The University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball team hasn’t won a championship since 2012. The past decade has been a continuous cycle of new recruits coming in, UK fans getting their hopes up, and then falling just short of the glory in April.
This year, Calipari’s Wildcats have a very good chance to break the cycle.
Nine games into the season, UK has impressed and hold a strong record of 7-2. Our highlighted victory came last Tuesday night after demolishing the number 8 team in the country, the University of Miami, 95-73. We also put forth a valiant effort against the number 1 team in the nation, falling just short to Kansas. A last second shot in that game is all that stands between us and an even better record up to this point.
The first nine games of the season have told us a lot about our team for this year. We’re a young squad with a lot of talent, having 8 freshmen rostered that all know how to ball. Some notables are D.J. Wagner and Reed Sheppard who have really been impressive as of now and important pieces of our team.
Furthermore, Calipari has a done a great job this year of recruiting unselfish players. The Wildcats average 20 assists per game and are always looking for the extra pass. This is a big reason why we also have a very high scoring average. By always finding the open man, UK scores over 92 points a game. This is a very impressive NBA-like number and a reason why other teams fear the Kentucky Wildcats.
Looking ahead into the season, our biggest concern is getting healthy. As of now, we have don’t have many big guys to control the paint. We have some players that do their best to maintain control of that area, but it’s not really their strong suit. We need our 7 footers to be healthy so we can protect our rim and get rebounds. This will be vital for our success against big schools we have to play down the road.
Injuries also contributed to our loss against UNCW. D.J. Wager, our best slasher, was out and unable to play. This disrupted the whole flow of our team. We were also putting a new rotation into the game with Bradshaw putting in some minutes for the first time. So while some UK fans were disgruntled after losing to an unranked team, it wasn’t as bad of a loss as it looks on paper.
Once everyone is healthy and have built up chemistry throughout the season, there’s not a lot of teams that can put up with us for 40 minutes.
While still far away in the distance, UK basketball fans can see March Madness in the horizon. If the Wildcats can keep it up, the trophy is in our grasp. We have the squad to do it this year, something we haven’t been able to say with any certainty in the last few years.
It’s gong to be exciting to see how the season unfolds this year, but as always, GO BIG BLUE!
