Bubble Talk Goes MSM
By WillThis has already been noted at A Sea of Blue and Kentucky Sports Radio, but I wanted to follow up on last week’s post in which I took issue with Jay Bilas’ February 2 comment that there was no way Kentucky could earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Candidly, I do this only to illustrate that I’m not a total homer: non-Blue-Goggle-wearing people now believe Kentucky can earn an at-large bid. Andy Glockner put the Wildcats on his Bubble Watch (as he said he would last week). And Courier-Journal columnist Rich Bozich wrote Sunday that an at-large bid was a possibility for the Cats.
Even Bilas now seems to agree. While he stopped well short of predicting the Cats would make the tournament, on February 9’s College Gameday he conceded that a Kentucky team that finished 12-4 in conference play would have to be considered for an at-large bid.
That said, I’m not near as confident as the KSR guys (see here and here) that the Cats will finish 12-4 in SEC play. They’re certainly capable (I’ve written as much). But we’re underdogs tonight against Vanderbilt and we’ll certainly be underdogs when we visit Tennessee. If we drop those two games, that leaves no margin for error. The home games against surging Arkansas and Florida are no gimmes, and neither is the trip to South Carolina. I won’t be surprised if we win all three of those games, but I won’t be surprised if we drop one either. Especially if you consider our depth — or lack there of — and the luck we’ve had with injuries this year. Not trying to be negative here; just pointing out that going 6-2 through the back-half of the SEC schedule is far from automatic. It goes without saying that a win tonight would be massive boost to the Cats’ tourney chances.
Onward and upward!