Recent Blogs Posts

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10892[/ATTACH]
Kentucky and John Calipari from day 1 have been called the "one and doners" that will never have enough experience to win a national title. To a degree, one can understand that point of view. Not too many teams have won a national title with a "one and done" freshman in the starting lineup. Carmello Anthony and Syracuse did it in 2003. But since then, nada. But this Kentucky squad isn't your ordinary, everyday, run of the mill one and done team.

Yes, Kentucky is the 3rd youngest team in the nation, but it would be foolish to say blindly that they lack experience.

The dying art of the Kentucky Basketball senior isn't quite dead yet, as Darius Miller has the most experience on this UK team by far. He is 37th on the all time UK scoring list. That ranks higher than fellow 4 year letter men Chuck Hayes, Erik Daniels, Jeff Sheppard and Jamal Magloire. Miller has played in 149 games with a record of 121-28.

Darius isn't the only player on Kentucky that has valuable experience. Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb both have had incredibly successful UK careers. They rank 55th and 64th on the all -time scoring list and have won a total of 64 games compared to 11 losses. With those season stats aside, Miller, Jones and Lamb have a combined NCAA tournament record of 10-2 including 2 Elite 8's and one Final 4. Not too shabby.

While Baylor is a tough match up for UK physically and athletically, it will be the first time all year, with a possible exception of North Carolina, that UK has faced a team that has so closely mirrored them. As talented as Baylor is they aren't as experienced as Kentucky.

Baylor has 4 upper class men, but only Quincy Acy and Pierre Jackson play quality minutes. In 2008-2009 Baylor played in the NIT. In the 09-10 season Baylor made a strong tournament run only to lose to eventual national champions Duke in the Elite 8. The following year they didn't qualify for any post season action. This year Baylor has made another strong push by making it the the Elite 8. Altogether, current Baylor players are 6-1 in the NCAA tournament.

The quality of competition has been higher for UK than for Baylor in these last 3 post seasons. UK in the past 3 years have beaten 2 number 9 seeds, a number 5 seed, a number 4 seed, a number 2 seed and a number 1 seed. Baylor has yet to beat a team ranked higher than a 10 seed in that same time frame.

For the first time in a long time, UK will be the experienced team that has been there and done that. Will they play like it or will Baylor finally break its Final 4 drought of 64 years. This should be an intense battle.

Tags: baylor basketball, elite 8, final 4, kentucky basketball, march madness, ncaa tournament

Categories

Uncategorized

Attached Images

 

Kige breaks down the first day of the NCAA Tournament.

Isn't the weather great! Hear those birds chirping?

Tags: kige ramsey, ncaa tournament

Categories

Wildcat Basketball