Kentucky Begins SEC Tournament as No. 1 Seed on Friday
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After winning its 49th Southeastern Conference regular-season title with two games to spare at home against Auburn last week, the Kentucky men’s basketball team will be the No. 1 seed in the annual SEC Tournament when action begins Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. The Wildcats, who earned the coveted double bye (automatically advancing to the quarterfinals), will play the winner of the Alabama-Tennessee on Friday in Nashville at 1 p.m. ET (noon CT).
Kentucky completed its 2019-20 regular season on Saturday with an 18-point second-half comeback win at Florida to finish 25-6 and 15-3 in the SEC. UK captured the outright crown, its sixth under head coach John Calipari in 11 seasons.
The Wildcats are seeking their seventh SEC Tournament championship under Calipari and 32nd overall. UK will need two wins to advance to their ninth SEC Tournament title game in the last 11 seasons. The Wildcats have earned a double bye in every season since it went into effect in 2013.
The tournament could be wide open after a highly competitive and tightly bunched regular season among the league’s teams. After placing 15 teams in the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, second most in the nation, the league has a handful of teams vying for at-large berths heading into the conference finale.
Tickets for the tournament are sold out.
UK’s quarterfinal SEC Tournament game will be televised by ESPN with Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes and Marty Smith on the call. If Kentucky wins Friday, it would play Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Sunday’s championship game is also scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. Both the semifinals and championship game will be televised on ESPN with Ravech, Dick Vitale and Smith calling the action.
Kentucky leads the league with 31 SEC Tournament titles, more than the rest of the league combined (28). The Wildcats are 134-26 all-time in the SEC Tournament, including 45-11 in the quarterfinals. Last season’s loss in the semifinals ended a run of four straight SEC Tournament championships and 13 straight wins in the conference tournament.
John Calipari’s teams at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky have been to 19 conference championship games in his 27-year career, winning a remarkable 15 of them. Calipari is 57-12 (.826) all-time in conference tournaments, including 23-4 (.852) at UK. Calipari ranks fourth in SEC Tournament wins.
The Wildcats are 12-5 all-time against the Volunteers in the SEC Tournament and 2-0 in quarterfinals matchups. The Volunteers and Wildcats met in the semifinals a season ago, with the Vols’ win halting a sixth consecutive championship game appearance by the Wildcats. The two teams split the regular-season series this season. The Wildcats won 78-64 at Tennessee but the Volunteers overcame a 17-point deficit on Tuesday for an 81-73 upset of the Wildcats in Rupp Arena.
If Kentucky faces Alabama, it would be the fifth straight season the Wildcats have faced the Crimson Tide in the SEC Tournament. UK has won all four of the previous matchups and is 17-2 vs. Alabama in the league tournament and 6-1 in the quarterfinals. UK won the lone regular-season matchup between the two squads by a 76-67 margin on Jan. 11 in Rupp Arena.
Also on Kentucky’s side of the bracket is No. 4 seed Mississippi State, No. 5 seed Florida, No. 12 seed Ole Miss and No. 13 seed Georgia.
The tournament returns to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for the fifth time in the last six seasons. UK has won the SEC Tournament when it’s played in Nashville four times under Calipari.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
#PickNick ??
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— Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) March 7, 2020
