Brandon Knight: Underrated?
By Paul Jordan
Is it possible for Brandon Knight to be under rated?
Hear me out for a second. We all know that he was a top point guard in last year’s incoming class and everyone talks about Knight being the next point guard in John Calipari’s long list of great point guards but it is very possible that star point guard Brandon Knight may be the most under rated player on this year’s Kentucky’s team.
It seems like in every game there is always something more to talk about than Knight’s big game, take the Louisville game for example. A freshman point guard going into a hostile environment and dropping 25 points including making four three point attempts in six tries. Those stats are eye popping and amazing but what was the big story coming out of the game with Louisville? Josh Harrellson.
Against Winthrop he poured in 21 points, but of course was over shadowed by the huge night that Doron Lamb had and broke the freshman scoring record.
But Knight was not the same player he is now when he was in Maui.
Against Oklahoma he had 13 points, against a very long and athletic Washington team Knight scored 24 which is one point shy of his current career high but turned the ball over a whopping eight times and got no assists
UConn was his only really bad game where he only scored six points.
But on the mock draft boards Knight’s stock wasn’t going anywhere and was still projected as a lottery pick.
It was said though that Knight was playing for himself and not playing as a team, as we saw against UConn it was an utter disaster, everyone trying to ‘go get theirs’ and it just didn’t work out.
Now fast forward to the beginning of SEC conference play and Knight has never looked better. Knight is now running the team and I sat courtside in the E-Rupption Zone for the Penn game and I must say that I know what Calipari means by how much of a turnaround Knight has made since Maui.
On EVERY possession that is a set play in the half court Knight is barking out signals and putting players where they are supposed to be and really running the team, he seems to have found his niche, he committed zero turnovers against a Penn team who had the chance to switch their defense constantly against the Wildcats.
Knight said after the game that “the main thing for me is running our team” and “I’m not the only person on the team that can score, and my main job isn’t to score it’s to get everyone involved first.”
This is not a freshman answer. It is obvious that Knight has bought into Coach Cal’s system and now instead of going out and forcing the offense and trying to do it all, he is getting his team mates involved more and sitting that close to the game made me realize how much Knight has came along.
Yet somehow he is still under rated. Brandon Knight, despite playing his best basketball in a Kentucky uniform has dropped not only from the lottery on the mock draft but OUT OF THE FIRST ROUND. To me this is unheard of.
Knight as of right now is having an All-American year at 18.3 points per game along with three assists and three rebounds per game and with his ability to score the ball at will, his high basketball IQ and his shooting stroke. He’s had all of these things all year but now he has added leadership to those qualities and is running this Kentucky team smoothly and he drops out of the first round? That’s unheard of.
These guys that do the mock drafts may not know what they are talking about, who knows but hey, it’s good for UK fans that Knight is projected this low because he may return to dawn the Kentucky uniform again. After all, if he stays for next year’s campaign he will be one semester shy of a college degree and we all know how important school is to him after getting a 4.0 this semester.
Keep an eye out for Brandon Knight this weekend against Georgia as he leads his Kentucky team on the road for the first time in the SEC and just watch how he barks out play calls and has truly became a floor general for the Wildcats.
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