March Madness is here, and Dick Vitale already has his prediction out. The legendary ESPN personality has Kentucky basketball winning it all in the NCAA Tournament. He also has John Calipari's squad beating the reigning and defending national champions UConn Huskies in the title game.

Dick Vitale believes Kentucky basketball will be last team standing in 2024 March Madness

Vitale also has the Baylor Bears and another SEC team, the Tennessee Volunteers, making it to the Final Four together with the Wildcats and the Huskies.

It's not an entirely wild prediction from Vitale. The Wildcats are having a solid season, as they carry a 23-9 record to the NCAA Tournament. That is already an improvement for the program, which finished with a 22-12 slate back in the 2022-23 college basketball season. Kentucky basketball also earned a No. 3 seed. Last year, they entered March Madness as a sixth seed.

The immediate goal for Kentucky basketball in this year's edition of March Madness is to avoid getting upset right in the very first round of the tournament against the Oakland Grizzlies. Although the Wildcats are the overwhelming favorites to win that matchup, they can't feel complacent about their chances. Oakland is on a roll, having won all of its last five games, including the championship game of the Horizon League Tournament to book its ticket to the Big Dance.

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The same can't be said about Kentucky, which lasted just a game in the 2024 SEC Tournament, as the Wildcats lost to the Texas A&M Aggies in the quarterfinals.

That being said, Kentucky had a strong finish to its regular season, going undefeated in its final five games before the SEC Tournament. That stretch included wins against then-No. 13 Alabama Crimson Tide and then-No. 4 Tennessee.

Kentucky has the weapons to lead it to a deep run in the Big Dance. The three-headed backcourt monster of Antonio Reeves, Rob Dillingham, and Reed Sheppard should be a handful for the Grizzlies and the other teams the Wildcats could come across in March Madness.

Reeves leads the Wildcats with 20.4 points per game, while Dillingham and Sheppard are putting up 15.4 and 12.8 points, respectively. As a team, Kentucky is the second-highest scoring team in the entire nation, with an average of 89.4 points per game and fourth overall with a 57.4 effective field goal percentage.