Kentucky WBB earns 4-seed in NCAA Tournament, will host first 2 rounds in Memorial Coliseum

Kentucky women’s basketball is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2021-22 season, and not only are the Cats going dancing, but they’ll get to tango in Historic Memorial Coliseum.

The Wildcats earned a 4-seed in Regional 4 (Spokane) and will face 13-seed Liberty in the first round on Friday, March 21 (noon ET on ESPN). As a top 4-seed, UK will host the first two rounds in Lexington. A win over Fairfield would pit the ‘Cats against the winner of 5-seed Kansas State and 12-seed Fairfield on Sunday.

In the latest ESPN Bracketology leading into Selection Sunday (the last several updates, actually), Kentucky had been tabbed as a 3-seed, fluctuating between the Birmingham and Spokane regions. Of course, even with that fluctuation, Kenny Brooks‘ squad has firmly been in position to host and that was proven true Sunday night. Charlie Creme himself told KSR that he was “pretty confident” about the Cats getting a 3-seed, so it was only a matter of time before we officially figured out what the Selection Committee had in store.

If Kentucky makes it to the Sweet 16/Elite Eight, they’ll head over to Spokane, WA to compete for a spot in the Final Four.

Kentucky is 22-7 on the year, with both of their last two games coming as losses. First was at South Carolina to end the regular season, then against Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament. Still, the Cats amassed five Quad 1 wins on the year, and they sit at 9-6 against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents.

It also helps that Kentucky went 14-2 at home this season, with the two losses coming to two Top 10 programs in Texas and LSU. In neutral site games, they went 2-1 after beating Arizona State and Illinois in the Music City Classic, then falling to the Sooners in Greenville.

Kenny Brooks has already led one program to its first-ever Final Four — time to do it again, this time at Kentucky.