Bracketology Winners: Purdue, Kentucky emerging as serious risers

Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky basketball is figuring it out on both ends of the floor. The ‘Cats, who were once heralded as a preseason top-10 team in the nation, have won seven consecutive games. Most recently, head coach John Calipari’s team took down back-to-back KenPom top-30 teams in the country in Mississippi State and Kansas at home this week. The team proved exactly why they belong in the current AP top-25 and why they are rising up the bracketology seed lines.

Heading into their matchup with Kansas, who they did wind up beating, the ‘Cats were averaging a seed of 2.61 on the bracket matrix (No. 3 in our recent field here). It is clear that UK is trending in an awesome direction as they have emerged as a legitimate national title contender. They might not be in the same category as the elite six (Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, Michigan State, Virginia, and Tennessee) yet but they could easily join that list of top contenders soon.

Kentucky’s offense has grown in recent weeks, especially thanks to offensive rebounding, but their defense is shutting down just about anyone. As long as they continue to improve in 3-point defense, the Wildcats will keep winning games on both ends of the floor. This is a team no one wants to see on their schedule right now.

That concludes this edition of the bracketology winners. Will these teams be able to build on these performances to continue growing their resumes? Hopefully so, but we have already seen so far this season how easy it is to drop into a couple of losses in a row.