Joe Lunardi's Bracketology update sets up a potential matchup between Mark Pope and Rick Pitino

The NCAA Tournament is quickly approaching, which means Mark Pope will be making his tournament debut as the Wildcats head coach. The two big question marks when Pope was hired to be Kentucky's coach had to do with his ability to recruit and his lack of NCAA Tournament success. In March, Coach Pope will be able to end the narrative that he doesn't have any experience winning in crunch time.

Joe Lunardi updated his Bracketology, and the Wildcats are still a three-seed after the ugly loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. In the update, Kentucky will open up the tournament against Cleveland State in Providence. If Kentucky was able to win this game, they would likely face St. John's, assuming they win the 6/11 game. The head coach of St. John's is former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino.

The 1996 National Championship team was coached by Pitino, and the captain of this team was Kentucky's coach Mark Pope. If Kentucky and St. John's got this draw, there would be a lot of excitement to see these two coaches against one another in March.

If this were to be the draw for the Kentucky Wildcats, it would be a tough one as St. John's is one of the most underrated teams in the nation, and Pitino is still one of the best coaches in college hoops.

The tournament committee will do everything in its power to make this game a reality, as the "Coach vs. Captain" narrative would be really good for tournament viewership. Coach Pope and Pitino have been hoping for the opportunity to coach against one another.