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Kentucky basketball hit with NCAA Tournament bubble warning after losing to Georgia
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- Kentucky basketball hit with NCAA Tournament bubble warning after losing to Georgia
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The Kentucky basketball program has historically been among the best in college basketball. However, this season the Wildcats have been inconsistent, and Mark Pope blasted their recent effort. They had high expectations entering this season and have not met them. The Wildcats are still projected to make the NCAA Tournament, but after a recent home loss to Georgia, they received a warning about their bubble status.
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With the NCAA Tournament approaching, ESPN is doing breakdowns of where teams sit on the Bubble. ESPN analytics writer Neil Paine did a Bubble Watch breakdown, and Kentucky went from being firmly seen as a lock to make the tournament, to down a notch to "should be in." The issue was that Kentucky lost two consecutive games, the last at home to Georgia, and that this was a step down after losing to Florida on the road.
Paine said on Kentucky, "The Wildcats had moved into 'lock' territory in the forecast models after defeating Tennessee on Feb. 7 for an eighth win in nine games. But then a pair of losses to Florida and, on Tuesday, Georgia at home followed, reducing their odds to 94% — still very strong, but enough to warrant further Bubble Watching.
"Their résumé (five Quadrant 1 wins, including three Quadrant 1A, enough to rank 27th nationally in our résumé average) is also still among the top six in the SEC, which projects to have nine or 10 tournament teams. So they're comfortably above the danger zone for now. The biggest concern might be that they have the nation's toughest remaining schedule per the BPI, with four of five games against Quadrant 1 foes (three against Quadrant 1A)."
Georgia beat Kentucky 86-78 but suffered a Quad Two loss. Mark Pope suffered his third home loss of the season as Kentucky's head coach. This marked Georgia's first win at Rupp Arena since 2009, Billy Gillispie's final season as head coach in Lexington. Overall, this is Georgia's third win over Kentucky in the last four games between the teams. That's the first time that has happened in the series in over 100 years. That inconsistency will hold Kentucky back from reaching its potential.
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