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Kentucky will be staring at the top 10

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mbc82584

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Jun 11, 2006
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this time next week, after we shellack Mizzou and upset #1/2 Kansas at their own place.

We matchup extremely well with Kansas. They are a man to man, guard oriented team with a long stable of bigs that constantly under impress.

This UK team is starting to click and will be extremely hungry to win a marquee game and get back on the map. Despite the fact the Chokehawks really haven't looked that good this year, the polls have elevated them as some sort of great team they simply are not.

(In before Kansas trolls show up for their laughably unsuccessful rebuttals)

(Also in before Kansas fans flood our board before disappearing entirely next Saturday PM)
 
We may match up against them well but I think our youth will show. We have improved mightily the past 2 games... but it has only been two games. Can we win? Yes, but our inexperience has just as much of a chance of showing up as our dominance does. On a Neutral court I would say this game is a push, in Lawerence it is certainly in their favor. That place will be hopping and outside of the Arkansas game many of our young guys have wilted under the pressure of a hyped up home crowd.

Rooting for a Victory, but not expecting one. No one should Expect a win when you go to certain places, KU and UK are among the top in that category.
 
MKGMVP said:
UK is every bit as good as Kansas. Granted with it being on their home floor that gives them the advantage but people have way over blown this KU team.
Click to expand...

Like most teams (including us), Kanas is a much different team at home than on the road. But with Kansas, it may be even more of a discrepancy. They are just an entirely different team at home. I don't see any way we win this game.

That being said, on a neutral court, I think we match up great with Kansas. If they are a top 5 team this year, that should make us feel REALLY good about where we'll be come March. Just look at the individual match-ups.

Ulis > Mason
Murray > Seldon
Briscoe = Graham (and that may be generous to Graham, but we'll be conservative and call it even)
Willis < Ellis (admittedly, this is a big advantage to Kansas)
Poy > Lucas

Bench (Lee, Skal, Matthews) = (Traylor, Greene, Bragg) - This is based on the rotations played yesterday, and while that may change from game to game, it's not a strength for either team. Kansas can go deeper, but that's irrelevant in March, where teams have found their 7-8 man rotation.

And the biggest difference of all, Kansas wilts after conference season, and UK thrives.
 
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Riverslynn010 said:
Honestly didn't gaurd the 3 that well.. They just couldn't hit any open looks.. We did look a whole lot better though and hope we at least go inn there and give'm hell..
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Beg to disagree. Yes, they had a few open looks from 3 that they missed but we were all over them most of the game whenever someone beyond the 3 arc got the ball. I was there and noticed how well we were quickly moving and covering the 3 most of the game. No one is perfect, and there will always be a few open looks during a game, but I felt we kept the pressure on their 3 point guys very well all game.
 
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Kansas defends their home floor just as well as we have ours over the Cal years. It will take an A game from us to have a shot.
 
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I really don't see where Kansas has a player advantage. Being at home is their only advantage. I'm sure they'll get plenty of calls, and I'm sure they'll really be jacked up because of the game last year when we killed them. That said, if we can execute and hit some shots, we should be right there trying to take that game at the end.

Our guards can guard their guards, but I don't know if their guards can guard ours. I think the combination of Poythress and Lee can make life hard on Ellis. Who does that really leave on Kansas to hurt us offensively. The Greene kid could come in and hit some 3's on us, but I think that's about as far as it goes.

My prediction:

UK-----81
KU-----78
 
docholiday51 said:
If we had won the damn Auburn game we would be staring at top 10 right now!
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Yeah there were a lot of teams above us that lost, if we would have won things would have fell into place. But this group is going to do it the hard way with some things, we just need to hope that the improving continues.
 
Kansas is now 200-9 at home under Bill Self. It would have been a tough game for our team last year to win at Kansas let alone win this year with this team. I would be really shocked if we won at Kansas next week and as much as I would love to see it happen it will probably be a tall order just to stay in the game in the 2nd half to just have a chance to win it in the final 5 minutes.

This is not last year's team heck this isn't even that 2014 team which struggled and lost to teams like South Carolina on the road but took an 8 seed all the way to the NCAA Championship game. I thought that team had loads of talent and played below their talent much of the year where I just don't see the front court talent on this team that can win a game at Kansas or advance to the final 4 like many teams before have gone for us recently.
 
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Kansas is as unbeatable at their place as UK is in Rupp in the Calipari era. If UK plays a complete and competitive game I will be content regardless of the score. I just don't want UK to get blown out. UK can win the game but it's highly unlikely, and that would be the case for every team playing in Phog Allen.
 
They had a 7 year 68 game home winning streak until last basketball season. And are currently on a 30+ game home winning streak. So yeah it's going to be hard to win the game. Cameron gets a lot of meaningless hype from ESPN but honestly Phog Allen is the hardest place to play and win in the country. UK always has a good chance to win when we take the court under Cal but Kansas is a beast at home.
 
We've just played two of our best games of the year. But those two games are a game removed from losing to a below average Auburn team on their home court. It's not impossible to beat Kansas in Lawrence but even if the teams are dead even Kansas has a huge advantage.
 
Ellis is a good scorer who can get them buckets efficiently, and they can surround him with shooters. This will be the first real test for whether or not we can start Willis and Poythress against a big physical team. We'll need Murray and Ulis to have big games and hope we can get enough from everybody else to pull it out.
 
This team has played its best this year against the teams that were perceived threats to beat them. I believe every game we lost this year our boys overlooked/underrated the opponent. Let's hope this shows back up Saturday. (But not Wednesday!)
 
yabbadabbadoo said:
I really don't see where Kansas has a player advantage. Being at home is their only advantage. I'm sure they'll get plenty of calls, and I'm sure they'll really be jacked up because of the game last year when we killed them. That said, if we can execute and hit some shots, we should be right there trying to take that game at the end.

