Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey

Kentucky's Mark Pope and Louisville's Pat Kelsey both have their teams pointing toward the Top 25.

 ERIC CRAWFORD

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's 16 days until Selection Sunday, and the key numbers to remember are three, six and 11.

Those are the seeding numbers required to bring some combination of Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana, Rick Pitino and St. John's and John Calipari of Arkansas together in opening week games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

It's not an unreasonable concept. Only a week ago, ESPN bracket maven Joe Lunardi had Calipari and Arkansas on track to play Louisville, with the winner advancing to play Kentucky at the Cleveland regional.

Only 349 miles to Cleveland, folks.

Lunardi dropped his latest projected 68-team field at ESPN.com Friday morning. There's a reasonable chance some combination of the Cardinals, Wildcats, Hoosiers, Razorbacks and Red Storm could be together to start the party. (Story link.)

Not all five. But certainly two, perhaps three and maybe, maybe, maybe four.

Are you ready to follow along?

Let's go. As always, the tournament begins with first four games in Dayton, Ohio, which will be played March 18-19. Those games generally include a matchup of 11 seeds and 12 seeds, the last four at-large teams selected, as well as two games that feature all four 16 seeds.

According to Lunardi's latest forecast, Mike Woodson's Indiana team has pushed its way into an 11-seed, matched against the Oklahoma team that Kentucky beat Wednesday night.

Calipari's Arkansas team, which has flirted with the tournament cut line all season, has upgraded to a 10-seed on the strength of back-to-back victories over Texas and Missouri.

IU (17-11) likely needs to win two of its final three regular season games against Washington, Oregon and Ohio State and perhaps one more in the Big Ten Tournament to secure its spot in the field.

Arkansas could easily fall back to the 11 line if the Razorbacks stumble in a couple of their final three regular season games at South Carolina, at Vanderbilt or against Mississippi State.

An 11-seed playoff matchup between Indiana and Arkansas would start the parade.

Why? Easy. The winner of that game advances to play a 6-seed. Lunardi still has Louisville positioned in Cleveland in his latest bracket. But he's got the Cards a 7-seed, in a rematch game against the West Virginia squad that Louisville defeated at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Pat Kelsey's squad is also listed as a 7-seed at the Bracket Matrix, which averages the numbers from 108 projected brackets. The trip from 7-seed to 6-seed is certainly manageable for the Cards.

UCLA, Ole Miss, Oregon, Mississippi State, Kansas and Marquette, the teams most often listed as 6-seeds, should take a few more losses while Louisville faces three winnable home games before traveling to the ACC Tournament in Charlotte.

A 6- or 7-seed appears most likely for Louisville, although a 5-seed becomes a talking point if the Cards (22-6) beat Clemson for a second time at the ACC Tournament. Lunardi has Brad Brownell's Tigers as the ACC's second-best team as a 5-seed in his latest bracket. Duke is the only other ACC in Lunardi's bracket.

The 6-11 winner gets the 3-14 winner in round two.

Lunardi gave Kentucky a 3-seed. In news that I expect to be questioned in Madison Square Garden, St. John's earned only a 4-seed from Lunardi, even though Rick Pitino's team has won 25 of 29 games and clinched the Big East regular season title.

Bracket Matrix likes St. John's more than Lunardi does, but not much. The Red Storm are listed there as the final 3-seed there, one spot behind Kentucky.

Hold all tickets on how high the Wildcats and Red Storm will be seeded. Kentucky can score major points with the Tournament Selection Committee by handling No. 1 Auburn Saturday at 1 p.m. in Rupp Arena. A victory at Missouri next Saturday would also create a stir.

As for Pitino and St. John's, they can polish their credentials as a 3-seed by winning at Marquette March 8 and then rolling through the Big East Tournament. The Big East is only a 4-bid league — St. John's, Marquette, Creighton and UConn.

This is the dream formula to remember:

Calipari and Arkansas vs. Mike Woodson and Indiana in a Dayton play-in.

The winner of that game vs. 6-seed Pat Kelsey and Louisville in regional opener (hopefully in Cleveland).

And the winner of that game vs. 3-seed Mark Pope and Kentucky or 3-seed Rick Pitino and St. John's in the Round of 32.

Make it happen, people.

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