Patrick Reed spoke with the media for the first time since Tiger Woods named him one of the U.S. Presidents Cup team’s four captain’s picks last week.

Following last year’s U.S. loss at the Ryder Cup, Reed caused a stir when he criticized then-captain Jim Furyk along with Jordan Spieth, who had successfully paired with Reed in previous matches before the two were split up in Paris.

Asked Tuesday if he’d had a chance to clear the air with Woods prior to being named a pick, Reed said he’s spoken with the entire U.S. team about last year’s controversy.

“That was all put to bed and we all talked about it,” Reed said. “We've all moved on, and we're all just really getting excited for this year and to focus on going out and doing what we're supposed to do, and that's to play the best golf we can, win points, and have fun while doing it.”

After finishing outside the automatic qualifiers for this year’s Presidents Cup, Reed made his case to be a pick with four worldwide top-10 finishes in his last seven starts.

“To be one of the guys on the outside of the top 8, going into that period of time where you have to not only play but also play well, just because you're going and playing doesn't really mean anything,” Reed said. “You've got to actually back it up by playing some good golf.”

This should’ve been a public relations win for Matt Kuchar.

Here comes the defending champ, returning to the place where he ended a four-year victory drought. Back to the course where the local caddie walked with him every step of the way, adding a heartwarming twist to a feel-good story.

Perhaps Kuchar could have visited with David Ortiz, better known in the Mayakoba Resort caddie ranks as “El Tucan.” He could have posed for pictures with Ortiz and his family, or seen what had become of the fill-in phenom in the year since they teamed so well together.

Instead, Kuchar spent Tuesday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic weaving an apologetic tone through his pre-tournament comments in front of Mexican and U.S. media members.

“I know what happened post-tournament with David is not something I’m proud of,” Kuchar told reporters. “Made some headlines that certainly I’m definitely not proud of, but I’ve done my best to make amends, to make things right with David, to do things right by the community.”

The post-victory aftermath to which Kuchar refers has everything to do with dollars and cents. Kuchar has been on the PGA Tour for the better part of two decades and has racked up more than $50 million in career earnings, the eighth-most in Tour history. His victory last year at Mayakoba was worth $1.296 million.

So as Ortiz stood alongside Kuchar for celebratory photos on the 18^th green, and as he received an autographed flag from the player whom he met for the first time during their practice round together six days prior, he started to do the math. Typical Tour caddies can expect 10 percent of a winner’s check as compensation, while stand-in loopers still usually receive somewhere between 5 and 7 percent.

It meant that Ortiz was looking at a payday of anywhere from $65,000 to $130,000, a range that would qualify as substantial to potentially life-changing for a man of modest means. Instead, Kuchar largely stuck to the agreement they had worked out at the beginning of the week and handed Ortiz an envelope with $5,000 inside.

The story remained quiet for two months, until a social media firestorm erupted as Kuchar cruised to another win at the Sony Open in January. Word quickly got out about how much (or how little) his substitute caddie had received. Having curated a good-guy image through years of toothy grins and wholesome language, Kuchar found himself on the receiving end of some jeers from fans at multiple Tour events.

The optics were damning. Ortiz, who speaks broken English, had sent emails through a third party to Kuchar’s agent, Mark Steinberg, requesting a total of $50,000 compensation. Those efforts were rebuffed – that is, until Kuchar spoke up about the situation, turning any embers of controversy into a full-blown blaze.

“I certainly don’t lose sleep over this,” Kuchar told GolfChannel.com in February. “This is something that I’m quite happy with, and I was really happy for him to have a great week and make a good sum of money. Making $5,000 is a great week.”

But days later, as the criticism reached a fever pitch, Kuchar relented. An additional amount of $45,000 was sent Ortiz’s way, plus an undisclosed donation to the tournament’s charitable causes, and the 41-year-old issued an apology.

“I made comments that were out of touch and insensitive, making a bad situation worse,” Kuchar said. “They made it seem like I was marginalizing David Ortiz and his financial situation, which was not my intention.”

The drama died down, but it didn’t fully relent. Kuchar was still the subject of catcalls from fans at the U.S. Open, and both Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy later took jabs at Kuchar’s frugal disposition.

The controversy marred what was an otherwise resurgent season. Kuchar added two runner-up finishes to his victories in Mexico and Hawaii, got back to the Tour Championship and made the Presidents Cup squad after serving as a Ryder Cup vice captain a year ago in Paris. But all of that got only a fraction of the attention his tipping habits received.

