This Weekend Opened My Eyes Wider

[Sawnee Cat]

Going into this weekend I was walking around with my eyes half open or half closed thinking this may be a year where only two or three teams had a shot at the Big Trophy and everybody else was just an also ran.

Duke goes down, Kansas goes down at home and Florida lost 3 in a row. Not only did these teams lose they showed weakness. They were exposed.

Bottom line, our Kentucky Wildcats have as good a shot as anyone come March. We are in the hunt and should only get better and better.

 

[W_Heisenberg]

I think it's Duke, MSU as heavy faves...then about 10 teams that could beat anyone on a given night. UK would for sure be in the mix. And don't sleep on Arizona, plenty of time to figure that out and with a guy like Ayton, wow.

 

[docholiday51]

I had similar thoughts as well,I didn't think KU was all that good in the first place.Duke should have at least one more loss than they do,I'm not sure where we fit into the mix just yet.

I think the ACC is down just a bit which will help Duke because they will pick up wins but not suffer because the schedule strength will get credit for it's usual standard.

The SEC is better than usual but may not be recognized as such by the national media

I think we will see some new names in the top 6 or 7 teams this season

 

[LineSkiCat14]

My worry is, will we have that Elite go-to guy to take games over. Not only from a physical standpoint, like scoring, but the mentality. We have yet to find our Wall/Ulis/AD/Fox/KAT type guy.

I think Knox will get there, and it's still SUPER early.. but that is my one worry, who is "the" guy? The team plays well together for early December, but I haven't seen one player really take that step forward yet.

 

[docholiday51]

My worry is, will we have that Elite go-to guy to take games over. Not only from a physical standpoint, like scoring, but the mentality. We have yet to find our Wall/Ulis/AD/Fox/KAT type guy.

I think Knox will get there, and it's still SUPER early.. but that is my one worry, who is "the" guy? The team plays well together for early December, but I haven't seen one player really take that step forward yet.

Said more or less the same thing in Rowland's 3..2..1 thread.it will be interesting how this plays out. I think we are still in the process of figuring out which 5 guys need to be on the court in "crunch time"

 

[gracetoyou]

I think it's Duke, MSU as heavy faves...then about 10 teams that could beat anyone on a given night. UK would for sure be in the mix. And don't sleep on Arizona, plenty of time to figure that out and with a guy like Ayton, wow.

Could you imagine if we had Ayton!

BTW, I love Richards...he's just a year away from being a big time impact player.

 

[docholiday51]

Could you imagine if we had Ayton!

BTW, I love Richards...he's just a year away from being a big time impact player.

If we had Ayton and Bagley both they would be sitting on the bench waiting to be cleared by the NCAA

 

[Jazzycat]

TAMU is the best looking team overall, that I have watched to date. There really is no dominant team this year. Arizona has the best mix of experience and new talent, but, I think the FBI investigations will have an impact, especially on the Ayton front.

UK has a chance to be in the hunt - as long as they work hard, develop team defense and offense and listen to their coaches. This could be one of the most wide open tournaments in NCAA history.

 

[kyjeff1]

I think it's Duke, MSU as heavy faves...then about 10 teams that could beat anyone on a given night. UK would for sure be in the mix. And don't sleep on Arizona, plenty of time to figure that out and with a guy like Ayton, wow.

Looking at Michigan State's roster, they have good (not great) guards, but are stacked at the forward and 5 spots. The me, they are going to be the scariest team come March.
I think Duke will get more and more exposed as the season goes on. But I also think K will shore up a lot of flaws and Bagley will pull them through a lot of tough games, but they won't beat MSU come March. Problem is, they'll be better than everyone else that is put in their bracket.
My only fear is what the committee does to us. We won't be in Villanova's bracket, nope, we are going to be in Michigan State's bracket. We seem to be in the bracket of death every year, so why should this year be any different?
But I think UK will be rocking by then. I'll feel better about our team if JV is added to the mix, but what Calipari is putting on the floor right now should be pretty darn good by March.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Said more or less the same thing in Rowland's 3..2..1 thread.it will be interesting how this plays out. I think we are still in the process of figuring out which 5 guys need to be on the court in "crunch time"

So.. let's figure it out!

Have to have Knox, as it stands now. Green for his shooting and protypical guard play. I think Shai is still a little too-raw. What he's amazing at (defense, energy, steals) we don't quite need in the last minute. Hami probably needs to be in there.. Richards or SKJ? Probably Richards. Don't think you'd start WG over PJ.

Green, Hami, Knox, PJ, Richards?

 

[Mr_GG]

I think the favorites are clearly: John Higgins, Duke Bias, UNCAA, and Mark Emmert.

 

[FrankUnderwood]

I think it's Duke, MSU as heavy faves...then about 10 teams that could beat anyone on a given night. UK would for sure be in the mix. And don't sleep on Arizona, plenty of time to figure that out and with a guy like Ayton, wow.

What exactly would “sleeping” on Arizona entail?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Looking at Michigan State's roster, they have good (not great) guards, but are stacked at the forward and 5 spots. The me, they are going to be the scariest team come March.
I think Duke will get more and more exposed as the season goes on. But I also think K will shore up a lot of flaws and Bagley will pull them through a lot of tough games, but they won't beat MSU come March. Problem is, they'll be better than everyone else that is put in their bracket.
My only fear is what the committee does to us. We won't be in Villanova's bracket, nope, we are going to be in Michigan State's bracket. We seem to be in the bracket of death every year, so why should this year be any different?
But I think UK will be rocking by then. I'll feel better about our team if JV is added to the mix, but what Calipari is putting on the floor right now should be pretty darn good by March.

