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The 2025 NCAA Tournament is here, and Kentucky is dancing once again! Overall, it is a 4th straight March Madness appearance for the Wildcats but is the first for the program under new head coach Mark Pope.
Kentucky was officially revealed as a 3-seed in the Midwest Region to start things off with Houston serving as the 1-seed and Tennessee a 2-seed in the region. It’s a tough draw with the Wildcats listed at +750 to win the region per bet365 and advance to a Final Four with Houston leading the way at +160. Tennessee and Gonzaga also check in ahead of Kentucky in the odds to reach the Final Four.
To open the bracket, Kentucky will face 14-seed Troy, regular season co-champions in the Sun Belt and the winner of the Sun Belt Tournament. The Wildcats are a 10.5-point favorite for the matchup per DraftKings, and fans can grab the DraftKings Kentucky promo code for the best offers in the tournament.
Friday’s tip-off is set for 7:10 pm ET on CBS, and these are the key things to know about Kentucky’s showdown vs. the Trojans:
Trojans are surprising defensively
As you will see later in this piece, Troy is a bit of an enigma offensively. However, they are an impressive unit on the defensive end of the floor.
The Trojans average top-30 marks in blocks and steals. As a team, Troy averages 9.4 steals per game, a mark that ranks 10th nationally. Tayton Conerway, the Sun Belt’s Player of the Year, leads the team with 2.9 steals per game.
Despite not having a rotational player above 6-foot-9, Troy is also very active with 156 blocks on the year, an average of 4.7 per game. That ranks 26th in the country while holding teams to 45% shooting inside the 3-point arc, finishing 12th nationally in that figure.
Overall, Troy checks in at 71st nationally in the adjusted defensive efficiency metric produced by KenPom. That is along the same strength as Mizzou (73rd) and Oklahoma (70th) on the defensive side of the ball. (Kentucky is 56th in that metric, for what it’s worth.)
It sets up a textbook offensive vs. defensive struggle with Kentucky coming into the game 37th nationally while shooting 55.9% on 2-point attempts. Otega Oweh should particularly stress Troy when the Wildcats have the ball, and it will be interesting to see how both teams respond.
Not your average mid-major profile
Traditionally, mid-major programs that storm into March Madness are loaded up with 3-point shooters across the floor. Troy does average 7.7 made 3-pointers per game, but they are far from efficient.
As a team, the Trojans are shooting 29.9% from 3-point range, a mark that ranks 350th nationally. For context, there were 364 teams in DI basketball during the 2024-25 season.
With that type of makeup, it’s hard to find even a single sharp-shooter on Troy’s roster. None of the top 6 scorers for Troy shoots above 33.3% from deep, and only 2 players shot above that mark during the season.
Troy’s top shooter — Jerrell Bellamy — finished 37.5% from long range but averages just 10 minutes per game while Cooper Campbell shot 36.4% from long range in 16.4 minutes played.
That doesn’t mean it’s entirely a great matchup for Kentucky. The Wildcats allowed opponents to shoot 53.7% from inside the arc this season while holding teams to 30.8% from 3-point range.
With Troy unlikely to suddenly lean into the 3-point line, Kentucky will need to lock down on the interior defensively.
Player to watch: Tayton Conerway
There’s no need to overthink this one. Conerway was the Sun Belt’s 6th Man of the Year last season before leading the Trojans in scoring this season.
A veteran college player in his 2nd season at Troy, Conerway was the league’s player of the year while leading the conference in steals (2.9) and finishing 4th with 4.8 assists. He is also the team’s leading scorer at 14.3 points per game while also averaging 4.6 rebounds.
Much like the rest of the Trojans, Conerway is not a serious threat from 3-point range (27.7%), but he shoots 57.4% inside the arc and is liable to have the ball in his hands throughout the game and pressure the ball on defense.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
