Kentucky basketball 'on the bubble' in latest ESPN Bracketology

Kentucky's NCAA Tournament hopes are in danger after loss to Missouri.

Kentucky Wildcats guard Jaland Lowe (15) huddles with teammates during game against the Missouri Tigers. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Before Kentucky's brutal loss at home to Missouri on Wednesday, their NCAA Tournament hopes were already in question, as the Wildcats were just 2-5 against power conference opponents, with all of their wins coming against teams categorized as "Quad 4" in the NET rankings. ESPN's Joe Lunardi updated his tournament projections on Friday, and things are not pretty.

ESPN previously had Kentucky slotted as a 9 seed in their previous bracket projection, and now, the Wildcats are a 10 seed and officially "on the bubble," which means they are teetering with becoming one of the last four teams in the tournament and playing in the First Four games. Anything worse, and that would put you out of the NCAA Tournament for good. As for the matchup, Lunardi has Kentucky playing 7-seed Villanova in Greenville, SC.

To be in this position in January is quite concerning for the Kentucky Wildcats, as they have a tough road ahead with nine Quad 1 matchups still to come. But, you can either see those as opportunities or losses, and right now, Kentucky has no choice to see them as opportunities, although it's hard to see it that way as fans. The Wildcats have road games coming up against #11 Vandy, #15 Arkansas, #21 Tennessee, Auburn, and Florida. They play Tennessee, Vandy, and Florida all at home coming up, including #18 Georgia. The morale of the story here is that it's a tough road ahead for the Wildcats, and their backs are already literally against the wall (or the bubble in this case).

As far as Kentucky's resume, it is not good, and those quality wins against Indiana (at home) and St. John's (neutral) are diminishing in value by the day. If Kentucky wants to get things back on track, they can't lose anymore games they're supposed to win, like Saturday's qQuad 3 opportunity against Mississippi State. The Wildcats are #34 in the NET rankings, including 2-5 in Quad 1, 0-1 in Quad 2, and 7-0 in Quad 4. It seems like this season Kentucky has rarely looked good against quality competition, and it's hard, at least right now, to see things improvement. Not even a healthy team seems to fix things for the Wildcats.

An absolutely must-win game awaits on Saturday for the Wildcats in Rupp Arena. Kentucky can't afford a quad 3 loss anymore, especially since they entered SEC play already needing to turn things around.