coming together.

 

[Creed Bratton]

I personally hate that these are literally nothing more than to garner clicks. Any poll / braketology this far out is completely useless. I won’t even validate it with a click

To be fair anything he does, even a week before the tournament, is clickbait and useless since he doesn't determine who is in, where anyone plays or what their seed is.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Sec gets 13 teams n but UK doesn't get a 1 seed? Seems realistic.

 

[Creed Bratton]

13 SEC teams in. Amazing with all of the polls, some have UK in the top 5 and some in the latter part of top 20.

I know it's Lunardi and he loves him some Duke Blue Devils but I'm still surprised he has Duke as a 1 seed. They are returning very little production to go with some unproven freshmen that aren't as good as this years class. Michigan, Kentucky, Louisville, UConn, BYU and Texas Tech are all ranked higher than Duke in almost every way to early poll.

 

[bucsrule8872]

I know it's Lunardi and he loves him some Duke Blue Devils but I'm still surprised he has Duke as a 1 seed. They are returning very little production to go with some unproven freshmen that aren't as good as this years class. Michigan, Kentucky, Louisville, UConn, BYU and Texas Tech are all ranked higher than Duke in almost every way to early poll.

Not just Lunardi, Parrish moved Duke up in his poll, leapfrogging UK and four other teams.

They lost their top five players including the greatest player to ever play a college game (LOL!), but they are right back to the top of the heap.

Get ready for some Boozer love on ESPN next season.

They will probably hype him even more than Flagg.

He’s a legacy!

 

[know1]

I personally hate that these are literally nothing more than to garner clicks. Any poll / braketology this far out is completely useless. I won’t even validate it with a click

And we have willing minions on here schilling for those sites by posting every single, even remotely related link they put out.

 

[Rideordiewildcat]

Of course he has Dook as a 1. I don't see it with the roster they have right now.

 

[Dalroxas]

If our team plays the way it looks like on paper, flip Purdue and Kentucky. We won’t be the worst 2. We will be battling for overall number 1. That’s with oweh returning

 

[Tampa_cat54]

Give me Duke, man. Give it to us.

Bring Duke to Rupp and let's take care of those b*astards 2 years in a row.

 

[ORCAT]

I'm still amazed at how much he is paid to do what he does and just guess. Some posters on here could do as good and much better than him.

 

[W1LDCAT22]

I just wonder what roster he's basing UK off of, with or without Oweh.

I would assume it is WITH Oweh, as most are just assuming his return for his senior season. Hopefully all of this talk doesn't jinx us.

 

[Creed Bratton]

And we have willing minions on here schilling for those sites by posting every single, even remotely related link they put out.

You know you can skip over any thread that has the word Bracketology in it if it triggers you like that.

 

[know1]

You know you can skip over any thread that has the word Bracketology in it if it triggers you like that.

That comment wasn't even about bracketology. It was broader. I'm just saying we have a bunch of rubes on here that constantly post links to other sites with no comment whatsoever about why they are relevant (and many aren't). And I was replying to another person's similar comment. These posters are essentially bots or advertisers for those sites. Heck, maybe some have even figured out how to monetize their advertising here given how many links they post.

 

[Sejonesy]

Another 2nd Round matchup with Illinois?? This time in St. Louis.

(7) Illinois a higher seed gets to play closer to their campus (again) in Round Two against (2) Kentucky.

Champaign, IL to St. Louis, M0 - 181 Miles
Lexington, Ky to St. Louis, MO - 333 Miles

In what world does this make sense??

In the world of Joe Lunardi on 4/29/25. It’s not real life.

 

[-BBH-]

Louisville a 5 is interesting, some have them top 5-10 in early rankings.

Illinois as a 7 is also extreme.

Alabama as a 6 seems right, UNC as a 7 seems generous. I think they'll be firmly on the bubble again.

 

[bucsrule8872]

My 1 seeds on paper:

Midwest- Purdue
West- Houston
South- Kentucky
East- St. John’s

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I wouldn't pay too much mind to who the opponents are. It's clear this was done because of story lines and Illini would be a rematch. I also would bet there is no way Illini is anything less than a 5-seed based on what they're adding. They probably had a top5 off-season, along with Kentucky.

What does matter is that even Lunardi is forced to say that Kentucky is a top8 team (as high as 5th).

 

[LordEggForgotHisPassword]

My one seeds are FAU, UNC Wilmington, St. Mary's, and Georgia Tech.

Mine are as legit and matter as much as his.

