Why the Wildcats beat Tennessee in the last ten minutes

if that makes sense…even though he didn’t score, and even though the refs had a personal vendetta against him, he was very active defensively and rebounded very well for a guard. The more he turns into a complete basketball player and not just a shooter, the more we’ll use him down the road.

btw I think Calipari has so many because forever he was on Twitters recommended follow list.

Does UT have the strangest schedule ever this year as far as playing high profile opponents. Our record against the top 25 is 1-4. Given that we only have one more game against a top 25 team, it may seem that the home game against UK is a bit of a must win in order to give us a decent resume for a top 6 seed (personally, I think a 4 is quite likely even if we lose to UK, provided we win the other games).

However, if you look at the schedule a little more closely, you’ll see that we’ve played three teams ranked in the top 5 and only one team ranked between 6-25. And it might get even stranger. Consider this plausible scenario: we finish SECE3 and beat LSU and SECW2 (Arkansas?) in the first two rounds of the SECT. Meanwhile, Kentucky finishes SECE1 and beats SECW4 (Alabama?) before beating us in the semis. In such a scenario, we would finish the season/SECT having played two games against teams ranked 6-25 and FIVE games against teams ranked in the top 5. Kansas is nice, but under that situation, 2-5 (2-3 against top 5) would look a lot better than 1-6 (1-4).

Game at a time and all that, let’s go thrash Georgia. But I was just looking ahead, and this schedule is quite quirky.

They give us an 85% chance to make the tournament – essentially saying a complete collapse is all that would prevent us from going. They do mention a “brutal” back end to our SEC schedule.

have our 2 toughest SEC games out of the way, I think a 6 seed is about right for our current resume, but I think we have a good shot to improve our resume before the season is over. A 4-2 finish would get us to 22-10 overall, then if we are E3 in the SECT I am going to assume we beat W6 (LSU) and just for argument’s sake lets say we beat W2 in the quarterfinals (probably Ole Miss, Miss State, or Arkansas), then lose in the semis. That would put us at 24-11 going into the NCAA tourney. I think 24 wins, plus the victory over Kansas and 1 point loss to Purdue would get us a 4-5 seed. Now it all could vary based on who we beat, beating UK in there somewhere would look a lot better than a win over Arkansas or South Carolina, but I think we are in pretty good shape for a decent seed.

Like Incipient said though, we need to take it one game at a time. A loss to Georgia on Wednesday would throw a wrench in all our plans. It’s just fun to speculate, and play Bracketologist.

messed up the math there.

In the media’s mock bracket they made last weekend they had us as a 6 seed in Syracuse’s region. Seth Davis said we were vastly under-seeded, and predicted us to make the regional final in that bracket. Obviously we are a long way out, but I was a little surprised that someone of his knowledge though we are capable of making the Elite Eight. It will be an interesting next month or so.

on the seeding thing. That kind of makes sense, since we were vastly over-seeded in 2006. I think the most likely best case scenario would be this: 5-1 to end the regular season, beating UK, but losing one of the road games. Then make the semis of the SECT, and playing UK again. I think playing UK 3 times, beating them once and losing close twice would really look good for our seeding. Though I will say from a selfish point of view I really want another shot at Vanderbilt, that would mean making it all the way to the finals of the SECT or falling to 4th in the east and possibly playing them in the other semifinal opposite Kentucky.

Just another hypothetical, I can only imagine what the atmosphere would be like for a potential Tennessee-Kentucky semifinal game in the SECT, especially if we beat them in Knoxville. It would be a rubber match for the season series, and the Sommet Center would be rocking. There are a lot of UK fans here in Nashville, and the thought of a split crowd, top 15 showdown here in Nashville would be extremely cool, and a dream scenario for scalpers. Obviously still a long way out, but I would venture and say that would be the biggest atmosphere for an SECT game since in least back in the mid 2000s when Kentucky and Florida met in a few Finals when Donovan and Tubby Smith were going at it. That would be really fun.