Kentucky Begins SEC Tournament Play

January 27th. The date that the Kentucky Wildcats can point to and see where everything just fell apart.

January 27th the Wildcats were #24 in the nation, 5-0 in the SEC, and held a three game lead over everyone else in the conference.

But by the end of the night in Oxford, Mississippi January 27th was the beginning of the end for the Kentucky Wildcat season.

Kentucky’s opponent, Ole Miss, a team which to that point was a dismal 1-4 in SEC play, stopped Kentucky’s leading scorer Jodie Meeks and gave the blueprint to the rest of the conference how to break down the Cats.

Kentucky’s 85-80 loss began a downward spiral in the Bluegrass. Kentucky continued losing through the remainder of the season only winning just four of their last 11 conference games and ending in fourth place in a down SEC Eastern conference.

With the fourth place finish and a 19-12 record overall the Cats open up the SEC tournament with an opening round game against the team that started the downward spiral.

The way the season has gone, Kentucky must win the tournament in order to make the NCAA tournament all together. And with the way the SEC bracket is set up, the run through the conference would be a revenge match all the way.

If Kentucky can get by the Ole Miss Rebels, the Wildcats will face off against the seasonal SEC champion LSU Tigers, who beat the Cats in the last seconds at Rupp Arena two weeks ago.
Again if the Cats are to win over LSU, the Cats get another rematch with the South Carolina Gamecocks, which swept the season series and knocked off Kentucky when vying for 1st place in the conference three weeks ago.

Kentucky’s run through the tournament is not particularly favorable, but if Big Blue wants to get not miss a trip to the big dance, the must beat teams they lost to in the regular season on a daily basis through Sunday.

The Madness of March kicks off at 1 pm EST.