So it is that Kuchar returned to Playa del Carmen this week, still speaking about making amends to both an individual and a community that felt slighted for months. It was an entirely avoidable controversy, one that threatened to torpedo the reputation of one of the Tour’s most genial players.

“When you have moments you’re not proud of, you make amends for them, you do your best to make it right and try to keep moving forward and staying positive,” Kuchar said Tuesday. “I think I equate it to team sports, you know. You learn a lot in losses, you learn a lot in hard times. Certainly it’s given me an opportunity for growth, for self-betterment.”

In an alternate universe, one in which Kuchar’s initial offer was not $5,000 but tenfold or more, perhaps he and Ortiz could have staged an on-course reunion or joined once again as player and caddie for a few holes during the pro-am. Smiles on all parties would have stretched to the nearby ocean waters.

Instead Kuchar has his normal looper, John Wood, on the bag this week and likely wants nothing more than to put this situation behind him. For his part, Ortiz took the high road recently, telling the New York Post that he harbors “no anger” toward Kuchar in light of their months-long dispute.

“Kuchar is a good person,” Ortiz said. “I’m not angry. Everything is good. Not paying was not good. But I have no anger.”

It should have been the fairytale of the Tour season: local caddie helps affable veteran get back into the winner’s circle. That the rancorous aftermath gained far more traction than the story itself is equal parts unfortunate and regrettable.

Raheem Sterling may have been dropped for England's Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley on Thursday following a clash with teammate Joe Gomez, but for winger Callum Hudson-Odoi he remains a leader for the Three Lions and an idol for the Chelsea winger.

England manager Gareth Southgate axed Sterling for Thursday's game after an incident in the canteen at their St. George's Park training facility on Monday.

The pair had squared off at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday where Sterling's Manchester City were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool, with Gomez coming on as a late substitute in the top-of-the-table battle.

Southgate and several players have sought to put the incident behind them. Sterling remains with the squad and could feature in Sunday's qualifier away to Kosovo.

Yet the man who could replace him in attack on Thursday, Chelsea winger Hudson-Odoi, does not doubt Sterling's importance to him and the rest of the squad.

"Someone like Raheem is like an idol to me. The position he plays, and what he's doing for club and country, is an amazing thing, which I will try to replicate myself," said the 19-year-old.

"It is an amazing feeling to have someone like him doing what he's doing and being around you every time. I want to keep learning off what he does. He is a nice person to be around, very positive."

Hudson-Odoi broke into the Chelsea first team last season and quickly earned an England debut against the Czech Republic at Wembley in March -- coming on as a substitute for Sterling after the City forward had scored a hat trick.

Yet Sterling had already made an impression on Hudson-Odoi with the way he welcomed him into the England camp.

"Raheem's a very nice guy, he's very encouraging, very positive about everything he does. When I first came in, I didn't expect him to be so nice. Of course he is a nice person but when you see somebody always welcoming you, just talking to you, giving you advice on how he plays and just being around you a lot it makes you feel so welcome in the team," he said.

Those qualities mean that Sterling, who captained England against the Netherlands in the Nations League semifinal in June, is considered a leader by the Chelsea winger.

"Definitely. He's very positive about what he does. Whenever he says something, he wants to take a stance and make sure everything is OK with it," Hudson-Odoi said.

"For someone like him, he's a big leader in the team because he's a very top player, he's in club and country playing every game, working really hard, scoring a lot of goals."

Hudson-Odoi says he also appreciates the public stance Sterling has taken about racism in the game.

"For someone like that to have a say on racism, it is a big feeling for all of us. He is sticking up for everyone who is involved in the game. It is a great feeling to know he's going to do that," he said.

Sandeep Lamichhane and Paras Khadka can be "trailblazers" for Nepalese cricket, and create a "legacy for the country to build off"," according to former Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams.

Adams, who captained the MCC on their recent tour to Nepal, told ESPNcricinfo that the standard of Nepal's white-ball cricket in particular was "very high", and that the country is well-placed to "go on and follow Afghanistan's transition" into the top reaches of the game.

ALSO READ: Lamichhane, Nepal's first global T20 icon

The MCC's recent tour comprised two games against the full national team, a 50-over game against the U-19 side, a T20 against a mixed national team and U-19 team, and two more T20s against invitational XIs. One of those games against the national team was a three-day fixture, which was Nepal's first first-class match since 2005 and attracted a crowd of around 4,000 fans each day.

