There are several legit teams this year. All that matters to me is March. This UK team has the advantage over Duke, KU, et al, because the SEC is so tough. I think we lose more than most predict this year, but we will be more ready in March than previous seasons because we will face nothing in the tourny we haven't already seen in SEC play.
This year's advantage is the SEC
- Thread starter Dutycat
- Start date
At the very least the SEC gets us used to being in foul trouble every year.
Agreed Fox2monk. There are many more veteran coaches in the SEC now who recruit and scheme to confuse and frustrate the perpetual youth and inexperience at UK. This is a short term solution, because the same thing that gets these coaches an occasional high-profile win, simply informs a steeper learning curve for our superior athlete's.
SEC is tough for UK every year, UK always plays teams who are sky-high and get beer muscles for us, so it's practically like playing a tourney-caliber team every single game, that isnt just Cal hyperbole with the "Super Bowl" stuff. This is why we always are battle-tested and almost always play our best in March, even when the league as a whole is dogshit, and the rest flame out when they play anyone besides UK. Once in a blue moon, a team actually puts UK effort against someone else (like Texas A&M did against UNC in the tourney last year when they curb stomped them), but it's few and far between.
One thing this year that might actually be different is the computer rankings of the SEC helping in seeding for the league, if the teams expected to be top 25-30 caliber turn out to stay that way most of the year (UT, Aub, UF, MSU, LSU). Course, they also just changed to this new NET thing so I'm sure they'll move the goalposts as they see fit by March and seeding time.
One thing this year that might actually be different is the computer rankings of the SEC helping in seeding for the league, if the teams expected to be top 25-30 caliber turn out to stay that way most of the year (UT, Aub, UF, MSU, LSU). Course, they also just changed to this new NET thing so I'm sure they'll move the goalposts as they see fit by March and seeding time.
It wont matter if the league is up or down. The cats ncaa bracket will still suck, and dook will get a shoe in.
Kentucky is returning some talent thoguh, which will help hat all-too-often dreadful stretch in January and February. It's insane how we always get it together in March, in time for the last few SEC games and the SECT. I expect that trend to continue but I also don't think we drop as many games in the early going.