Iowa St.

[BIG BLUE GURU]

Really really didnt want to see them in our bracket. Would have rather faced UCONN

[Tomcats1990]

Kentucky has the capability to beat anyone if they are engaged and making shots, if not they can lose to anyone and Santa Clara will beat them. Kentucky opens on DraftKings as a 2.5 point favorite.

[Pobilly]

We now know the location (St Louis), we know the players at the Table (Kentucky / Santa Claus, sorry Clara / Iowa St / Tennessee State.
Cards are dealt, time to play your hands.

Kentucky could go bust day 1 or could make it to the next set of players.
I expect KY vs Santa Clara to be a hard fought game.
Iowa State will be close for about 1/2 or a half and they should cruise on to Sunday Matchup.
Kentucky vs Iowa State is the favorites but it easily could be Iowa State vs SC.

Need our guys focused like the first part of the SEC tourney. Hope we do not see any injuries and play to our strengths and are hitting our shots consistently.

[bucsrule8872]

St. Louis means we should have a good crowd.

Santa Clara has to travel. This will be a road game for them and a home game for us.

This is much better than being shipped west and playing Santa Clara in San Diego or Portland for the first game.

But…

Iowa St. travels and they are really close to St. Louis as well (6 hours from Ames, 5 hours from Lex).

We get passed Santa Clara, then we probably have A true neutral site game against Iowa St.

All in all, the location is ideal, despite the opponent.

Win this week and maybe have a puncher’s chance in Chi-town.

[Trueblujr]

Can’t really complain a whole lot about the bracket other than it’s loaded with SEC teams. We knew a mid range seed was going to have us facing stiff competition out of the gate I’m just glad we wound up at 7 instead of in an 8-9 slot having to face a one seed in round two.

[South jones]

As a coach or player I'm totally focused on Santa Clara and I don't even know who we potentially play next game. We'll at least I'd try

[GOCAT15]

As a coach or player I'm totally focused on Santa Clara and I don't even know who we potentially play next game. We'll at least I'd try

Exactly, everything I have read about Santa Clara is they rely heavily on shooting a lot of three's and unless you've been under a rock, our close out defense on three point shooters hasn't been exemplary this year.

Yes, the staff has to prepare for both teams with the quick turnaround to the second game, but If the staff is even mentioning Iowa State to any of our players that is a mistake, they better lock in to even worry about that.

[bthaunert]

St. Louis means we should have a good crowd.

Santa Clara has to travel. This will be a road game for them and a home game for us.

This is much better than being shipped west and playing Santa Clara in San Diego or Portland for the first game.

But…

Iowa St. travels and they are really close to St. Louis as well (6 hours from Ames, 5 hours from Lex).

We get passed Santa Clara, then we probably have A true neutral site game against Iowa St.

All in all, the location is ideal, despite the opponent.

Win this week and maybe have a puncher’s chance in Chi-town.

I don't think it will be a neutral site game. You're potentially looking at a Mizzou-Purdue, Kentucky-Iowa State double header. While the location is ideal, there will be a lot of fans from those other 3 schools, most likely all rooting against Kentucly.