Kentucky's gauntlet begins
The Wildcats will face several elite defenses as they finish SEC play. Up first: the Florida Gators
4 of Kentucky’s first 22 games have been against teams in the top 25 in KenPom’s defensive ratings; 7 of their final 9 regular season games will be. These next 9 games will be the pressure that, metaphorically, bursts pipes or makes diamonds.
The first of the “Suffocating Seven” is a matchup against Florida in Lexington. The Gators aren’t the toughest matchup of the seven games, considering a) UK gets them at home first and b) Florida’s offense ranks 145th in the country. In that sense this could be a fortunate break for UK as they get a chance to work out some kinks against an elite defense while having relatively fewer concerns about their opponent’s offense. On the other hand, if UK loses this game they won’t find many better chances to pick up wins to build their NCAA Tournament resume.
UK probably needs to win 4 games out of the following:
Vs Florida (Saturday)
Vs Arkansas (Tues, Feb 7)
At Mississippi State (Web, Feb 15)
Vs Tennessee (Sat, Feb 18)
At Florida (Wed, Feb 22)
Vs Auburn (Sat, Feb 25)
At Arkansas (Sat, Mar 4)
Do that, and win against Georgia and Vandy, plus win a couple SEC Tournament games and UK is probably in the NCAA Tournament. Anything less and UK is precariously and firmly on the bubble.
The 4 elite defenses Kentucky has already played are UCLA, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kansas. For premium subscribers, I’ll look at what UK showed in those games and how they match up against Florida this week.
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