We are oh-so-close to tipping off the 2010-11 Kentucky basketball season Friday. The men’s season actually began Monday night with three top-25 teams in action (that does not include Tennessee’s exhibition loss to Division II Indianapolis).

With the season kicking off this week, I guess it’s never too early to look at March projections. Gary Parrish CBS Sports and Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com have preseason projections of what the NCAA Tournament field could look like at the end of the season.

Parrish has tabbed the Cats a No. 4 seed along with Illinois, Missouri and Temple and picks six teams from the Southeastern Conference to make the Big Dance.

Meanwhile, Palm predicts UK will be a No. 3 seed. Palm has the Cats playing No. 14 seed Fairfield in the first round. Kentucky is also Palm’s SEC champion and one of five SEC teams to make the field.