Hahahahaha do you remember that month-long stretch in January when the Wildcats dropped eight out of nine games including four to unranked opponents? No? Me either.After a game-winning 3-point shot to beat the No. 1 overall seed South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament final, Kentucky women’s basketball is officially the hottest NCAA team in the country with an automatic bid to a tournament we weren’t even confident they’d make!Soooooo what does this mean for your brackets?
The SEC tournament run was an NCAA Tourney pre-test and Kentucky passed
Kentucky was the No. 7 seed in its own conference tournament and pulled off three consecutive upsets in as many days to earn a bid. That’s nuts!! They beat the No. 6 team in the country, LSU, by 15 points in the quarterfinals, No. 18 Tennessee by nine points in the semis, and then No. 1 South Carolina by two points.
How in the world is Kentucky doing this all of a sudden?
Sometimes teams click at the right time, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. The Wildcats were ranked No. 13 in preseason, largely because of the talents of their star player, Rhyne Howard, who is in consideration as the No. 1 overall WNBA Draft pick in April. And now she’s really, really in her bag.Howard’s last three games:
32 points on 11-of-18 shooting with three rebounds, three assists & two blocks vs. the Tigers
24 points on 7-of-12 shooting with nine rebounds & seven assists vs. the Vols
18 points on 5-of-14 shooting with four rebounds, two assists, two steals & two blocks vs. the Gamecocks
Dre’una Edwards’ rise has also been crucial. The redshirt junior has nearly doubled her scoring average from last season with 16.9 points on 52.7 percent shooting on the season and 8.2 rebounds. Kentucky’s big two are ELITE.
What are Kentucky’s odds to win the whole tourney?
+8000! That means a $100 winning bet would earn $8000(Odds derived from FanDuel)
Tip of the day
The Wildcats have just shown us that not only are they capable of beating any team in the country, they can do it when the stakes are at their highest and on back-to-back gamedays. This team is tournament-ready and a worthy longshot play.
