Kentucky was a well oiled machine last season as they cruised to the school’s 8th national championship.
Defense was the key as Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist led the Wildcats to great defensive efforts night in and night out.
Eamonn Brennan looks at Three Big Things for Kentucky this season and he talks about how the John Calipari defense gives them a shot every season.
What I do know is this: Calipari teams always defend. Every season, he gets his group of freshmen and a few veterans together, and every season, he drills them into playing elite-level defense. We’ve been over this before. Per Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency, since 2006, Calipari hasn’t fielded a defense at either UK or Memphis ranked outside the nation’s 15 best. Only twice (the 2011 Wildcats and the 2007 Tigers) has his defense ranked outside the top 10.
It’s a remarkable accomplishment, and it makes projecting this program pretty easy: The 2012-13 Wildcats are going to guard. It’s a lock. Take it to the bank.
If you guard like UK guards under Calipari, you’re going to give yourself a chance to win the title. You don’t have to be a majestically balanced, beautiful offensive team — and you don’t have to have a generational basketball alien (hint: I’m talking about Davis) — to win a championship. Which is why the 2012-13 Wildcats can be a mere fraction of their 2011-12 selves and still compete at the sport’s highest level.
Most think Nerlens Noel and Alex Poythress are the heir apparent to Davis and MKG defensively, but it will take a total team effort, just as it did last season.
This team might not be as talented as last season, but motor and playing defense can be emulated on a nightly basis, and this is what could push the Wildcats to #9.
