Now #3 on KenPom
- Thread starter Huma1894
- Start date
Like when we beat UNC by 30 and one AP voter dropped us out of the rankings and moved UNC to 22, that’s a BIG oops
The issue I have with a slow climb, is our upcoming schedule. It’s obscenely hard. We’re going to drop a game or 2 most likely.
I can see them moving us up 3 spots, then dropping us 6 spots, or more, if we lose at aTm and Auburn.
I think we should be mid teens. Probably #14.
We beat #22 on our home floor by a good margin. Bumping us up 4 spots is a pretty good jump. If we can beat A&M and AU away then that would put us top 6-8, maybe?
The (legit) argument against ranking us high was that despite looking really good and having some great computer model numbers, we hadn't beaten anybody good. That's gone now. We've demolished bad teams, we've demolished ok teams, and now we've demolished a good team.
At home. Our next ascension is going to be demolishing a good team at their place. Then all that's left is how would we do against a Duke, Gonzaga or Baylor type opponent. That gets answered in the tournament.
Well, when you look at the top teams in the country right now, Baylor just lost 2 at home and one of them was to a team that would lose to Vanderbilt ( Oklahoma State).
Duke lost at home to Miami and it was because they couldn't stop straight line drives right up the gut. Florida state then beat Miami.
Who has Purdue played lately? They lost at Rutgers.
USC lost to Stanford, who is the only legit team they've played.
UCLA lost to Oregon and got beat by 20 by Gonzaga, they're a fraud.
To me, Auburn is the only team that doesn't have a huge black eye, but we can change that next Saturday.
Kind of like gas prices in reverse, which has the quick, steep hikes then the mollasses in February slow drop
While those teams may have stumbled I'm only looking at how they would play if we were the opponent. We get everyone's best shot and those teams have talent.
Auburn will be ranked 1st or 2nd when we play them. A&M is a road game against a 15-2 team. If UK were to win both those games they should be ranked top 5 and it’ll be legit. But winning both of those games will be a tall order.
I'm excited. To have this opportunity in the SEC is great. Like you said getting two wins is a tall order, but this team needs those tests. Neutral site and away games have not been our strong points. This is a great opportunity to see if we've improved.
Yeah, it used to be any SEC loss was a bad loss and what really sucked was that these teams were disinterested in playing hard… .until UK came to town, then they decided to play out of their minds.
Now, these SEC teams are trying hard to win every game.
That said, they still take it up a notch when they play UK, which makes these blowout wins even more impressive.
Do you wanna know something else I noticed while on Kenpom.
In conference play although we are number 1 in points per possession on offense at 1.17, we are only 7th in the conference in offensive rebounding %.
Which I kinda found amazing given we are overall 2nd in offensive rebounding % in all of D1 for the entire season.
So we've been scoring on offense mostly through hot shooting and not turning it over. In conference games 1st in effective FG% and 1st in turnover % but just 7th in rebounding.
I take this as a good sign. The more things u excel at, the less likely it will all go bad in a specific game lol.
In conference play although we are number 1 in points per possession on offense at 1.17, we are only 7th in the conference in offensive rebounding %.
Which I kinda found amazing given we are overall 2nd in offensive rebounding % in all of D1 for the entire season.
So we've been scoring on offense mostly through hot shooting and not turning it over. In conference games 1st in effective FG% and 1st in turnover % but just 7th in rebounding.
I take this as a good sign. The more things u excel at, the less likely it will all go bad in a specific game lol.
I'd hypothesize that opponents are keying on Oscar, trying to keep him off the glass, so then we are getting a few more open looks from the rim a game.
When we play with three guards on the floor, their gravity along with Oscars opens up channels to score.
Yep. That and it's entirely possible we just had a stretch of teams in conference we played against that were good at rebounding.
Looking at it tho seems like all 5 of our opponents were averaging rebounding teams.
Texas A&M is not. It'll be curious to see if we feast on the boards in that one.
Going forward, I'd really like to see the defensive number get better.
Things happen in one and done tournaments. I'd like us to be good in as many different categories we can be.
Things happen in one and done tournaments. I'd like us to be good in as many different categories we can be.
I still feel we have better players than the teams we’ve played so far. LSU had equal athletes. AU has players and athleticism. That is the game I want to win. Beating AU on the road is a signature win for the season. That team won’t lose many games so having that feather in your cap when it is time for seeding would be nice. Even taking them out in the SEC tournament won’t carry near the same weight.
Heck, I want us to win all of them.
We didn't just "finally get a top 25 win."
We beat the hell out of them. We scored 107 on the number 2 defense in America. "Shooting the lights out" would be a step down from how well we shot vs them yesterday.
We went to LSU and almost stole that game. Despite being down Tyty and Wheeler. We would have won that game if either one of those dudes is in a position to finish the game.
Committees and voters aren't going to look past the superficial/surface stuff. LSU was a loss. Not a "Kentucky almost found away despite being down top 2 guards." TN was a win. Not "Kentucky destroyed a top 25 team and the #2 defense in college basketball."
I'm convinced some of the dudes watch little to no basketball and look at who won/lost.
We beat the hell out of them. We scored 107 on the number 2 defense in America. "Shooting the lights out" would be a step down from how well we shot vs them yesterday.
We went to LSU and almost stole that game. Despite being down Tyty and Wheeler. We would have won that game if either one of those dudes is in a position to finish the game.
Committees and voters aren't going to look past the superficial/surface stuff. LSU was a loss. Not a "Kentucky almost found away despite being down top 2 guards." TN was a win. Not "Kentucky destroyed a top 25 team and the #2 defense in college basketball."
I'm convinced some of the dudes watch little to no basketball and look at who won/lost.
We'd certainly like to see those defensive numbers be better, but it's not uncommon for a team to get "worse" defensively as they get better on offense. Some dominant offensive teams will defend like a top defensive team when it's necessary. Do they need to be lockdown on defense when they consistently work with large margins late in the second half of games?
Against Vandy, for example, if we were in a tighter game, I'm certain we wouldn't have ended the game getting outscored 16-0. The same for UT. Now, we didn't suffer a huge run from UT, but we definitely would have been more motivated to defend if we didn't have a lead in excess of 20 points built by the most dominant offensive performance of any team this season.
The 2012 is an example of this. Their defensive efficiency decayed as the season progressed while they became a dominant offensive team. Other manifestations include UF in 2007 and UNC in 2009. They didn't choose to become elite defensive teams until the situation called for it. I'm sure there are other such examples.
We've been solid defensively this season for the most part so we aren't like some of those glass cannons in the past, like Iowa last season. We can defend, but it's not necessary when we have 80 TS% for a game lol
