The field of the 2011 NCAA Tournament was just announced on CBS. The Kentucky Wildcats, winners of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, earned their 51st berth in the Big Dance, most of any school in the nation. We’ll be providing coverage all week leading up to the Wildcats’ first game, but here a few notes on what UK will face.- UK received a four seed the East Region and awaits a second-round matchup (with the addition of the “First Four,” what used to be called the first round is now called the second)  against the Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers. Princeton advanced to the tournament by winning a playoff game against Harvard, a game they won in dramatic fashion with a Doug Davis buzzer beater. The Wildcats’ first-round game will be played in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday.UK-Princeton will follow a 12:15 p.m. matchup between West Virginia and Clemson/UAB. Tip-off will be at approximately 2:45 p.m. on CBS (all times eastern).- UK was last seeded fourth in 2002, when it won a pair of games against Valparaiso and Tulsa behind Tayshaun Prince before falling to Maryland in the Sweet 16.- A potentially fascinating round of 32 matchup looms for UK. With a first-game win, the Wildcats would move on to face the winner of a game between fifth-seeded West Virginia and play-in opponents UAB and Clemson. A game between the Wildcats and Mountaineers would be a rematch of West Virginia’s upset of UK in last year’s Elite Eight.- UK is one of five SEC teams — Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Georgia — to make the NCAA Tournament. The conference’s two bubble teams heading into Selection Sunday were Alabama and Georgia. Georgia made the field as a 10 seed in spite of being beaten by Alabama twice in the last week of the season.- Kentucky’s first two tournament games will be played in the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. There were closer potential early round sites for the Cats, but being designated a four seed set the Cats lower in the pecking order.- UK seed’s came as a surprise to many, including me. The Wildcats looked to secure at least a three seed by defeating Florida in the SEC finals, but instead received a four. Even more perplexing is the fact that the Gators were seeded two lines above UK as a No. 2 seed in the Southeast Region. The Selection Committee has minimized the impact of Sunday championship games, which may help explain this. Ironically, UK and Florida will both play second- and third-round games in Tampa.- The consensus among most onlookers is that UK’s East Region, along with the Southwest Region, is the most difficult. Kentucky would have to face overall top seed Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen if both teams advance that far. Additionally, North Carolina is the two seed in the region as one of the hottest teams in the country, and Big East power Syracuse is the three seed. The region holds three teams ranked in the top 10 of the RPI.- As sleepers in the East, do not forget about sixth- and seventh-seeded Xavier and Washington.- We’ll have more coverage of this all week as we build up to UK’s first NCAA game on Thursday. Also, Eric Lindsey will have more coverage of the Wildcats’ SEC championship victory over Florida much later tonight. He’s currently driving back from Atlanta so it could be a while.