The higher the seed, the less they can screw us. Keep winning games and leave no doubt that we should be a 1 or a 2-seed.

 

[Smashcat]

If we had Ayton and Bagley both they would be sitting on the bench waiting to be cleared by the NCAA

Absolutely.

 

[kyjeff1]

The higher the seed, the less they can screw us. Keep winning games and leave no doubt that we should be a 1 or a 2-seed.

We were a 2 last year and they tried very hard. Putting UCLA and UNC in our bracket was very obvious.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

We were a 2 last year and they tried very hard. Putting UCLA and UNC in our bracket was very obvious.

That's true. What boned us was Duke getting the other 2-seed, which meant right off the bat they had to be in a different bracket than UNC and Lewisville.

Which I can't state this enough: If you help one team, you hurt others. If they just let go of the "top conference teams can't play each other early" non sense.. we wouldn't see this year after year.

NCAA had Kentucky as the 5th overall team and Duke as the 7th. That means if we are to take away that conference non sense..

Kentucky would play Gonzaga

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Kentucky. Would. Play. Gonzaga.

(In case anyone missed it)

 

[JC43]

Arizona had there growing pains. With the return of Awlkins, their chances have improved ten fold. Just don't know if Sean Miller can do it. If they know how to play Championship basketball. That one game where they gave up, was horrible to watch.
Trier and Ayton are men.
The cats on the other hand have all the pieces to make a Championship team. As the conference competition begins, we will see how tough this team really is, SEC is one the top 3 conferences this year. Unlike seasons pass, a loss in conference won't be as detrimental as it was in the past 3 seasons. Like our chances

 

[W_Heisenberg]

What exactly would “sleeping” on Arizona entail?

Thinking early season losses matter....

 

[docholiday51]

So.. let's figure it out!

Have to have Knox, as it stands now. Green for his shooting and protypical guard play. I think Shai is still a little too-raw. What he's amazing at (defense, energy, steals) we don't quite need in the last minute. Hami probably needs to be in there.. Richards or SKJ? Probably Richards. Don't think you'd start WG over PJ.

Green, Hami, Knox, PJ, Richards?

As it stands right now you are probably correct,but one could make a case for SGA over Green they are almost interchangeable even though their skill strengths are different.

In certain situations I can see SGA and Green on the floor with .Diallo out.I feel sure I want Knox and Richards out there in crunch time,PJ vs WG is toss-up right now but PJ is closing the gap if he hasn't done so already

As I said in another thread we are as good 1 thru 8 (or maybe 9) as we have been since Cal got here(except the platoon year) but not as good as usual 1 thru 3

What we have't seen enough is how any players react in possession by possession grind it out situations late in the game.

 

[uk78]

I want to see how PJ does on the interior when the other team has a strong inside presence. Same with Richards. I still think we need one more good interior player and hope Vanderbilt can eventually play. Otherwise we seem way too vulnerable.

 

[KY Long Rifle]

Every year there are several teams that could win it. A win or go home tournament can yield some funny results. The best team could lose one game against anyone. If that one game happens in the tournament, that's the end of the road. We have just as good a chance as anybody at this point in the season.

 

[bucsrule8872]

My crunch time lineup:

Green
SGA
Diallo
Knox
Richards

 

[Lovebaskelball]

That's true. What boned us was Duke getting the other 2-seed, which meant right off the bat they had to be in a different bracket than UNC and Lewisville.

Which I can't state this enough: If you help one team, you hurt others. If they just let go of the "top conference teams can't play each other early" non sense.. we wouldn't see this year after year.

NCAA had Kentucky as the 5th overall team and Duke as the 7th. That means if we are to take away that conference non sense..

Kentucky would play Gonzaga

After the Pods are over would you have preferred to go West or go to Memphis?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Of course I'm going to pick closer to home, IF all things are equal. but I've never subscribed to playing out West as some huge hindrance. It's generally an easier region and it's only 2 of the 6 games. Plus, it's not like the other 3 schools in that region won't be actively cheering against us anyways.

Everyone will say "Well Gonzaga DID go to the title game".. Sure, but they did it by beating an 11 seed and a 7 seed in games that could have been a 2 seed and a 1 seed.

 

[ColonelCat]

So.. let's figure it out!

Have to have Knox, as it stands now. Green for his shooting and protypical guard play. I think Shai is still a little too-raw. What he's amazing at (defense, energy, steals) we don't quite need in the last minute. Hami probably needs to be in there.. Richards or SKJ? Probably Richards. Don't think you'd start WG over PJ.

Green, Hami, Knox, PJ, Richards?

Knox had his worst game saturday, he couldn't catch the ball and his dribbling was not any thing of beauty either. Hope this one is behind him and stays there. 7 to's and 5 pts is less production/reduction than we need..GO Kevin, GO Cats

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Knox had his worst game saturday, he couldn't catch the ball and his dribbling was not any thing of beauty either. Hope this one is behind him and stays there. 7 to's and 5 pts is less production/reduction than we need..GO Kevin, GO Cats

A bad day in an otherwise great start for a freshman. As it stands now, he's not only on the starting5, he's probably the first one selected.