Kentucky Earns No. 3 Seed in SEC Tournament Following Arkansas Win

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Kentucky entered the final week of the regular season needing to win just one game in order to clinch a double-bye in the SEC Tournament.

The remaining games: Senior Night at home against Vanderbilt and on the road at Arkansas.

In true Kentucky fashion, the Wildcats ditched the easy way out, losing to the Commodores, instead opting for an astounding 88-73 win inside Bud Walton Arena, stunning the Razorbacks.

The result means that Kentucky will be the No. 3 seed in Nashville next week, advancing straight into the quarterfinals of the tournament. It won't play its first game until Friday, March 10. If it had fallen to the No. 5 seed — which was a possibility entering Saturday — UK would have had to play a day earlier on Thursday.

"I was thinking we're gonna have to leave a day early if something happened," Calipari told reporters with a smirk after the win.

The bracket has now been finalized, showcasing the Wildcats their path to what would be their seventh SEC Tournament title under Calipari:

On Wednesday, 11th-seeded Georgia will take on the No. 14 seed, LSU. The winner of that game will take on the sixth-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores — who defeated UK 68-66 earlier this week — on Thursday. The winner of that game will take on the Wildcats in the fourth and final quarterfinal matchup of the day inside Bridgestone Arena.

Kentucky defeated LSU 74-71 early in conference play on Jan. 3. It split a pair of games against UGA, beating the Bulldogs 85-71 in Rupp Arena on Jan. 17, then losing in Athens on Feb. 11, 75-68.

The Wildcats have already defeated Vanderbilt in Nashville once, winning 69-53 in Memorial Gymnasium on Jan. 24. The two teams also met in the quarterfinals of last season's SEC Tournament in Tampa, where UK won 77-71.

If chalk were to hold up, a date against No. 2 Texas A&M would await in the semifinals on Saturday. UK earned a gritty 76-67 win over the Aggies in Lexington on Jan. 21. If Kentucky were to play either top seed on the other side of the bracket in the championship, it would come against a team it has lost to this season.

No. 1 Alabama obliterated the Cats 78-52 on Jan. 7 in Tuscaloosa, while No. 4 Missouri opened SEC play with an 89-75 beatdown of the Cats in Columbia.

"What I'm saying from this point and through the weekend tournament, we have to understand how we got to play, how we got to fight, how we have to execute. If that means win games like today, great," Calipari said. "As long as we play, we fight, we execute, we're preparing for that next tournament. And that's the most important thing."

Kentucky leads the league with 31 SEC Tournament titles. The Wildcats are 135-28 all-time in the SEC Tournament, including 46-11 in the quarterfinals.

March Madness is upon us.

More on the win over the Razorbacks HERE.

Everything John Calipari said after the win HERE.

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