In his weekly ‘Minutes’ column for Yahoo Sports, Pat Forde says UK needs to lose prior to the NCAA Tourney if they want to win it all, that they have played a weak schedule and may need a wake up call. Here’s the dime.
[B][I]Kentucky (4) still needs to lose. Perhaps now more than ever. The bull’s-eye on the Wildcats officially is visible from space – satellite photos show it clearly. To reiterate from last week, nobody since 1976 has taken a winning streak as long as Kentucky’s current 22-game run into the NCAA tournament and emerged the champion. And you have to wonder whether the underwhelming SEC might lull even a well-grounded team into a false sense of security. Using the Sagarin and Ken Pomeroy ratings as a guide, Kentucky hasn’t played a top-15 opponent since early December, when it lost to [URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/iai/”]Indiana[/URL]. Using RPI, Kentucky hasn’t played a top-25 team in that long. Every other team that figures to get No. 1 or 2 seeds –[URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/sci/”]Syracuse[/URL], [URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/kaa/”]Kansas[/URL], North Carolina, Duke, [URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/mbh/”]Missouri[/URL], Michigan State and [URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/oad/”]Ohio State[/URL] – has played at least one February/March game against a top-15 opponent. Most have played multiple games. The ‘Cats are the best team in the country and a deserving favorite heading into the NCAAs, but a “shocking stumble” in New Orleans this week might actually help.
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Forde goes on to pick UK to win the the SEC tourney, and states that Anthony Davis is the best player in the Nation. I wonder what his NCAA bracket will look like. I have already purchased my ticket to the NCAA Title Game.
[URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=AmnBbkhEBfnqz7lLB5vg0jHevbYF?slug=pf-forde_minutes_north_carolina_title_contender_030712″]Source[/URL]
