Will Kentucky recover from their SEC injuries in time for the NCAA Tournament? This is what the past says.
Ansley Almonor, a forward for the Kentucky men’s basketball team, speaks to the media following the Wildcats’ 102-97 defeat in Rupp Arena on Saturday, January 18, 2025, to the Alabama Crimson Tide. On January 25, UK will play at Vanderbilt.
When it comes to the important things, will this extremely demanding SEC men’s basketball schedule pay off? After all, for Kentucky men’s basketball, this week’s absence of a midweek conference game couldn’t have come at a better moment. On Saturday, the Wildcats fell short against visiting Alabama 102-97.
A number of their players are recovering from injuries. They have faced four teams in the AP’s top 15 in their last five games. They ought to take a vacation. “Everyone has one, and we need to take advantage of it,” UK coach Mark Pope stated on Saturday. Getting our guys healthy and fresh will likely be the top priority, and we also want to make some significant progress.
But on Saturday of next week, they return to the shark tank. The first is a trip to Vanderbilt, who defeated Tennessee, ranked sixth, 76-75, on Saturday. On Tuesday, January 28, the Cats travel to Knoxville to play the Volunteers, who were the nation’s top team for five weeks. A visit to Ole Miss, ranked number 21, is next. On, and on, and on. The SEC is without a doubt the best basketball league of the year, if not the greatest in history.
Through Saturday’s play, six of the top 13 teams in the NCAA NET rankings were from the SEC—No. 1 Auburn, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Florida, No. 7 Alabama, No. 12, Kentucky, and No. 13 Ole Miss. The SEC claimed four of the top eight KenPom spots—No. 2 Auburn, No. 5 Florida, No. 6, Tennessee, and No. 8 Alabama. According to conventional opinion, Kentucky and other SEC teams are better prepared for the chaos of March when they play a challenging conference schedule. Is the opposite true, though? Is it more likely that SEC teams won’t have enough energy left to enjoy success by the time they make it to the postseason?
Otega Oweh, a guard for Kentucky, dunks against Alabama on Saturday at Rupp Arena. Hermens, Ryan C. Herald-Leader.com/rhermens I conducted some study. In nine of the previous ten years that an NCAA Tournament was conducted, the Big 12 was ranked as the greatest conference in the US by KenPom’s calculations. The 2020 competition was canceled due to COVID.
With the Big Ten ranked as KenPom’s top conference, the 2021 season was an anomaly. Five teams from the Big 12 made it to the Final Four during its nine-year dominance. In the 2016 national semifinals, Oklahoma was defeated. In the 2018 national semifinals, Kansas was defeated. In the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Virginia defeated Texas Tech as the national runner-up.
The 2021 national championship went to Baylor. The 2022 national championship went to Kansas. In Ken Pom’s comparisons, the SEC never came in higher than No. 4 throughout those ten years. Yet the league put six teams in the Final Four: Kentucky and Florida in 2014, Kentucky in 2015, South Carolina in 2017, Auburn in 2019, and Alabama in 2024.
