Kentucky is back to possibly playing on Wednesday in SEC Tournament

Kentucky basketball is now projected to play on the opening day of the SEC Tournament after loss to Texas A&M.

Mar 3, 2026; College Station, Texas, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh (00) looks on during the second half against the Texas A&M Aggies at Reed Arena. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

After laying an egg on the road against Texas A&M, the Kentucky Wildcats are now really fighting for their lives trying to avoid playing on opening day in the SEC Tournament coming up next week. Kentucky entered the game with a good possibility of securing a double-bye, but those chances have dwindled drastically after Tuesday's loss.

Now with one game remaining in the regular season, Kentucky is in a brutal spot in the standings at the worst possible time with the Florida Gators coming into town, who easily won the conference in the regular season. As things stand right now, Kentucky is 8th in the SEC, which would put them at just the right spot to avoid the dreaded Wednesday game. But, things are about to get real tricky.

Right now, Kentucky is involved in a four-way tie for fifth place in the conference, but thanks to tie-breakers, they are pushed to the back of that grouping. In the pool of those few teams that are tied, the Wildcats hold a 1-3 record, with the only win coming at home against Vandy. That bad record pushes them back and with one game left, they are in danger of sliding even more. According to KenPom's record projections, the Wildcats would finish 10-8 and be in a five-way with Vandy, Texas, Georgia and Missouri.

If that holds, the Wildcats would be the 10 seed in the SEC Tournament, playing on Wednesday going up against the 15 seed, which based off of projections would be LSU. All in all, Kentucky is almost certainly going to finish anywhere from 8-10 assuming that they are not able to pull off the big upset over Florida on Saturday. If the Wildcats can stay as the 8 seed, they would avoid that extra game, so to speak, and having to play on Wednesday. Also, those projections would mean Georgia beats Mississippi State and Texas gets a win over Oklahoma to jump to 10-8.

Now, if Kentucky can somehow pull off the big win, the double-bye is back in the picture, but would require a Vandy win over Tennessee as well on Saturday. One thing is for certain, though, a win over Florida would pull them right out of the dreaded territory of playing on Wednesday of the tournament.

Can Kentucky make some magic happen? They need to do something because the tie-breakers are certainly not in their favor. We've got chaos heading into the final game of the season.