"The crowds were incredible really," said Adams. "In the first-class stuff, we probably get a couple of hundred people for our four-day games back at home, whereas for this game here there were 4,000 or so.

"They struggled a bit in the red-ball game [MCC won by 208 runs] but they've barely played any red-ball cricket in the last decade. Their white-ball skill level was very high - certainly on their home tracks, they'll be a test for many teams in associate cricket and maybe even beyond that over the coming years.

"I don't know as much about their depth and the structure of their cricket, but certainly what we played against in that 50-over game and the T20s - it wouldn't surprise me if they go on and follow Afghanistan's transition."

The tour was organised as part of the MCC's legacy tour scheme, with the MCC Foundation funding a £56,000 project in Pokhara over the next year working with the charity Kidasha. Nepal were also invited to play in a triangular T20 series with MCC and Netherlands in 2018, those this project's focus is primarily on infrastructure, with nets being laid, kit donated, and a schools league being established.

The tour's manager, Richard Greatorex, told ESPNcricinfo that the squad - which includes recent England Test cap Tom Westley and former Pakistan allrounder Yasir Arafat - had coached "in the region of 300 children" in the past two days.

"[The coaching] has been very basic skills: just throwing, catching, basic bowling, how to hold a bat and swing," he said. "At times it's been carnage, but the enthusiasm and energy is phenomenal.

"The cricket has been truly amazing. The standard of the U-19 and national sides certainly far exceeded my expectations, and their fielding was on occasion world-class. The enthusiasm from the youngsters right through to the national side is immense."

Greatorex also suggested that Nepalese players breaking into the franchise circuit would act as a springboard for those coming through.

"Sandeep [Lamichhane] is a cult figure," he said. "And so is Paras [Khadka], who's going off to the T10 competition in Abu Dhabi this week. Hopefully, within say three to five years, you might see another two or three players reaching those sorts of levels. They've certainly got the enthusiasm, passion, and desire to get to the very top - it's whether that infrastructure supports them."

Adams picked out the U19 side's top three - Rit Gautam, Lokesh Bam and Khadak Bohara - as possible stars of the future.

"The U19s we played in the first game of the tour, their top three came out and played beautifully. They had a clutch of young spinners [too] - and in the 50-over game they had an offspinner who whacked it at the end [Pawan Sarraf]. Hopefully Sandeep can be the trailblazer for them, and others can follow him into that level of international recognition."

The level of support clearly made an impression, with over 7,000 fans turning out for the T20 fixture against a combined U-19 and national team. Ollie Hannon-Dalby, the Warwickshire seamer, won "cult hero" status according to Greatorex, after doing the Viking clap on the boundary edge, while Adams said that Will Vanderspar - who had done 'the worm' in front of the fans - had arrived in Pokhara to people wondering if he was "the snake man".

After being reinstated as a member by the ICC, following a three-year ban due to government interference in the board of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), the return of vital funding from the game's power-brokers means that the national team can begin to move forward again after a period of relative stagnation.

"For first-class cricket, it'll take a number of years to get the infrastructure in place," said Greatorex, "but certainly in ODIs, they could be competing really well within the next four years - they could be in the next 50-over, I'd think, and we'd expect them to be in the T20 World Cup in the next four or six years."

For Adams, the need for regular domestic cricket is pressing - but again, that begins with infrastructure. "It'll certainly help them," he said. "They've produced players so far on the back of very little red-ball cricket, and for ICC status, to move forward with a first-class structure is quite important.

"It's amazing how they've managed to do so much from the little facilities that they have in comparison to other cricket-playing countries, but I think it's going to huge in the next five or ten years for them if they can make regional cricket stronger."

Glamorgan have secured a significant signing by keeping Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne for the next two seasons.

Labuschagne will be available across all formats for the 2020 and 2021 summers pending international commitments. His spell with Glamorgan in 2019 helped propel him into the Ashes squad as he scored 1114 runs at 65.52 in the County Championship and he has since gone on to cement is place in the line-up after his dramatic introduction to the Lord's Test as a concussion substitute for Steven Smith.

"I'm absolutely rapt to re-sign for Glamorgan and come back to Cardiff for another two years," he said. "I love the city and loved playing for the club. The boys were incredible from day one and I felt part of something special.

"The coaching staff were great and Matt [Maynard] really understood my batting and helped me to get the best out of my game. My batting improved a lot last year under his guidance and I'm excited to work him again. But I'm equally excited to do everything I can to help drive the team into Division One. We definitely have the playing talent and coaching staff to get us there."

