By the end of next week....

[FirewithFire]

We will know exactly what this team has and does not have. A hostile road game at Clemson followed up by a dance with the Zags. It's either gonna shut some of these trolls up or depress an otherwise elated fan base. Gonna be a Malox Masher for sure.

 

[crawfords corner]

The only way Im worried is if we go to these two places and aren't competitive. Losing is one thing. Not being competitive, which is hard to imagine they will be after beating Duke at a neutral site, would give me a little cause for concern. I believe our guys are mature enough to handle it though.

 

[J-Ryan]

Even if we lose both (God forbid), as long as we play hard, I’m still excited for the year.

 

[Pygmy Sasquatch]

I don't think Kentucky will be bothered by the crowd at Littlejohn. Gonzaga will be a challenge.

 

[NociHTTP]

At every game in a season you find out what you're about.

 

[BigBlue1992]

We definitely need to win one of those games.

Not necessarily for end of the year stuff but just for a boost in confidence as we enter the tough parts.

Clemson is 7-1 so both games will likely be a battle but I like our chances in both games.

 

[DraftCat]

I'd like to think we will have a nice crowd at LittleJohn.... I got my tickets a month ago and that was before they lost to Boise.

There was quite a few available at the time.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

We wont lose to Clemson.
Gonzaga is a whole different animal, but Im not conceding anything!

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

I feel increased confidence because Cal isn’t on the sideline.

We have I’ll have a gameplan

 

[TheDude73]

Even if we lose both (God forbid), as long as we play hard, I’m still excited for the year.

I fully believe (not pumping HerrosHeros sunshine) we win both. Clemson will be a surprising easy win because statistically in all areas they are WAY below UK, and the couple of games I saw were painful.

Gonzaga will be the usual - but this time UK comes out of Seattle with the W. My prediction is a somewhat back and forth game (+/- 5 pt leads for each team) before UK wins in the end by 8-12 pts. But I think it will be a high scoring affair as Gonzaga can hit threes.

I think we come out of this week 9-0 and top 3 ranking (depending on how the other top 5 teams do).

 

[TheDude73]

We definitely need to win one of those games.

Not necessarily for end of the year stuff but just for a boost in confidence as we enter the tough parts.

Clemson is 7-1 so both games will likely be a battle but I like our chances in both games.

That 7-1 is a bit bloated against real cupcakes and a loss to the mighty Boise State. Take a look at the ESPN side-by-side stats comparison on the game. They aren't even close except maybe in steals and points allowed. About the only thing they might have is good defense, but frankly so did Duke, WKU and for a while (when they weren't tackling us) Ga St.

We average 96.7 ppg and they are around 79.4. We hold a solid rebounding edge at 45 pg vs. 37.8. Our assists are crazy at 21.1 vs. their 14.8. We average twice as many blocks.

I like our chances for a comfortable win at Clemson.

 

[blue cincy]

Heck we will be fine win or lose but I think we win 1 for sure and are in both. Pope beat Gonzaga last year IIRC with a lesser team. Maybe it was 2022. I looked at last year. They did not play.

 

[Wonky]

We will know exactly what this team has and does not have.

The thing is… under Cal, you knew there was very little chance of the team growing much from December to March.

So while I agree that we’ll know what we have and don’t have, you can no longer extrapolate that to the whole season, because this team will continue to grow and be coached. Deficiencies will be concentrated on and improved, if not entirely corrected.