Kentucky Wildcats still getting dissed by CBS Sports

When the Round of 32 ended, the Kentucky Wildcats looked like the favorite to win the South Region and advance to the Final Four.

Well, not everyone is sold UK is the best team in their region, or even the second best.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander just released his ranking and re-seeding of all 16 teams left in the NCAA tournament field.

Mind you, he described this ranking as “a combination of resume, first weekend performance and my opinion on how good I think these teams are.”

Seems like UK would be in the top 5-8 spots of such a ranking, no?

At the very least, UK is in the top 10, right?

Wrong.

11. KENTUCKY

Actual seed: No. 5 in the South Regional. Think UK is too low? For reference, it ranks as the 10th best team of the 16 left at KenPom. The 26-10 Wildcats being 11th here speaks to how tight this field is between No. 4 and No. 12. Kentucky got a scare from Davidson and then ran away from Buffalo. John Calipari’s squad has been able to win all but one game in the past month because its 3-point defense is the best of any team in the field. UK holds foes to 29.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Regular season wins over tournament teams: Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee.

Making this ranking even crazier is Norlander has Loyola-Chicago and Nevada ahead of UK.

In a separate article, Norlander picked Loyola-Chicago to beat UK and advance to the Final Four.

Norlander isn’t the only expert picking against UK. Yahoo Sports bracket guru Brad Evans is picking Nevada to make the Final Four over UK.

Respect isn’t given (unless you’re Duke). It’s earned.

It’s clear UK has to earn every ounce of respect it gets from here on out.