New Bracketology has Kentucky WBB comfortably in the NCAA Tournament

Year two of the Kenny Brooks era is almost here. Kentucky women’s basketball officially begins the 2025-26 regular season on Nov. 3 against Morehead State. What should we expect out of the Wildcats as Brooks looks to replace multi-time All-American point guard Georgia Amoore?

According to ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme, we should expect a team that will compete in the SEC and comfortably make the NCAA Tournament field. His latest Bracketology update from Wednesday morning has Kentucky going to Raleigh, NC, as a 7-seed with a first-round matchup against 10-seed Villanova. The winner would take on the winner of 2-seed NC State and 15-seed Army in the Round of 32.

Creme projects Kentucky will be one of nine SEC teams making the 68-team bracket. UK is scheduled to face 12 projected NCAA Tournament teams this season.

Kentucky finished as a 4-seed in the tournament last season, which allowed the Wildcats to host the first two rounds in Lexington. After a one-point win over Liberty in the opening round, UK came up short in overtime to Kansas State. Amoore has since gone off to the WNBA, but Brooks replaced her with Georgia Tech transfer Tonie Morgan and is expected to have a deeper squad in 2025-26 compared to 2024-25.

Having the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year, Clara Strack, along with another talented post player in Teonni Key, back in the fold should help prevent a significant dropoff. If anything, it feels like UK is being a tad underrated going into this season. ESPN‘s preseason Top 25 rankings from April have the ‘Cats right outside of the poll. Losing Amoore is no small note, but Kentucky has reloaded with plenty of talent. Brooks’ frontcourt rotation will be among the most talented in the country, while the outside shooting should be more spread out.

We’ll get our first looks at this season’s Kentucky WBB team over the next couple of weeks with Big Blue Madness (Oct. 11) and the Blue-White Game (Oct. 17).