Australia's schedule during the next English season is reasonably light although they are set for a two-Test series in Bangladesh which Labuschagne would expect to be part of. It is also possible that he will force his way into contention for the one-day side following a strong start to the domestic season with Queensland. Australia have a limited-overs tour of England, which includes three ODIs, in early July.

Ellyse Perry was in the runs again as her unbeaten 70 anchored the Sydney Sixers to a 39-run victory against the Hobart Hurricanes in Launceston. The Sixers only used four batters as Perry and Alyssa Healy (39) - who launched into Nicola Carey's first over which cost 26 - added 72 for the first wicket before Ash Gardner (28) joined in a 51-run stand for the second followed by Erin Burns' cameo of 26 off 16 balls to help round off a total of 2 for 172. Carey came back well from the early onslaught, bowling Healy and conceding 26 off her next three overs - which included the final ball of the innings being hit for six by Perry, her fourth of the innings. The chase proved well out of reach for the Hurricanes as they slid from 3 for 92 to 133 all out. Marizanne Kapp did early damage with wickets in her first two overs and Burns wrapped up the match with 3 for 5.

November 12

The Perth Scorchers produced an impressive display with the ball as they defended 116 against the Sydney Thunder at the WACA to lift themselves towards the top of the table. Ireland seamer Kim Garth took 3 for 21 as all the Scorchers bowlers got among the wickets. The Thunder were two down without a run on the board as Nat Sciver and Taneale Peschel struck in their opening overs and the slide continued. Pakistan allrounder Nida Dar did her best to keep the Thunder alive with 43 off 39 balls but was the last batter out in the final over having run out of partners. She was comfortably the top scoring the contest, with Sciver and Heather Graham both making 27 for the Scorchers, after a juggle to the batting order saw Georgia Redmayne fall for a duck having been promoted to open in place of Meg Lanning who struck the only six of the match in her 25 off 29 balls.

In one of the biggest upsets in recent college basketball history, Evansville beat No. 1 Kentucky 67-64 on Tuesday night in Lexington, marking the program's first victory over a No. 1-ranked team.

Evansville's Sam Cunliffe, a transfer who had previously played at Arizona State and Kansas, hit a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds remaining to seal the win. Wildcats guard Tyrese Maxey missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The Purple Aces had been picked to finish eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference's preseason poll following last season's 11-21 record and 5-13 finish in conference play in coach Walter McCarty's first season.

"They are a great team, the toughest team to play us," said McCarty, who starred as a player for the Kentucky team that won a national title in 1996. "But I believe in my guys. I told them, 'We're gonna go in there and get them. We're gonna surprise some people today.' I told them, 'This is a great day to be a Purple Ace. Let's go do it.'"

Asked where Tuesday night's win ranked among his biggest moments in Rupp Arena, McCarty said, "This is at the top."

"To be able to come back home and play against the No. 1 team in the country and be able to perform the way that we did, I don't know if anything matches this other than winning a national championship," he said. "It's awesome, man. To be able to come here and play on this type of stage. My guys, I got a good group of guys, I really do. They love each other. They're very connected. To bring this group in here and to be able to do that is just awesome, it doesn't get any better than that."

Cunliffe finished with 17 points and K.J. Riley had 18 points for Evansville, which led much of the game despite shooting just 38.3% from the field.

Immanuel Quickley had a team-high 16 points (5-for-12) for the Wildcats, who were held to 37% shooting from the field and became the first AP No. 1 to lose at home to an unranked nonconference opponent.

"Coach told us we could win, this is a winnable game, and we believed it from the jump," Riley said. "We didn't say they have a lot of guys on the draft board. We have faith in ourselves as a team and the work we put in and the preparation."

Last week, Kentucky defeated then-No. 1 Michigan State in the Champions Classic. Tuesday night, the Wildcats suffered a home loss to a Missouri Valley Conference team that wasn't picked to finish in the top half of its league.

It's the first time in the AP poll era that two No. 1 teams have lost in November.

"I've done this for 37 years, and things like this happen," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "It's what you do from here. We may say three weeks later that this is the best thing to happen to us. I've said it from Day 1: The whole thing with this team is toughness."

Kentucky had won 52 consecutive games against unranked opponents at home. ESPN's Basketball Power Index (BPI) had given Evansville a 4% chance to win, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Calipari credited the Purples Aces for being "the tougher team" Tuesday night.

