The Tournament Seeding Kentucky Gets Shouldn't Really Matter

As the latest Bracketology from ESPN's Joe Lunardi dropped earlier this week, so did my thoughts on why the seeding Kentucky ultimately gets stuck with in the tourney is nearly irrelevant. The Midwest bracket of Lunardi's latest features six teams in the AP polls in Wichita State, Duke, Michigan State, Louisville, Kentucky and Texas. Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and UConn also found their way into the bracket and could be good for an upset or two.   But why does this matter for Kentucky considering there NCAA Tournament is still weeks away? It's highly unlikely that Kentucky will be in the same position come March, but considering the one Joe Lunardi has them in at this point should provide optimism considering Kentucky's ability to compete in arguably the toughest bracket this week. That said, with the talent Cal has assembled this year, Kentucky can compete and win against anybody making their seeding in the tournament a non-factor.   It's clear the talent is there for the Cats. If Kentucky were to find themselves in a situation like this, competing with premier teams back to back should be no problem. Lets use this bracket as an example as how Kentucky could knock off some college basketball's most prominent teams.   Texas This is the type of matchup Kentucky could easily win or easily lose, but at the end of the day, the Cats are just better. This would be tournament time so Kentucky would have to show up to play, especially against a team like Texas who always competes. Across the board, the Cats have the size to match Texas and more depth featuring higher quality talent and would be too much for a Texas team with just as much youth.   Louisville The Cats beat them once and have done nothing but get better, which leads me to believe they would beat Louisville again. But to analyze it a little bit, we have too much size down low for Louisville and the emergence of Dakari Johnson adds fuel to the fire. Andrew Harrison should also be able to do a much better job on Russ Smith than he did the first time. Overall, UK is just a more talented team.   Michigan State At the time when Kentucky's hopes of a 40-0 season were diminished, Cal's squad had only two games of experience as a unit. Despite all the youth and inexperience that was more than apparent in the game, Kentucky lost by only four points to the nations 2nd ranked team littered with veterans. With much more experience now that they are sophomores, according to Coach Cal, the mistakes and inability to capitalize in certain situations shouldn't be a problem for the Cats this time around.   Duke Where Duke gets hurt is their size down low and that's something Kentucky has more than enough of with Cauley-Stein, Johnson, Randle and Poythress. The shooting ability of the guards for Duke would pose some issues but they also live and die by the three which doesn't always call for stellar defense. I would take my chances on this game that Kentucky would be too physical and too big for Duke resulting in the Cats getting the victory.   Wichita State It's not a shocker (pun intended) that Wichita State has positioned themselves for 1-seed in this years tourney. After losing by four in the Final Four last season to the eventual National Champion Louisville Cardinals, the Shockers are now 26-0 and one of the only two undefeated teams left in college basketball. They must be a good team to be undefeated after 26 games although that doesn't tell the whole story. Wichita State has yet to play a ranked team and if they matched up against Kentucky, the talent they pose would just not be able to last against the Cats down the stretch.   I know Kentucky finding themselves in this exact bracket is virtually impossible, but my point is they can compete with and beat any team in the country. This bracket has a nice mix of teams that have youth, teams that compete non-stop, veteran teams, National Champions and teams that love the upset. Kentucky has the talent and now, the chemistry and experience as a team to beat any one of these teams. Teams like Duke, Louisville and Michigan State always find themselves amidst the championship conversations and can knock any of them off on any given night. That said, there is much reason to be optimistic about this team come tournament time. The seeding doesn't matter for a team like Kentucky. We can win.     @CodyDanielKSR