Updated NCAA Tournament odds for Kentucky Basketball

The Kentucky Wildcats beat South Carolina on the road on Tuesday. While it was not exactly a performance that inspired confidence, it essentially locked them into the NCAA Tournament. However, the prior three-game slide really impacted their postseason seeding in the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

With a 9-6 conference record, Kentucky is no longer in contention to win the SEC regular season title. However, with three other teams tied with the same record and six teams being separated by just two games, Kentucky’s SEC Tournament seeding ranges from an 11 seed, playing on Wednesday, to a 4 seed with a double bye.

However, based on projections, the most likely scenario is that Kentucky will be the 8- or 9-seed, with the former having a single bye.

Believed to be title contenders before the season, Kentucky’s body of work is a far cry from that. Currently ranked 30th in KenPom, Bracket Matrix, which averages the seeding of all notable bracketology projections, has the Wildcats as a 7-seed.

According to FanDuel, Kentucky has the 22nd-best odds to reach the Final Four at +2700, tied with Wisconsin. Those odds are worse than rivals such as Louisville (+2000) and Tennessee (+1500), but better than BYU (+3500).

For a championship run, FanDuel gives the Wildcats the 22nd-best odds to win it all at +10000, tied with Texas Tech and Wisconsin. That is lower than 21 programs, including Vanderbilt (+8000) and Nebraska (+6000), the latter being the only power conference school to have never won a tournament game (0-8).

With three regular-season games remaining, Kentucky will take on the 25th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday, a great opportunity to improve its postseason seeding and create an easier path in March.