Kentucky Spills Into First Four Out in Bracketology Following South Carolina Loss

The Wildcats making the NCAA Tournament this March has never felt like less of a formality.

Kentucky basketball, oh Kentucky basketball. 

The Wildcats' downward trajectory is now moving at supersonic speed, thanks to a 71-68 loss to South Carolina. 

Kentucky was a 20-point favorite against the then-7-8 Gamecocks, who ranked 252nd nationally in KenPom's offensive efficiency metric and had previously lost games to the likes of George Washington and East Carolina. 

SC's Meechie Johnson dropped 26 points on 9-16 shooting, including six 3-pointers — most all of which came at crucial times. Star freshman GG Jackson added 16 points of his own, snapping Kentucky's 28-game home winning-streak and earning the Gamecocks just their third-ever win in Lexington. 

The game was supposed to be a rebound opportunity for the Cats, who were crushed in Tuscaloosa by Alabama just three days prior. Instead, it created tunnel vision for many, with the only thing in sight being a breakup between coach John Calipari and Big Blue Nation. 

As a fan inside Rupp Arena was escorted out for holding up a "please go to Texas" sign, Kentucky was promptly escorted out of Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology update. The Cats entered Tuesday night as one of Lunardi's final four teams to receive a bye into the Round of 64. 

After the astounding defeat? UK has been dropped to the No. 72 team overall — which if you can do the math on a 68-team field in the NCAA Tournament — means that the Cats are on the outside looking in, rounding out Lunardi's first four out.:

pic.twitter.com/OtQgjm4bSg

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 11, 2023

Kentucky opened the season as the No. 4 team in the preseason AP Poll, as well as a top team in the NET Rankings and KenPom. After Tuesday night's debacle, UK now checks in at No. 62 in the NET and No. 44 in KenPom, having yet to defeat an opponent that would categorize as a 'Quadrant 1' team while also failing to win a true road game thus far. 

There is some serious work to be done if Kentucky is to regain its status and earn a bid as a tournament team, because there's no amount of merit or blue-bloodness that can overshadow the abysmal season that currently hangs over the head of Calipari and the Bluegrass. 

Kentucky will now travel to Knoxville to take on the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers. A surprising win over the Vols would fall into that "marquee" category — without doubt — but a rowdy Thompson-Boling Arena and stout defense will set another horrifying stage for the Cats, one that will resemble similar stages that have witnessed them fall flat on their face over the first half of the regular season. 

Lexington, meet the bubble. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, unless it decides to leave the Wildcats in the dust. 

More on the South Carolina defeat HERE.

More on Cason Wallace's injury HERE.

More on Oscar Tshiebwe's postgame words HERE. 

Everything John Calipari said after the loss HERE.

WATCH: Tshiebwe, Fredrick and Collins post-SC loss

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