Kentucky earns No. 9 seed in SEC Tournament, will play LSU on Wednesday

Kentucky could have earned a No. 4 seed and the double-bye with the Senior Day win vs. No. 5 Florida. With a loss, the Wildcats dropped all the way down to a guaranteed Wednesday start — not even a single bye on the table — forced to sit back and let their fate be decided in the late-night battle between Texas and Oklahoma.

Now, we know exactly when Mark Pope will begin his second Nashville run as the head coach, and Big Blue Nation isn’t gonna like it. In fact, if you planned on making the trip down on Wednesday, you may want to move your hotel reservation to Tuesday night, because the Cats will get things rolling bright and early to open the event. With the Sooners’ road win over the Longhorns, Kentucky has locked up the No. 9 seed and will start at 12:30 PM ET on Wednesday.

UK will take on No. 16 seed LSU in the first round. With a win, the Wildcats would then take on No. 8 seed Missouri at 12:30 PM ET on Thursday — a rematch opportunity after losing to the Tigers at home 73-68 back on January 7. Should they advance, it’d be a third battle against No. 1 seed Florida for a spot in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Pull off that upset, somehow, and No. 4 seed Vanderbilt could be waiting for them on Saturday, then either No. 2 seed Arkansas or No. 3 seed Alabama on Sunday.

Do you believe in miracles? It’s gonna take five wins in Nashville to bring a championship trophy back home to Lexington — four as a worse seed.

For those keeping track at home, Kentucky has never played on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament with the league at 16 teams. In fact, the Wildcats have only started this early one other time in history, earning a No. 6 seed in the 10-team field back in 1979 when the event was held in Birmingham, Alabama, coming back after a 27-year hiatus dating back to 1952. The good news? UK made a run to the championship game on Saturday, where it lost to No. 2 seed Tennessee in overtime.

There’s a first time for everything, I guess.