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Kentucky fans might have questions about John Calipari’s team but ESPN’s Dick Vitale is all-in on the Wildcats.
After the NCAA Tournament pairings were announced Sunday night, Vitale picked two Southeastern Conference teams — Kentucky and Tennessee — to make the Final Four along with defending national champion UConn and Baylor.
He has Connecticut and Kentucky in his final game with Kentucky as his 2024 national champion — “KENTUCKY to WIN it ALL!” Vitale said.
Kentucky’s 97-87 loss in the SEC Tournament to Texas A&M didn’t bother other national college basketball analysts either.
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright, a multiple national championship winner, called UK “really interesting” and likes the Cats’ chances to make the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2019.
CBS-TV analyst Clark Kellogg, who picked UK to win at Tennessee, predicted a Final Four run for the Cats while Seth Greenberg has UK advancing to the national championship before losing to UConn.
ESPN personality Myron Medical annually writes a lengthy story breaking down every team in the NCAA field. He likes Kentucky as well and wrote:
“This is the team every opposing coach in America hoped they wouldn’t see in their region. Antonio Reeves (20.0 PPG, 44.1% from 3) should be an All-American. In ESPN’s latest NBA mock draft, freshmen Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard are top-five picks — who have come off the bench for most of the season.
“From their Feb. 10 loss to Gonzaga to the end of the regular season — which included beating Auburn and Alabama by 37 points combined — the Wildcats connected on 57% of their 2s and 42% of their 3s, per barttorvik.com.
“More compelling however is that this team, which has played sub-100 defense for lengthy stretches of the season, was 53rd in adjusted defensive efficiency in those games. In other words: the Wildcats can play good defense when they decide to play good defense.”
And to fulfill Vitale’s prediction, Kentucky has to play at least “good defense” and be a lot better than it was against Texas A&M.
11 Responses
The Mouth, Dickie V, is doing his best to quiet the fire Calipari crowd. It’s going to take more than his Big Mouth to do that though. Oakland should be a scrimmage game. Texas Tech is not a physical team either, but they can shoot. NC State has a couple of bruisers and decent shooters too. They would not be the team we would want to play in our second game…IF we have a second game to play.
I’m wondering if Jimmy Jimmy is related to Dickie V…they both have Big Mouths that could fertilize the state of Montana. Together, they could make Texas look like the tropics. Dickie V, we put Jimmy Jimmy’s face on milk cartons AGAIN, but have no clue where his cowardly azz is. You would think that even if he is on the moon, we could still hear him SQUEAL!!!
You keep on and you’re going to talk him up.
Comment not totally out of character for the V man but you have to wonder if he owes Cali-fraudi something or has pix. We are already in trouble since Cal said the Oakland coach is a great coach. I am looking forward to seeing how many points the bracketologists have Oakland favored by. Oh…how the mighty have fallen. Cal has taken us to levels of irrelevancy unimaginable just few years back.
Barry, Mike & others who know UK BB… we are not going to be fooled by mouth vitalis because he sounds just like the fraud.
Those media members and coaches who praise the wrong king are all hoping he will be at UK another 30 years so every opponent can beat the pulp out of his pets. They are not UK fans. They can’t stand UK.
UK has the best collection of players in the nation.
UK may be undefeated and favored to win it all…
IF…
UK had a real & honest coach – starting potential Top 5 draft picks, Z & Ugo developed, playing Burks & the right combination of players instead of pets.
But UK lacks a REAL coach
Unless something changes , UK is extremely vulnerable right down the middle of the lane. A&M exposed that seemingly effortlessly.
It has been an open lane all season, but we can’t duplicate on offense. Must be the coaching.
Unless Cal can suddenly develop these players into much better defensive players, which he hasn’t done all year, I don’t see a chance of getting through the second weekend.
He has lowered expectations so badly that just getting to play in the second weekend feels like a huge win for the program.
He’s prepping us in case we lose to Oakland. He’s talking about what a great coach Oakland has.
With all of that being said, let’s dive into some predictions for the Cats heading into this year’s NCAA Tournament:
Seth Greenberg (ESPN): National Runner-up (losing to UCONN)
Jay Bilas (ESPN): Elite Eight (losing to Houston)
Jay Williams (ESPN): Final Four (losing to Tennessee)
Jeff Borzello (ESPN): Elite Eight (losing to Houston)
Jerry Palm (CBS): Sweet Sixteen (losing to Marquette)
Matt Norlander (CBS): Elite Eight (losing to Houston)
Clark Kellogg (CBS): Final Four (losing to Purdue)
Andy Katz: Final Four (losing to Purdue)
Dick Vitale (ESPN): National Champions (defeating UCONN)
It’s obvious that these guys are trying to throw Calipari a bone because there is nothing to justify these predictions based upon this season or previous tourney disappointments.
My gut tells me that we lose in the 3rd game, unless we play NC State in the 2nd game. Oakland is not big or beefy, but they do have shooters. I am guessing we could survive a pure shootout, but that would not be the case with the Wolfpack.
Thought I would revisit this wonderful Prediction. Nice pick.
And…….to not have Terrance Shannon Jr. on any of Mr. Vitale’s three All American Teams is the worst award decision of this 2023-2024 basketball season. PATHETIC.