 

[cmallory4121]

I’m more interested in 2027 bracket. Any opinions?

 

[bucsrule8872]

I’m more interested in 2027 bracket. Any opinions?

I doubt you could predict the 2025 bracket.

LOL!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

 

[know1]

I’m more interested in 2027 bracket. Any opinions?

The second someone puts one together, one of the bots here will post it for us, that's for sure.

 

[silentsaregolden2.0]

Didn't even need to look to know he would have Duke as a #1 seed.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

That comment wasn't even about bracketology. It was broader. I'm just saying we have a bunch of rubes on here that constantly post links to other sites with no comment whatsoever about why they are relevant (and many aren't). And I was replying to another person's similar comment. These posters are essentially bots or advertisers for those sites. Heck, maybe some have even figured out how to monetize their advertising here given how many links they post.

People just like to have things to talk about and the bracketologies, polls, analytic projections etc. begin a conversation. That’s all really. I think most of us will have varying degrees of stock we put into these types of guesswork predictions. The posters who post these things have done nothing wrong but rather help keep this site very active. I enjoy that about this site.

With all do respect, go look at the other site from time to time. Very little activity —- usually a small handful of UK-related topics and infrequent responses on them. The rest is filler with off-topic crap about personal lives, favorite cereal or WWE Raw —- yuck! I love that RR is filled to the brim with Wildcat fanatics and that is owed a lot to the people who constantly provide new topics.

My suggestion is to be a part of your own resolution on this. I can understand why early summer bracketology may not be your forte, so why not ignore this thread and create your own thread that initiates a discussion more catered to your own preferred topic? If it is more interesting, perhaps people will be less inclined to click on the latest from Lunardi….


….As for the bracketology itself, I think the Cats are being under appreciated. You can’t just dump the Cats into a machine and get an accurate projection. We all saw what Pope did with much less and I think many of us expect big leaps forward from our returning players that last year’s stats will undersell. I want to return to that one seed line where Big Blue Nation belongs, baby!!!

 

[Creed Bratton]

The second someone puts one together, one of the bots here will post it for us, that's for sure.

and someone will jump in to complain about it being posted. 🤣

 

[Creed Bratton]

Louisville a 5 is interesting, some have them top 5-10 in early rankings.

Illinois as a 7 is also extreme.

Alabama as a 6 seems right, UNC as a 7 seems generous. I think they'll be firmly on the bubble again.

He updated his bracket today and dropped U of L another seed line to a 6 seed. He has the SEC with 13 teams in but UK being the only team in the top 2 seeds of each region.

 

[bucsrule8872]

He updated his bracket today and dropped U of L another seed line to a 6 seed. He has the SEC with 13 teams in but UK being the only team in the top 2 seeds of each region.

I tend to agree with him on that.

The SEC is down with all those Seniors graduating. Basically two classes worth of Seniors left after this past season. All those COVID Super Seniors are gone as well as several regular four year Seniors.

A lot of SEC teams relied heavily on those Seniors this past season. Auburn, Bama, UF, and UT had several of those guys and they weren’t just one year portal guys like ours were, a lot of those guys were in the system for 4 to 5 years. Even many of their transfers were guys who transferred in last year or the year before and had 2-3 years in the system.

All those guys are gone now and while the portal allows you to rebuild quickly, it’s not the same as sending out those 23-24 year old guys that have been in your system since they were 18-19.

The SEC will be rebuilding for the most part. The rest of the nation will be as well, but not to the extent of most of the SEC programs.

If UK gets Oweh back to go with Garrison, Chandler, and Noah for experience, along with a strong portal class, we should be in a little better shape than some of the other programs in the SEC.

We get Oweh back, Quaintance recovers from surgery, and we avoid the injury bug that always seems to bite us, we could be looking at a 1 seed in March and a chance at a Final Four/title run.

 

[Creed Bratton]

I am a little surprised he is being so stubborn about keeping Duke at #1 when it seems Coward will likely stay in the draft. They return very little production and a class that isn't near as strong as this past season....but then again it is Joey Brackets and he almost loves Duke as much as Dickie V. 🤣

 

[Cleatortoises]

Another 2nd Round matchup with Illinois?? This time in St. Louis.

(7) Illinois a higher seed gets to play closer to their campus (again) in Round Two against (2) Kentucky.

Champaign, IL to St. Louis, M0 - 181 Miles
Lexington, Ky to St. Louis, MO - 333 Miles

In what world does this make sense??

All of western ky to st Louis > 150 miles.
Blue gets in.