Greetings, BBN!
The wild ride of the 2025-2026 Kentucky Wildcats season is 20 games in, which leaves just a third of the regular season left before SEC Tournament week and Selection Sunday. When UK dropped
to 5-4 after taking a pounding from Gonzaga, and when they started SEC play 0-2 against Alabama and Missouri, their bracket status seemed very shaky and uncertain.
But for now, all things seem to be pointing towards safety squarely in the middle of the field of 68, thanks to the not-too-shabby resume they’ve compiled in these first two-thirds of the season.
Lot of ball still left to play, however. Let’s take a look at their resume after Saturday’s Ole Miss win:
Resume Review (1/25/26):
Notes:
- Kentucky has three Quad 1 wins. Only 33 teams in the country have three or more right now, and for many teams, those are the number one thing holding them back from the bracket come March. The wins are St. John’s in Atlanta, LSU in Baton Rouge, and Tennessee in Knoxville. SEC road trips are tremendous opportunities for Q1s: of all their remaining away games, only South Carolina in Columbia isn’t Q1.
- No bad losses so far: while a home L to Missouri stings, the Tigers might be an NCAA Tournament team since they are 14-6 as well and just beat Oklahoma in overtime with buzzer-beaters at the end of regulation and to win the game in OT.
- A record of 14-6 means the Cats just need to go 6-5 the rest of the way to reach 20 wins, and 7-4 for the insurance of a 21st. They’d be really hard to leave out with 20+ victories with no bad losses and a hardy collection of victories.
- The win at Tennessee and the neutral court win over St. John’s were both wins over AP-ranked teams. What’ll matter on Selection Sunday are the current rankings of the teams, not what they were at the time of the games, but it’s nice to know UK’s got two ranked wins. Last year, they accumulated tons of high-ranking wins, so it feels good to still be snagging some top-25 here and there.
- 14-6 with the teams they’ve beaten and the teams they’ve lost to is nothing to worry about when it comes to the big bracket. While there’s still a lot of hoops left to play, Kentucky is positioning itself for success with its resume. Now onto the next two Quad 1 opportunities: at Vanderbilt and at Arkansas. Both will be ranked wins if they get them and could bump them up to the 6-seed line if they’re lucky. Go Cats!
