Cats still a No. 1 according to Lunardi

The man with a job that literally anyone is qualified for has released his latest bracket prognostications, and he got at least one thing right as our beloved Wildcats are one of the top seeds. Although it isn't explicitly noted, it appears that we are the fourth number one-seed, judging by the fact that he has us traveling the furthest of the group, all the way to the Salt Lake regional. Fellow undefeateds Kansas, Texas and Purdue make up the other teams on the top line, and we are paired with the top No. 2 seed, the Duke Blue Devils. Personally, I would be giddy if we got a shot at Duke this year, as they have exactly no one to match up with anyone on our team, and we would steamroll them. Unfortunately, since Duke won't get past the second round, we'll have to settle for making the Final Four without trouncing the Devils in the process. The good news is that a No. 1 seed is basically the Cats' to lose at this point. Kansas and Texas must play each other at least once and possibly twice in the Big 12, meaning that one of them has to lose and that probably moves the Cats up in the mind of the committee. However, the more important factor for us having a stranglehold on a 1-seed has to do with the fact that we might not be able to help but go undefeated through the regular season. I'm not saying we will. I'm saying we were capable of it before South Carolina lost their most versatile player, Florida lost whatever false mojo they had, Tennessee caught the idiot disease and Vanderbilt and Mississippi State turned out to be a step below what people expected. Now, knowing all those things, here we sit even further from the pack in the conference despite being yet to play our best basketball. Obviously the ultimate punishment for the geniuses at Tennessee has yet to be determined. It would be hard to imagine all the players returning to the team, and anything that weakens the Vols makes them even more unlikely to be the team that gives us our first loss. At Florida and at Mississippi State then seem the likeliest candidates, but are we really scared of a gym with 7,000 people and a team that needed a 75-foot heave to beat an awful NC State team? Or a team who has yet to (and probably won't ever) play at full strength? I think not. Personally, I'm superstitious and hate to talk about going undefeated, but the fact is that with every non-conference hurdle cleared, it must be discussed. So the good news is we can conceivably go unbeaten through the SEC season, barring injury, a shootout in Thompson-Boling (and yes, I mean with guns), or John Wall getting vertigo when we visit Vandy. The bad news? It wouldn't tell us a flippin' thing about our team because the conference is so terrible. What's all this mean? Likely nothing, but I needed a break from trash-talking little kids in Louisville jackets and it's something to ponder in a week with no games. And I'd really like to go undefeated and win a title to see if it forces Bobby Knight into Silver Acres Rest Home. Hunter Campbell lives in Louisville and writes for Kentucky Sports Radio, if that wasn't obvious already. He won the first installment of the "Who Wants to Be a Blogger" Contest and joined the site in December of 2008. He can be reached at [email protected]