“It’s made for television, it’ll be a primetime game,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said earlier this week.
The NCAA Selection Committee may never admit that a first-round matchup between Kentucky and Providence was pre-planned, but when the 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket was nearly completed on Sunday afternoon, it became clear what was going to happen. With just one region left and neither program announced as part of the field of 68, it felt inevitable.
Like it or not, the storyline surrounding former Wildcat Bryce Hopkins, who went from SEC bench warmer to a member of the All-Big East First Team in a single offseason, was just too much to pass up on for a primetime showdown in the Big Dance.