ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his latest Bracketology prediction on Monday, featuring a surge upward from the Kentucky Wildcats.
Kentucky has moved up to a third seed, with Lunardi projecting the team as a three seed. They’re set to play in the Midwest region, where they would face fourteen seed Vermont in the opening round.
The move can be directly attributed to the Wildcats’ 77-72 upset win over the Duke Blue Devils last week, with Kentucky showing off exactly the kind of winning basketball it takes to win major tournament games.
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This is a sentiment Lunardi clearly agreed with, as he moved Mark Pope’s squad up in seeding.
“I might not always agree, but there’s a reason the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee insists November results mean just as much as late-season games. Let’s go back a week to the final media timeout of the Champions Classic. Kentucky had come from double digits down to tie Duke. The underdog Wildcats managed to win those last four minutes, not only notching the first major victory of the Mark Pope era but creating the kind of bracket disruption not normally seen this early in the season,” Lunardi said. “Former top-liner Duke drops all the way to a 3-seed in the shuffle, while Kentucky leaps three lines to join the Blue Devils.”
Lunardi’s next Bracketology will release next Tuesday, with the 4-0 Wildcats set to at least hold the line until that ensuing edition.