"If we would've somehow pulled it out, it would have been unfair, because they were the tougher team," Calipari said. "They made shots, and that's tough to do in this building. Give credit to Walter. He had his team better prepared than I had my team. They deserved to win."

The Purple Aces were 25-point underdogs at Caesars Sportsbook, matching the third-largest betting upset in the past 15 seasons in a college basketball game involving two Division I teams.

Kentucky was the first No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll to lose to a team that had 11 or fewer wins in the previous season since Stanford during the 2003-04 season, according to ESPN Stats & Info research.

Evansville also became the fourth team to secure its first road win against an AP-ranked squad that was the top team in America in the poll.

"It's amazing. Come to a school like this and you talk about doing things like this, making history, playing in front of these bright lights," Cunliffe said. "And, you know, we prepared the right way and we had our mindset in the right spot, and to actually do it is surreal. I mean, I couldn't have imagined this ever in my life. So, you know, for our team to see the preparation that we put in and to see something great come from, it is just unbelievable."

NFL clubs were informed Tuesday that a private workout will be held for free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Saturday in Atlanta, according to a copy of a memo obtained by ESPN.

The session will include on-field work and an interview. All teams are invited to attend, and video of both the workout and the interview will be made available to them.

Several clubs have inquired about Kaepernick's current football readiness. He has been out of the NFL since 2016, the year he began protesting police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the pregame national anthem.

In the memo, the league said: "Earlier this year, we discussed some possible steps with his representatives and they recently emphasized his level of preparation and that he is ready to work out for clubs and be interviewed by them. We have therefore arranged this opportunity for him to work out, and for all clubs to have the opportunity to evaluate his current readiness and level of interest in resuming his NFL career."

Kaepernick tweeted about the workout Tuesday night:

I'm just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. I've been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can't wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday.

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) November 13, 2019

As Kaepernick suggested in the tweet, the proposed workout on Saturday came as a surprise to the QB and his representatives.

Sources told ESPN that Kaepernick and his reps weren't alerted until Tuesday morning. When notified, the quarterback's reps asked for the workout to be on a Tuesday, which typically is when all NFL workouts take place, since head coaches and general managers can more easily attend. This Saturday, almost half of the NFL teams will be traveling to games, and most of the rest of the coaches and players will be heading to their team hotels to prepare for their games the next day.

But the NFL said the workout had to be on a Saturday, sources told ESPN. When the league was asked if it could be on the following Saturday -- by making it this Saturday, the 32 teams only have about three days to make a decision on whether to attend and who to send -- the NFL said no and didn't provide a reason why.

Sources told ESPN that the NFL league office also said that none of the 32 teams had been made aware of the workout prior to the memo being sent. When Kaepernick's representatives asked if a team or teams had asked for the workout, they explained that the NFL league office said, "We can't tell you that."

Because of the shroud of mystery around the workout and because none of the 32 NFL teams had been informed prior to Tuesday, Kaepernick's representatives began to question the legitimacy of the workout and process and whether it was just a PR stunt by the league, sources told ESPN. The NFL league office was told that because GMs and head coaches make personnel decisions, especially as important as the quarterback position is, that they wanted to see a list of personnel executives and coaches who would be attending the workout.

As it stands now, the ball is in the NFL's court to submit the list of personnel executives and coaches who will attend on Saturday.

One source from an NFC team told ESPN's Josina Anderson that the team will review whether to attend the Kaepernick workout on Wednesday morning. "We have nothing to lose by attending Kaepernick's workout, but I still think for us it would just be an information-gathering trip," the source said. Another source told Anderson that there is interest in the Dallas Cowboys organization to send at least one representative to the workout.

Kaepernick, who turned 32 on Nov. 3, opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March 2017, following the season in which he first began the protests.

Within the past two years, Kaepernick and former Niners teammate Eric Reid filed grievances against the league through the NFL Players Association, alleging collusion among team owners to deny jobs to both players. In February, it was announced that both players had reached a settlement with the NFL. Terms were not disclosed.

Reid, a safety, is in the midst of his second season with the Carolina Panthers.

Last month, Kaepernick's representatives said he has been "working out five days a week, for three years, in preparation to play again" but that the opportunity hasn't presented itself.

Fresh off its victory in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, LSU finds itself atop this week's edition of the College Football Playoff rankings, while No. 4 Georgia edged No. 5 Alabama to break into the top four.

The Crimson Tide are outside the top four for only the fifth time in the CFP era (since 2014).

