Kentucky’s clunker vs. Arkansas is also a blemish on its NCAA Tournament resume

Coming into tonight, Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament resume was looking pretty good thanks to the win at Tennessee. The Cats were one of a handful of teams in the country with five-plus Quad 1 wins and zero Quad 2-4 losses. Not anymore.

Kentucky’s loss to Arkansas falls in Quad 2. If you want to get even more specific, it’s Quad 2B, so it’s not even in the upper half of the second tier. The Razorbacks were No. 59 in the NET Rankings going into Saturday. A road win over Kentucky — which had climbed to No. 10 in the NET — should give them a boost, but the Razorbacks still have seven Quad 1 games left on their schedule; something tells me they won’t make 13 threes again in many of those. If anything, we need to root for them a little bit so this loss doesn’t drop to Quad 3, which would be a real resume blunder.

As for the Cats, they will definitely fall in the NET tomorrow morning. In the current top ten, they are one of three teams with a loss outside Quad 1. Kansas’ loss to West Virginia was in Quad 2 and Iowa State’s loss to Kansas State today was in Quad 3. Speaking of Quad 3 games, Kentucky has one of those coming up in a week, against South Carolina at Rupp. First, a trip to Ole Miss, another Quad 1A showdown.

Kentucky has been able to offset its bad losses with really good wins so far this year. There are still opportunities to do that, but come Selection Sunday, a home loss to a struggling Arkansas team may cost them. They can’t afford any more missteps.

Kentucky’s Team Sheet

Quad 1: 7-5 (Games Remaining: 7)

Quad 2: 0-1 (Games Remaining: 2)

Quad 3: 2-0 (Games Remaining: 1)

Quad 4: 6-0 (Games Remaining: 0)

Kentucky’s Remaining Schedule by Quad

DateOpponentResult02/04/2025@ Ole MissQuad 1A02/08/2025 South CarolinaQuad 302/11/2025 TennesseeQuad 1A02/15/2025@ TexasQuad 1A02/19/2025 VanderbiltQuad 202/22/2025@ AlabamaQuad 1A02/26/2025@ OklahomaQuad 1B03/01/2025 AuburnQuad 1A03/04/2025 LSUQuad 203/08/2025@ MissouriQuad 1A

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