Dick Vitale picks Kentucky to win 2024 NCAA Tournament

Long-time ESPN analyst Dick Vitale has made his picks for this year’s March Madness, and he has the Kentucky Wildcats winning the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky was selected as a No. 3 seed in the South Region, a region that features top seed Houston and No. 2 seed Marquette. It also includes ever-dangerous Duke as a No. 4 seed, so if Vitale’s prediction pans out it means the Wildcats will have done serious work in the Big Dance.

Vitale had a final four of UConn, Baylor, Kentucky and Tennessee.

That projection would put Kentucky in the Final Four against its conference cohort Tennessee, a meeting that produced some fireworks twice this year.

Tennessee took the first meeting at Rupp Arena, winning 103-92. That was part of a three-game home losing streak for Kentucky, the first ever at Rupp Arena and the first for the Wildcats since the 1966 season.

Kentucky would obviously bounce back in quality fashion, tying for second place in the league with 13 conference wins, one behind Tennessee. The Wildcats won at Thompson-Boling Arena in the regular season finale, claiming an 85-81 victory.

Houston, though, may be the biggest impediment to Kentucky in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars won the Big 12 with an absolutely stifling defense, perhaps one of the few that could legitimately trouble the Wildcats and their scorching hot offense. Houston and Kentucky would meet in the Elite Eight.

If Kentucky is going to reach its full potential and come to life in the NCAA Tournament, one thing that will have to happen is a significant improvement on the defensive end of the floor. While the Wildcats can score with anyone, they’ve also been incredibly lax defensively at times.

Even coach John Calipari knows it’s something that could trip his team up at any point, like in the SEC Tournament against Texas A&M.

“There were some times we had miscommunication,” Calipari said. “Not enough talking. A young team. They don’t talk enough. A guy can’t hear what they’re saying and gets clipped a little bit. We have shown that we can guard the best teams in the country. We have shown that you can score a hundred on us. We just got to lock in and know we’ve got to get better defensively.”

Kentucky will open NCAA Tournament play on Thursday against No. 14 seed Oakland at 7:10 p.m. ET on CBS.