UK will beat West Virginia comfortably. My opinion only, of course. There will be a lot of talk of Huggins' record against Calipari and that's fair. I am a big Huggins fan at least in terms of his ability as a coach. I think he's one of the best, most underrated coaches in the country (then again, I think Roy Williams is underrated and most seem to disagree with me there, so take that with a grain of salt).
WVU relies heavily on trapping, pressure defense, of course. That's well-documented. What does not get as much play is the fact that the Big XII is absolutely a "little man's" league. It's a solid league, no doubt. But the league suffers from a lack of quality big men. West Virginia has played all year against smaller teams. You would think that would help against their pressure but evidently it hasn't.
Kentucky on the other hand has not only an abundance of big men but big men that can pass. Kentucky will be able to go "over the top" of the WVU press unlike any other team all season. Trey Lyles and Karl-Anthony Towns running the floor and the Cats' superb ability to throw outlet passes and lobs to bigger, athletic players will put WVU in a very uncomfortable position. I think they will have to back off a lot of the pressure they normally throw at teams.
WVU is better than Arkansas and much better coached, but you do not press those athletic bigs especially when Tyler Ulis is in the game. He totally carved up the Razorbacks. If he gets trapped in the corner it's trouble although he's usually conscientious enough to call timeouts before trouble, but he dribbles out of would-be traps so quickly and makes awesome decisions so regularly, he's nearly impossible to press if he hits his stride. And he makes you pay.
On top of that, this UK team is very careful and deliberate with the basketball.
In short, I think Kentucky's strengths more than negate what makes WVU dangerous. I think it's UK that will force an uncomfortable style of play on West Virginia and win comfortably.
This post was edited on 3/23 7:44 AM by JRowland
WVU relies heavily on trapping, pressure defense, of course. That's well-documented. What does not get as much play is the fact that the Big XII is absolutely a "little man's" league. It's a solid league, no doubt. But the league suffers from a lack of quality big men. West Virginia has played all year against smaller teams. You would think that would help against their pressure but evidently it hasn't.
Kentucky on the other hand has not only an abundance of big men but big men that can pass. Kentucky will be able to go "over the top" of the WVU press unlike any other team all season. Trey Lyles and Karl-Anthony Towns running the floor and the Cats' superb ability to throw outlet passes and lobs to bigger, athletic players will put WVU in a very uncomfortable position. I think they will have to back off a lot of the pressure they normally throw at teams.
WVU is better than Arkansas and much better coached, but you do not press those athletic bigs especially when Tyler Ulis is in the game. He totally carved up the Razorbacks. If he gets trapped in the corner it's trouble although he's usually conscientious enough to call timeouts before trouble, but he dribbles out of would-be traps so quickly and makes awesome decisions so regularly, he's nearly impossible to press if he hits his stride. And he makes you pay.
On top of that, this UK team is very careful and deliberate with the basketball.
In short, I think Kentucky's strengths more than negate what makes WVU dangerous. I think it's UK that will force an uncomfortable style of play on West Virginia and win comfortably.
This post was edited on 3/23 7:44 AM by JRowland
