LEXINGTON, Ky. — A look at the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional — which includes the No. 3 seed Kentucky Wildcats:

Meet UK’s first foe

Kentucky (22-11, 10-8 SEC regular season) will open NCAA Tournament play against Sun Belt Conference Tournament champion Troy (23-10, 13-5 regular season) in Milwaukee at 7:10 p.m. EDT Friday.

The Trojans rampaged through their league tournament, winning their three games by an average margin of 16 points.

Of potential concern for a UK team that has been decimated by injuries to its point guards, coach Scott Cross’ Trojans are built around a turnover-producing pressure defense.

Troy’s best player, senior guard Tayton Conerway, is third in NCAA Division I with 97 steals.

As a team, Troy is 10th in the nation in steals with 311.

Statistically, what Troy does not do especially well is shoot the ball from distance. The Trojans enter the NCAA Tournament making a chilly 29.9% of their 3-point attempts.

Conerway, a 6-foot-3, 186-pound product of Burleson, Texas, leads Troy in scoring at 14.3 points per game and also averages 4.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.9 steals.

Myles Rigsby, a 6-6, 190-pound sophomore forward, is Troy’s only other scorer averaging double figures with 12.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Cross, 50, is a well-respected coach who spent 12 years at UT Arlington and is in his sixth season at Troy. In his 18 seasons as a Division I head coach, Cross has compiled nine seasons of at least 20 wins, including the past four years.

While at UT Arlington, Cross went 0-2 against Kentucky, losing to the Wildcats 105-76 in 2013-14 and 92-44 in 2014-15.

This season, Troy is 0-3 versus power conference foes, having lost on the road at Arkansas (65-49 on Nov. 13), at Oregon (62-42 on Nov. 17) and at Houston (82-61 on Nov. 17).

The Trojans will be making their third appearance in the men’s NCAA Tournament. Troy lost 71-59 to Xavier in 2003 and fell 87-65 to Duke in 2017.

The top seed

For the second straight season, Kentucky is the No. 3 seed in an NCAA Tournament regional where Houston is the No. 1 seed.

Last year, the South contained heartbreak for both UK and Houston.

Kentucky was stunned 80-76 in the round of 64 by 14 seed Oakland behind 32 points from sharp-shooter Jack Gohlke.

Meanwhile, Houston faced a different kind of heartache when star guard Jamal Shead was knocked out of the Cougars’ Sweet 16 game against Duke with a sprained right ankle. Without Shead, Houston lost 54-51 to the Dookies.

This year’s Cougars (30-4) won both the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles. Of the four losses suffered by coach Kelvin Sampson’s team, three have come in overtime and two are to SEC teams.

Houston’s only defeats are 74-69 to Auburn on Nov. 9; 85-80 to Alabama in overtime in Las Vegas on Nov. 26; 73-70 to San Diego State in overtime in Vegas on Nov. 30; and 82-81 to Texas Tech in overtime on Feb. 1.

Along with the typically hard-nosed defense one associates with a Sampson-coached Houston team, this year’s Cougars are more skilled offensively than has been the norm. Houston enters the NCAA Tournament shooting 45.8% overall and 39.8% on 3-pointers.

Epic moment in UK-UT rivalry?

If seeds hold, border rivals Kentucky and Tennessee will face each other in the Sweet 16.

Although ancient foes UK and UT have played each other a whopping 141 times, the No. 3 seed Wildcats and No. 2 seed Volunteers have never met in the NCAA Tournament.

Although Rick Barnes’ Vols (27-7, 12-6 SEC regular season) enjoyed a better overall season than UK, the Wildcats beat Tennessee in each regular-season meeting between the two. Kentucky won 78-73 in Knoxville on Jan. 28, then claimed the rematch 75-64 at Rupp Arena on Feb. 11.

SEC-ond to none

Besides Tennessee and Kentucky, Georgia and Texas give the Midwest Regional four of the 14 SEC teams in the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament field.

— Coach Mike White’s Bulldogs, the No. 9 seed, will play No. 8 seed Gonzaga for what is likely to be a matchup with top seed Houston in the round of 32.

— No. 11 seed Texas will face No. 11 Xavier in the First Four for the chance to play No. 6 seed Illinois in the main bracket. If coach Rodney Terry’s Longhorns win twice, they would meet the UK-Troy victor in the round of 32.

Kentucky lost on the road at both Georgia, 82-69 on Jan. 7, and Texas, 82-78 on Feb. 15.

An ex-Cat returns to Rupp

Wofford is the No. 15 seed in the Midwest Regional and will open NCAA Tournament play against Tennessee in Lexington.

That means that former Kentucky Wildcats guard Dwight Perry will return to Rupp Arena for his first NCAA Tournament contest as a head coach.

Perry, 37, was a walk-on guard for Tubby Smith and then Billy Gillispie at UK from 2006 through 2009.

His claim to fame as a Wildcat came when he started Kentucky’s 2007 NCAA Tournament round-of-64 contest against Villanova after UK mistakenly turned in Dwight Perry’s name in its starting lineup instead of his cousin and regular starting forward Bobby Perry.

Dwight Perry intentionally committed a foul as the opening tip unfolded, and his cousin immediately replaced him. UK went on to win the game 67-58.

In his third season as head coach at Wofford (18-15), Perry has led the Terriers to a 48-42 mark.

Other familiar faces

There are two non-SEC teams in the Midwest Regional that Kentucky played earlier this season.

— No. 8 seed Gonzaga will have to beat No. 9 Georgia and then, likely, No. 1 seed Houston to extend its streak of making the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the 10th straight time.

Kentucky beat Mark Few’s Zags 90-89 in overtime in Seattle on Dec. 7.

— No. 5 seed Clemson will face No. 12 seed McNeese State in the round of 64.

UK lost 70-66 at Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 3.

There are also three coaches who are very familiar to Kentucky fans in the Midwest Regional.

— Former LSU head man Will Wade has gone 57-10 at McNeese over the past two seasons and has led the Cowboys to back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips.

McNeese State is a popular upset pick against No. 5 Clemson.

— Former Murray State and Cincinnati head man and ex-Louisville assistant Mick Cronin is in the Midwest Regional with No. 7 seed UCLA. The Bruins will open against No. 10 seed Utah State and would likely face No. 2 seed Tennessee in the round of 32 with a win.

Cronin and UCLA could face Kentucky in the Sweet 16 if both teams record a pair of wins.

— Ex-UK assistant Orlando Antigua — who served two non-consecutive stints, 2009-2014 and 2021-2024 working with John Calipari in Lexington — is on Brad Underwood’s coaching staff at Illinois.

Round-of-64 wins by both Kentucky and Illinois would lead to a round-of-32 matchup in which Antigua would be on the opposing bench from UK.

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