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Kentucky climbed all the way to No. 8 in this week’s Associated Press rankings going into Friday’s game against Illinois State.
After that it will be the start of Southeastern Conference play for the Cats.
Kentucky is currently 9-2 in non-conference play, the same record Auburn has. Ole Miss is the league’s only unbeaten team at 12-0 while South Carolina is 11-1 and Mississippi State 10-2. Florida and Georgia are both 9-3.
Tennessee, the preseason SEC favorite, is also at 9-3 and ranked sixth in this week’s AP poll while Arkansas and Texas A&M, both preseason top 25 teams, are 8-4. Alabama, another team expected to do well this season, is 7-5.
The SEC has not had a lot of marquee wins in non-conference play.
“Alabama is respected and has played a very difficult schedule,” Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy said. “I think Alabama played too difficult a schedule. Probably Texas A&M, too.
“They scheduled like they are Gonzaga, which schedules monstrously in November and December because their league does not give them chances for NCAA Tournament resume wins,” DeCourcy said. “They played good teams but did not win games.
“Arkansas has not been as good as they would have liked to be. Auburn is a team you wonder about. Ole Miss, Mississippi State and South Carolina have all performed well and better than expected.
“Maybe it is just that teams we did not expect to be good are good or maybe teams we expected to be good will bounce back as we get into conference play.”
DeCourcy has been impressed by Kentucky and thinks the Cats are one of a few teams with all the pieces to win a national championship.
He doesn’t think not having 7-footer Zvonimir Ivisic will make a huge difference if he’s not on the roster either because he does not return from Croatia after going home following UK’s win over Louisville or does not get cleared by the NCAA.
“If he hangs in there it might be possible they have him for the second semester,” DeCourcy said. “The fact is playing time was problematic at best for him. I want the kid to get what he wants but Kentucky really does not need him to be what they can be. With Aaron (Bradshaw) and Uno (Onyenso) back, Biz Z is a luxury and I just don’t think he is going to get a lot of playing time with the other two healthy if he is cleared to play.”
3 Responses
Kentucky is still Kentucky and the rest of the SEC gauges their success or failure in getting a win against us. They all know that Calipari is the weakest link on the team and that makes us beatable, even in Lexington. Now that Bradshaw and Onyenso are back, we will be hard to handle even with Calipari as coach, as long as we pass to find the good shot and not dribble to force a shot. We could finish the season undefeated winning the SEC, the SEC tourney, and a national title. We could also finish in 5th or 6th place in the SEC and win nothing in terms of titles. If Calipari doesn’t win with this team it will expose him for what he is…a good recruiter and an average coach. If he does win, it will show he is a good recruiter and the team was good enough to overcome him as being coach.
Coach of the year "hype" and not one SEC game. I could only wish Larry Vaught would be CZAR of a writers committee in our state. When I was entering SunCoast Arena for the City of Palms Championship game some kid about 6 years old was chanting "you can’t do that" haha. Let them write away, especially their "mock" draft non sense.
It’ll be very interesting at the end of the season to see who stays & who goes. The pressure cooker continues to cook.
We really need to win the Sec this year and Conference tournament! Hopefully are freshman can compete with the team’s that have there players come back for there junior and senior year’s! Go cats!
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