Every Kentucky team will inevitably be compared to their predecessors, and The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy writes as he wonders about which team this year’s team will be.
We are past the point of expecting this team will approximate the success of the 2010 team that won dual SEC titles and a No. 1 NCAA seed or the 2012 team that dominated wire-to-wire and won the NCAA championship. The question to be answered is whether it will more closely resemble last year’s NIT-bound dysfunction or 2011’s Final Four team.
It’s easily forgotten the 2011 team was 16-5 after Darius Miller declined an open 3-pointer that might have helped UK defeat Ole Miss on the road and went on to finish just 10-6 in conference. But that team closed on a 10-game winning streak before falling by a single point to eventual champ UConn in the Final Four.
Nothing that’s failing with these Wildcats is unresolvable. They remain perhaps the only team in college basketball with NBA-level talent at every position. There has been improvement with wing James Young’s shot selection, although it might be nice to see him look at a teammate just once before first checking to see if he’s got an opening. Freshman Dakari Johnson at least gives UK another option if Cauley-Stein continues not to compete.
Read “Time to panic at Kentucky? No, time to get tough” by clicking here.
A team, which only has one player that has even scored in a NCAA Tournament game (Jon Hood-4pts), has a long road to climb to be in the conversation with Brandon Knight, DeAndre Liggins, and Josh Harrellson’s tournament run in 2011.
It is hard not to lean toward last year’s debacle right now, unless in my opinion, a certain point guard begins to play the way he was projected.
Where do you think this team is headed? What has to happen for it to change?
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