Bracketology Winners: NC State, Kentucky land resume-building wins

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 08: Myles Cale #22 and Myles Powell #13 of the Seton Hall Pirates reacts after Powell's basket putting Seton Hall ahead of the Kentucky Wildcats in the final seconds of regulation of a college basketball game at Madison Square Garden on December 8, 2018 in New York City. Seton Hall defeated Kentucky 84-83 in overtime. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – DECEMBER 22: Herro #14 of the Kentucky Wildcats reacts. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Kentucky Wildcats

Despite the fact that Kentucky has been ranked in the AP poll throughout the entire season so far, their NCAA Tournament was extremely week prior to this week. They had just one win over the KenPom top-100 and also suffered a loss to a team outside of the top-50. That all changed on Dec. 22, though, when head coach John Calipari’s team posted arguably their best performance of the year en route to a big-time neutral-site win over North Carolina.

And while one game cannot completely alter a team’s resume, this one will absolutely skyrocket the Wildcats up the early-season seed lines. The ‘Cats needed a resume-defining non-conference win and they certainly got that in a big way over UNC. Now only did UK’s offense look superb, especially in transition, but their defense looked vastly improved compared to when they allowed Duke to put up 118 points in the season-opener.

Head coach John Calipari has seemingly figured out his rotations and the players now have defined roles within the team. 3-point defense is obviously still a weakness of the team (allowing opponents to shoot 39.0% from distance) but this team is starting to realize its potential. Just how far will UK climb in regards to seeding by the end of the year?

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