Our guards can guard their guards, but I don't know if their guards can guard ours. I think the combination of Poythress and Lee can make life hard on Ellis. Who does that really leave on Kansas to hurt us offensively. The Greene kid could come in and hit some 3's on us, but I think that's about as far as it goes.

My prediction:

UK-----81
KU-----78
Click to expand...
Ellis and one of Selden or Mason would start for us. They're bigger and deeper than we are. Not to say we can't beat them, but they are definitely more balanced offensively than we are.
 
mbc82584 said:
this time next week, after we shellack Mizzou and upset #1/2 Kansas at their own place.

We matchup extremely well with Kansas. They are a man to man, guard oriented team with a long stable of bigs that constantly under impress.

This UK team is starting to click and will be extremely hungry to win a marquee game and get back on the map. Despite the fact the Chokehawks really haven't looked that good this year, the polls have elevated them as some sort of great team they simply are not.

(In before Kansas trolls show up for their laughably unsuccessful rebuttals)

(Also in before Kansas fans flood our board before disappearing entirely next Saturday PM)
Click to expand...

How many road wins (not neutral court wins) does Kentucky have this year against Kenpom top 50 teams?
 
The reason in the past we have dominated Kansas is that Frank Mason struggles to finish over NBA length and Perry Ellis struggles to score on NBA length. Ellis will utterly school Willis so the key to the game for me is if Poythress and Lee can bother Ellis. Mason, Seldon, and Graham are going to hit some outside shots. But if we can shut down Ellis we have a chance. Not sure if we are up to that task....
 
mbc82584 said:
this time next week, after we shellack Mizzou and upset #1/2 Kansas at their own place.

We matchup extremely well with Kansas. They are a man to man, guard oriented team with a long stable of bigs that constantly under impress.

This UK team is starting to click and will be extremely hungry to win a marquee game and get back on the map. Despite the fact the Chokehawks really haven't looked that good this year, the polls have elevated them as some sort of great team they simply are not.

(In before Kansas trolls show up for their laughably unsuccessful rebuttals)

(Also in before Kansas fans flood our board before disappearing entirely next Saturday PM)
Click to expand...
I'm really not too worried about where we wind up next week or the week after that so long as we continue to progress as a team and have no relapses. Seeding doesn't seem to matter much since we're usually given the toughest bracket regardless.
 
You can bet Ole Mr impermissible benefits Self will be whining from the get go to the refs, Kansas will shoot at least 12 to 15 more free throws than we do.
 
The one thing I really like about the KU game is that their guards cannot stop dribble penetration to save their life. They are flat out horrible on the perimeter defensively. On top of that their rim protection is average as well. UK should do to them exactly what they did to Duke. Spread them out and drive the ball relentlessly.
 
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Hoskins91 said:
Ellis and one of Selden or Mason would start for us. They're bigger and deeper than we are. Not to say we can't beat them, but they are definitely more balanced offensively than we are.
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Ellis I'll definitely give you. Seldon is a maybe, leaning more towards probably. Mason, not a chance in hell. Also, not sure how they're deeper because Self doesn't use his bench. He's played his starters to the point of running them ragged. Diallo, Bragg, Mickelson and Greene don't play anymore than Skal does.
 
DwayneMeighan said:
Ellis I'll definitely give you. Seldon is a maybe, leaning more towards probably. Mason, not a chance in hell. Also, not sure how they're deeper because Self doesn't use his bench. He's played his starters to the point of running them ragged. Diallo, Bragg, Mickelson and Greene don't play anymore than Skal does.
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I don't know about recently, but for the year they are playing nine guys at least 10 minutes a game. Their top 4 all play around 30, but they play another five guys 10-15 minutes a game.
 
Hoskins91 said:
I don't know about recently, but for the year they are playing nine guys at least 10 minutes a game. Their top 4 all play around 30, but they play another five guys 10-15 minutes a game.
Click to expand...
On average maybe, but check the games they lost or that were close. When the going gets tough, Self doesn't trust his bench. Besides, even if they are "deep", they're not talented deep.

Their most talented bench players Bragg, Diallo, Vick and Mickelson don't get enough of a chance to do anything that affects the game one way or the other. Greene is a shooter but offers absolutely nothing else. Svi really shouldn't worry anyone and Lucas is flat out horrible
 
A week or so back, I dreaded this game honestly. If UK plays like they have the last two games then I think it could be close, but gonna be hard to win there. Crowd will be nuts.
 
DwayneMeighan said:
On average maybe, but check the games they lost or that were close. When the going gets tough, Self doesn't trust his bench. Besides, even if they are "deep", they're not talented deep.

Their most talented bench players Bragg, Diallo, Vick and Mickelson don't get enough of a chance to do anything that affects the game one way or the other. Greene is a shooter but offers absolutely nothing else. Svi really shouldn't worry anyone and Lucas is flat out horrible
Click to expand...

We're college talented deep. It's just not NBA potential talented deep.
 
I really don't know how I feel about this game. I know we can beat them, but I think Kansas will shoot lights out. You know this game has been circled on their calendars for a long time and their fans will be going crazy. I predict we get hit in the mouth early, and it will come down to how we respond. We either win by 5 or lose by 20.

Kansas has been inconsistent recently, they've looked like the best team in the nation at times and pretty crappy at other times. Right now they are trending downwards. The Texas team they just played is about at Vandy's level. We took Vandy to the woodshed, while KU struggled at home against UT. Kentucky looked like the better team yesterday.
 
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