Kentucky Wildcat Basketball fans: Stay Optimistic

Let’s be honest, it felt like Kentucky was getting pounded by 20 the whole game down in Chapel Hill, or maybe it was just me. Time after time when a shot went up by North Carolina in the paint, or every time the North Carolina back court fed the Tar Heel front court every UK fan cringed and turned because they knew what was coming.

It wasn’t pretty.

Time after time Tar Heel big men, Tyler Zeller and John Henson abused Kentucky in the paint. Time after time they followed miss shots for huge dunks and each time anxious eyes would glance down to the score board at the bottom of their screen to see how much we were down, but it was odd because Kentucky maintained and held onto the lead for most of the game.

In fact, despite being outscored by 20 points in the paint Kentucky had a chance to win it at the end of the game. If you know the game of basketball, usually when one team gets outscored that bad inside the paint the score is almost always in double-digits. In fact, on the road in a game in the first weekend in December. That is a recipe for disaster.

After the game message boards began to light up with complaints about the officiating and how Kentucky just was not getting the calls North Carolina did. Others were lighting up about how Brandon Knight isn’t really a point guard, but just a really good basketball player. Most just said, “Well what if we had Kanter?”

What those complaining didn’t see though was how well Kentucky actually played. Kentucky should not have been in the game, even Coach Calipari said that. Let’s face it, Terrence Jones isn’t going to go 3-17 every game. Kentucky isn’t going to have to face the front court of North Carolina’s caliber for the rest of the season and Kentucky isn’t going to foul out four players every single game. Kentucky has a lot to be optimistic about.

The sky is nowhere near falling on these Wildcats who has Brandon Knight and Doron Lamb who both have a stroke that none of the NBA bound stars had last year. Kentucky’s perimeter game was both efficient all game and balanced. They let their shots come to them, didn’t rush and let the lanes open up for driving and slashing. That is something Kentucky CAN do all year against every team they face. Kentucky is better suited to run the dribble drive better than last year’s squad and its showing.

Kentucky’s defense is also there with intensity. Kentucky guarded the three point line to perfection and held North Carolina to only one three in the game out of 11 attempts. Something that was an Achilles heel last year for Kentucky was guarding the three point line and closing out on shooters. Kentucky got after it in Chapel Hill.

Nobody has gone in “sky is falling” mode yet and rightfully so because this Kentucky squad doesn’t have the star power that it did last year. Brandon Knight will develop as Tyreke Evans did under John Calipari, Kentucky will continue to flourish under the dribble drive motion offense and the defense will continue to be bothersome and cause trouble all year. Kentucky has no reason to be anything but optimistic about what the season ahead holds.

But do keep your fingers crossed about Enes.

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