No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson, both coming off dominant victories to remain unbeaten, round out the top four.

No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Utah both moved up one spot from last week's initial rankings, and Minnesota's victory over Penn State vaulted the Golden Gophers nine spots to No. 8. It's the largest jump into the top 10 in the CFP era and the second-biggest week-to-week jump in CFP rankings history.

"Obviously, we're looking at the full resume," committee chair Rob Mullens said of Minnesota. "As we mentioned last week, nonconference schedule wasn't as strong as some. And then they only played one team in their league with a winning record, until Penn State. But, when you watch the game last week, they beat a Penn State team that was then ranked No. 4. It impressed the committee until that point, we were really impressed with what Minnesota did."

The loss knocked the Nittany Lions down to No. 9, followed by Oklahoma at No. 10.

No. 11 Florida and No. 12 Auburn are still linked at the hip, while Baylor, the only other unbeaten team in the CFP rankings, comes in at No. 13 after struggling to beat TCU in three overtimes. Baylor is the lowest-ranked Power 5 team at 9-0 or better in the CFP era.

"...When you look at Baylor's nonconference schedule, their two nonconference opponents have won a total of six games," Mullens said. "Obviously, Baylor has some great wins, they've certainly figured out how to win in close games. But at this point the committee felt they belonged at No. 13."

The Big Ten features the most teams in the rankings with six -- with No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Michigan and No. 20 Iowa rounding things out for the conference.

Notre Dame fell one spot, slotting in at No. 16.

There are five Group of 5 teams in the rankings for the second straight week: No. 17 Cincinnati, No. 18 Memphis, No. 21 Boise State, No. 23 Navy and newcomer Appalachian State, which knocked off South Carolina on Saturday and took the place of SMU at No. 25. It's the school's first appearance in the CFP rankings.

No. 19 Texas makes its first appearance in the rankings this season after beating Kansas State, which fell eight spots to No. 24.

No. 22 Oklahoma State rounds things out for the Big 12.

Wake Forest fell out of the rankings this week after losing to Virginia Tech, leaving Clemson as the lone ranked ACC team for the first time ever in the CFP rankings.

No sooner was the headline written -- Get used to Kentucky at No. 1 -- than the words "kiss of death" crossed my mind.

College basketball is too unpredictable, with so many more games determined by younger and younger players, for anything to last very long. Even the vaunted and generally infallible ESPN Power Rankings are apparently a little more fallible than we thought.

Here are two quick reactions from the not-even-ready-for-the-season Bracket Bunker: One, it's the second week of November and we never used to play games this early. So we all need to take a deep breath.

And, two, the emergence of year-round Bracketology -- I know, it's my fault! -- dictates there be an immediate consequence when top-ranked Kentucky falls to an Evansville team that hasn't had a top 50 win since the first day of 2015 against Northern Iowa. Non-conference, the Purple Aces haven't knocked off a top 50 foe since winning at Butler in November of 2011.

As for the Wildcats, let's remember they are already the third preseason No. 1 seed to lose in barely a week's worth of action. Kentucky took out former No. 1 overall Michigan State in the opening night Champions Classic, and Duke did the same to fellow top-liner Kansas in the same doubleheader.

What does it all mean for the next bracket update on Nov. 15? Michigan State and Kansas, barring additional wreckage, will remain No. 1 seeds. Both lost on a neutral court to the highest possible level of competition.

Kentucky, meanwhile, will drop off the top line despite owning the aforementioned victory over the Spartans. Before Big Blue Nation arrives in protest, remember Bracketology always values "body of work" over head-to-head results. The loss to sub-150 Evansville hurts considerably more than a marquee win helps, even one over the No. 1 team. The latter is a considered a 50/50 game, while the loss is analytically inexplicable.

But the sun will come up in Lexington. The season is in no way lost. A No. 1 seed for Big Blue remains very attainable, even the No. 1 overall seed. No one in the Commonwealth should tear up their Final Four tickets.

The most similar loss in recent times came a little less than two years ago when North Carolina fell in Chapel Hill to a rising Wofford program. Those Tar Heels dropped a line or two in the short run, but managed to recover enough for a No. 2 seed on Selection Sunday. And that was a fairly pedestrian Carolina team, 26-11 overall and tied for third in the ACC.

This Kentucky team is better than that one, and the Wildcats will probably begin proving it as soon as John Calipari regains their attention. Meanwhile, we can all assume there will be many more projected top seeds to lose between now and March.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.