The #10 Seed Santa Clara Broncos (26-8) will take on the #7 Seed Kentucky Wildcats (21-13) in the first round of the tournament the game will be on Friday. The Broncos finished 3 in the West Coast Conference while the Cats finished in 9th place in the SEC. Go Cats!!

Kentucky is in trouble. 

36 minutes ago, DragonFire said:

Kentucky is in trouble. 

Santa Clara is coached by Herb Sendek.  His wife Melanie is a Boyle County Grad.  

Tip time has been announced - 1:40 PM on Friday, on TNT.  Brandon Gaudin, who I personally love as he calls the Braves play-by-play, is on the call with Chris Webber and Andy Katz.

Kentucky plays at 1:40 ET on tnt Per Jeff Drummond.Jeff says he may have been duped. Nothing official yet.

12:15 ET on cbs.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2026-03-15/tip-times-and-teams-2026-ncaa-mens-basketball-tournament-first-four-and-first

Jim Spenarkel John Rothstein and Spero Dedes.

Kentucky’s Men’s basketball has it starting at 12:15 ET 11:15 CT. 

Well they sure did change all that around on me...

1 hour ago, Rebel said:

Santa Clara is coached by Herb Sendek.  His wife Melanie is a Boyle County Grad.  

Also a former UK assistant from 1989 through 93

One of the more interesting first round games in my opinion.

Kentucky is the "expert's" favorite upset pick it seems, and even though I bleed blue, I don't think I blame them. Santa Clara is a good team, well coached, and Kentucky hasn't shown the ability to beat teams they should consistently. I am hoping that being more battle tested will help them prevail and I get to at least watch two tournament games this year. In the end, it doesn't really matter as I don't see Kentucky beating Iowa State even if they do win their first round matchup.

16 minutes ago, AvidSportsJunkie856 said:

Kentucky is the "expert's" favorite upset pick it seems, and even though I bleed blue, I don't think I blame them. Santa Clara is a good team, well coached, and Kentucky hasn't shown the ability to beat teams they should consistently. I am hoping that being more battle tested will help them prevail and I get to at least watch two tournament games this year. In the end, it doesn't really matter as I don't see Kentucky beating Iowa State even if they do win their first round matchup.

I agree and disagree. The one thing I do think UK has done rather well under Pope is win the games they are supposed to win in regards to teams they are clearly better than. As they have only lost either Quad 1 or Quad 2 games, so they haven't really lost games to teams they shouldn't. As those losses weren't to teams they are clearly better than, and sadly just more at the same level as those teams. Which this game isn't against a team we are clearly better than either, so it definitely can go either way. 

1 hour ago, futurecoach said:

I agree and disagree. The one thing I do think UK has done rather well under Pope is win the games they are supposed to win in regards to teams they are clearly better than. As they have only lost either Quad 1 or Quad 2 games, so they haven't really lost games to teams they shouldn't. As those losses weren't to teams they are clearly better than, and sadly just more at the same level as those teams. Which this game isn't against a team we are clearly better than either, so it definitely can go either way. 

I was thinking about the Missouri and Georgia games which they were both favored in this season, but I do agree. They don't seem to win the "even" matchups. That was probably a better statement than the one I made. To me, Santa Clara is an "even" matchup this season (which tells you where this program is currently) and it doesn't bode well for the Cats. 

I really would love for them to win and have a shot against Iowa State. Being a big under dog in that game gives an extra layer of motivation. I just hate the fact that I am getting used to not watching Kentucky in deep runs in the tournament over the last 8ish years. Very depressing,