The experts had it pegged and the Wildcats had an idea it might be happening.They still couldn’t help but react with cheers when it became official that Kentucky would head to Louisville to open the NCAA Tournament with Kansas and Kent State joining the two rivals.”I think we all kind of expected it,” Austin Cousino said. “It’ll be a tough one. I know Kansas has got a good team and Kent State has won the MAC I don’t know how many years in a row. Louisville’s a good club, impressive resume. But it’ll be fun. It’ll be a good weekend of baseball.”The Cats (35-23) earned their eighth all-time NCAA bid on Monday when they were tabbed the No. 2 seed in the Louisville Regional. UK’s tournament run will begin on Friday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPNU against the third-seeded Jayhawks.The Louisville Regional is rife with juicy plotlines. Beyond a potential in-state showdown on Saturday, familiar foe Kent State will also play at Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend. Two years ago, the Cats and Golden Flashes played an unforgettable 21-inning game in both team’s NCAA opener.”It kind of seems like it always sets up like that,” Cousino said of the intrigue.UK enters the tournament riding a wave of momentum. The Cats took two of three games in each of their final two weekend series before winning three games in three days over ranked opponents to advance to the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. They would fall to No. 2 national seed Florida there, but UK had already established itself as a threat.”Our last conference weekend against Georgia we played really well and we played really well in the conference tournament,” A.J. Reed said. “So we’re ready to go out there and play hard and we feel like we can play with anybody in the country and we feel like we’re one of those teams that nobody wants to play in the regionals.”Solidifying UK’s status as a feared tournament team are Chandler Shepherd and Kyle Cody. The two pitchers battled injury this season, but returned to form at the SEC Tournament.”I’m not sure you could say there’s anything more important,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “Obviously we’re playing well. That’s good, but those two guys are important. They have to pitch, and they have to pitch well.”As further evidence of the Cats’ ability to make noise in the NCAA Tournament, UK boasts a 4-3 record against teams that received top eight national seeds, 11 wins over top-25 RPI teams and a two-game sweep of Louisville all while playing in the SEC, a league that set a record with 10 teams receiving tourney bids.A potential rematch of UK and U of L, clearly, jumps off the page. The Cats don’t dispute that.”We always look forward to playing Louisville in the regular season and now to get to play them in the postseason is going to be a lot of fun and we’re going to be ready for it and play a really good game,” Reed said.For that game to happen, both teams have to take care of business. And as UK vies for its first Super Regional appearance ever, Henderson knows the importance of winning on Friday.”I can guarantee you that we will not be looking past Kansas, yeah. Our last three regionals we won six games of the three, and we’re 0-3 in the first game,” he said. “So I’m well aware of where we are. … We need to worry about Kansas and do everything that we can to play well on Friday.”Whether that means Reed — the presumptive national player of the year — will start against Kansas remains to be seen.”To be honest I don’t know anything about Kansas offensively,” Henderson said. “So, I think right now you’d anticipate that would be the way we would go: A.J. in the first game. But I’ll sit down and I’ll look at it, to be honest, and I’ll just see what makes sense. I’ll make a good decision.”On paper, the Jayhawks are solid. Kansas has a team batting average of .284 and scores 5.6 runs per game. On the mound, Kansas has an earned-run average of 3.51 playing in the tough Big 12.”They’re going to be a solid team,” Reed said. “They’re in the tournament for a reason so you can’t take that for (granted) and, you know, we gotta come out there and play well against them and put up runs and throw well and play good defense.”No matter they opponent, the Cats feel good about their chances of doing just that.”I think our offense is hitting its stride,” Henderson said. “I think we pitched very well in the SEC Tournament. Defense is good and we seemed to get a lot of key hits over the course of the tourney. When you go to Hoover and win games like that, it gives you the confidence to pretty much go anywhere and know you’re good enough to win. So I think right now it’s get a couple days of practice in and stay hot.”