What is Kentucky women’s basketball playing for in the SEC Tournament?
As the dust settles on the 2024-25 regular season and conference tournaments begin, any opportunity to further pad one’s résumé is a welcome one — especially for those vying for a top-16 overall seed in the forthcoming NCAA Tournament.
In his first season in Lexington, Kenny Brooks has not only positioned Kentucky (22-6, 11-5 SEC) to return to the big dance for the first time since 2022, but also given UK a real shot to play host when opening weekend rolls around. The Wildcats are currently recognized as No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 19 in the nation per the NCAA NET rankings, an official tool used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine at-large bids and seeding.
On Friday, Kentucky will suit up for the SEC Tournament quarterfinals opposite the winner of Thursday’s second-round matchup between Georgia and Oklahoma. And, despite the fact that Kentucky was named a top-16 overall seed by the Selection Committee in each of its early reveals in February — checking in as a four seed in both — does the Wildcats’ fourth-place finish in a difficult Southeastern Conference solidify their hosting privileges? Brooks doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think it’s a given,” Brooks said. “Anything can happen. And we haven’t positioned ourselves to solidify to host already. We feel like there’s probably still some things that have to happen. That’s the way we’re looking at it, anyway, but honestly, I haven’t even really looked at it, or the formula or what has to happen in order for us to host. It’s just really living in the moment. I’ll let other people take care of that.”
“Anything can happen” may seem obvious, but the sentiment rang especially true Sunday, the final regular-season game for several Division I conferences; programs long considered a lock for a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament found themselves on the wrong side of upsets — from LSU, a projected two-seed, to Tennessee, a projected three-seed, to North Carolina, a predicted three-seed, dropping their second consecutive contests of the week, this time to unranked opponents at home. Predicted four-seed Ohio State fell to Maryland. Notre Dame was pegged to be on the top line come Selection Sunday, but may drop in the wake of losing two out of its final three regular-season matchups.
“I learned a long time ago,” Brooks said. “Control what you can control. Because if you sit around, you sit and you’re thinking about all the things that need to happen, that can happen, in order for it to finish, it’s usually just wasted time.”
ESPN’s Charlie Creme listed the Wildcats as a No. 3 seed in Monday’s edition of Bracketology, and also included nine other SEC teams — No. 1 overall seed Texas, one-seed South Carolina, second-seeded LSU, third-seeded Oklahoma, fourth-seeded Ole Miss and Alabama, fifth-seeded Tennessee, eighth-seeded Vanderbilt and ninth-seeded Mississippi State.
Bracketology is a projection, and not necessarily a perfect prediction when all is said and done. And, as Brooks mentioned, the Wildcats could certainly benefit from additional big wins. Though the NET is just one metric used by the Selection Committee to determine the NCAA Tournament field, it can provide us some insight in terms of Kentucky’s fate.
The NCAA Media Center published ”How do NET rankings work in NCAA tournament selection?” on Monday. In the write-up, Corbin McGuire explained that the committee uses “extensive season-long evaluation of teams through watching games, conference monitoring calls, National Association of Basketball Coaches/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association regional advisory rankings, complete box scores and results,” and other metrics when determining the field.
When it comes to women’s basketball selection criteria, specifically, the committee will look at the following:
▪ Bad losses
▪ Common opponents
▪ Competitiveness in losses
▪ Early performance versus late performance
▪ Head-to-head
▪ NET ranking
▪ Observable component
▪ Overall record
▪ Regional rankings
▪ Significant wins
▪ Strength of schedule
According to this season’s NCAA women’s college basketball guidelines, the NET rank quadrant ranges are Quad 1 (home 1-25, neutral 1-35 and away 1-45); Quad 2 (home 26-55, neutral 36-65 and away 46-80); Quad 3 (home 56-90, neutral 66-105 and away 81-130) and Quad 4 (home 91-plus, neutral 106-plus and away 131-plus).
