Kentucky basketball adds even more quad-1 games to their season
Up to this point, Kentucky’s basketball season has been full of mostly either quad one, three, or four games. As the season progresses and teams move up and down the NET rankings, the games may change up or down in the quad rankings, and quads can change depending on whether the game is played at home, neutral, or away. We’ve seen some teams like Wright State move up from a quad-four game to a quad-three game because of how they’ve already done in this early season. They are hovering on the edge currently, though, and it could move back down again.
Here’s a breakdown of Kentucky’s games so far:
Quad 1 – Duke, Clemson, Gonzaga, Ohio State
Quad 2 – Louisville
Quad 3 – Wright State, Lipscomb, Western Kentucky
Quad 4 – Bucknell, Jackson State, Georgia State, Colgate
Record in these games:
Quad 1: 2-2
Quad 2: 1-0
Quad 3: 3-0
Quad 4: 4-0
The SEC has gotten dramatically harder in the non-conference play. Now, more quad-one games are added to Kentucky’s schedule simply because of how challenging the conference is. This isn’t a bad thing unless you lose them all. Losing quad-one games is more of a missed opportunity than a death blow. Now, the SEC is full of them.
15 of the SEC’s 16 teams are currently ranked in the Top 75 of the NET.
That means that as of today, every single conference road game will be a Quad 1 opportunity except for when teams visit South Carolina, who is currently ranked 84th in the NET.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) December 26, 2024
What does this mean for Kentucky? Here are the current number of quad-one and two games left. There is still one quad-three game in the SEC, and it’s simply because Kentucky plays South Carolina at home. Depending on how the Gamecocks do in conference play, this could easily become a quad-two game.
Quad 1: Florida, Texas A&M, Alabama (Home), Alabama (Away), Tennesee (Home), Tennessee (Away), Vanderbilt (Away), Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri
Quad 2: Arkansas, Vanderbilt (Home), LSU
Quad 3: South Carolina
All three quad-two games are simply because Kentucky hosts them, but if those teams keep climbing, they could move to a quad-one game. The current math says that Kentucky has 14 quad-one games left. That’s so many opportunities! And that’s how Kentucky should view them.
