Kentucky Wildcats vs Santa Clara Broncos

0:00On March 20, Kentucky Wildcats faced the Santa Clara Broncos in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday at 12.15pm Eastern, time on CBS. The Wildcats enter as 2.5 point favorites with a 21 and 13 record after a bumpy season. Injuries have hurt Kentucky all year, marking their second straight tough stretch and they just dropped their third game to Florida in the SEC. Still, they grabbed a couple of wins in Nashville to punch their ticket here. The cats are counting on battle-tested veterans like Colin Chandler, Brandon Garrison, Trent Noah, Otega Owe, Moe Deo Bate and Denzel Aberdeen All. With the tournament runs under their belts from last March and beyond. Meanwhile, Santa Clara's 26 and 8 undercoach Erb Sendeck, a former Kentucky assistant after knocking off McNeese State. The Broncos put up solid offense numbers, but struggled defensively, especially against top teams where they've hung tough in losses.

1:01Kentucky blew out by Gonzaga once, but Santa Clara kept those games closer. Expect the Wildcats to lean on coach Mark Pope's March Magic from last year in advance, giving fans a spark after the regular season grind.