By those parameters, Kentucky holds a 5-5 record against Quad 1 opponents, a 4-0 record against Quad 2 teams and a 9-0 record against Quad 4 challengers. Ideally, a team’s only losses qualify as Quadrant 1. Unfortunately, for the Wildcats, their Jan. 23 loss at Texas A&M currently rates as a Quad 3 loss, and almost certainly counts as a “bad loss,” even though the contest was played ahead of Texas A&M leading scorer Aicha Coulibaly’s season-ending injury. Against the Wildcats, Coulibaly recorded a game-high 21 points, plus seven rebounds, three assists and one block, and was instrumental in the Aggies’ upset.
According to Brooks, the Wildcats have learned the importance of playing to their potential, and to the level of the coaching staff’s expectations. It’s that lesson that led to the team hanging around with LSU and South Carolina, both of which Kentucky had opportunities to upset in the fourth quarter.
“I think they learned that if they do the things that they’re capable of,” Brooks said. “What we expect of them, they’re a really good basketball team. I think that they learned that if they do those things, they can play with anyone. When you go down the stretch and you have a chance with under two minutes to go, and you have a chance to take the lead on LSU, you’re a good basketball team. If you’re under five minutes to go, and it’s a one-point game at South Carolina, you’re a good basketball team. And we didn’t finish them the way we could or should have, but we learned from those experiences.”
Though Creme predicts that the Big Ten (13 bids), not the SEC (10), will lead Division I conferences with the most NCAA Tournament berths, Kentucky has now faced four programs ranked within the AP top 10 — defeating Oklahoma in Norman, and losing to Texas and LSU at home and South Carolina on the road — and three others ranked within the AP top 20 — losing to North Carolina in Chapel Hill in early December and beating Tennessee and Alabama in Lexington.
As always, Brooks and his team are planning to “take it one game at a time.” In his mind, that isolated focus gives Kentucky “a chance to win,” and he noted that it’s also helpful that the Wildcats have faced each of these SEC teams before. Regardless of whether they’ll face Georgia or Oklahoma on Friday, Kentucky has an understanding of what it might take to win and advance to Saturday’s semifinals. Brooks even thinks there’s a chance to improve UK’s projected seeding, should the team win it all.
“And the more we win, the better our seeding is going to be,” Brooks said. “So yes, you want to win an SEC championship, but you also want to position yourself the best you can for the NCAA Tournament. Someone texted me and they said, ‘Do you think you can get a 2-seed?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, I never really thought about it,’ but I guess if you win the SEC Tournament, you probably will get a 2-seed. And so, we feel like we have a chance. So we’re definitely going down there to put our best foot forward, and if we do that, we think we give ourselves a chance to win. But the main thing is, you want to get better, and you want to come out unscathed so you can be ready.”
Friday
No. 12 Kentucky vs. No. 10 Oklahoma
What: SEC Tournament quarterfinal
When: 2:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Kentucky 22-6, Oklahoma 24-6
Series: Kentucky leads 4-1
Last meeting: Kentucky won 95-86 on Feb. 2, 2025, at Norman, Okla.
SEC Tournament scores, schedule
At Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. All times approximate and Eastern:
WEDNESDAY
Game 1: No. 9 seed Tennessee 77, No. 16 seed Texas A&M 37
Game 2: No. 12 Georgia 79, No. 13 Arkansas 74
Game 3: No. 10 Mississippi State 75, No. 15 Missouri 55
Game 4: No. 11 Florida 60, No. 14 Auburn 50
THURSDAY
Game 5: No. 8 Vanderbilt 84, No. 9 Tennessee 76
Game 6: No. 5 Oklahoma 70, No. 12 Georgia 52
Game 7: No. 7 Ole Miss 85, No. 10 Mississippi State 73
Game 8: No. 11 Florida 63, No. 6 Alabama 61
FRIDAY
Game 9: No. 1 South Carolina 84, No. 8 Vanderbilt 63
Game 10: No. 5 Oklahoma 69, No. 4 Kentucky 65
Game 11: No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 Ole Miss, 6 p.m. (SEC)
Game 12: No. 3 LSU vs. No. 11 Florida, 8:30 p.m. (SEC)
SATURDAY
Game 13: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 5 Oklahoma, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 14: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
SUNDAY
Championship game: Game 13 winner vs. Game 14 winner, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 5:40 AM with the headline "What is Kentucky women’s basketball playing for in the SEC Tournament?."
