Kentucky Wildcats Morning Headlines: Cats get preseason #1
By Paul Jordan
Like many of you today, I’ve been hit with the widespread internet problems so it is an abbreviated Kentucky Wildcats Morning Headlines. The Basketball Cats get a preseason number one ranking while football prognosticators are not buying the Kentucky hype. Here are details.
Get ready for the barrage of preseason college basketball magazines to hit the newstands soon and Lindy’s is one of the first. And as expected, Kentucky picked up their first official preseason number one ranking. It’s still way early, but expect several similar honors to come UK’s way. Of course, preseason rankings are nice and mean nothing, but I guess it’s better than not being ranked in the preseason top ten. Hello Louisville? Anyways, here is Lindy’s Top Ten.
- 1. Kentucky
- 2. Wisconsin
- 3. Arizona
- 4. Texas
- 5. North Carolina
- 6. Kansas
- 7. Virginia
- 8. Duke
- 9. Gonzaga
- 10. Iowa State
Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Obviously John Calipari has brought Kentucky basketball recruiting to a whole new level, but he seems to not land the “big package deal” while at UK. The Harrison Twins do not count, in my opinion. That’s not a bad thing in my opinion, but may be something to keep an eye on as more and more of the top recruits seem to have more package deals set up than contestants have alliances in Survivor. Duke and Coach K made the big splash last year and there is talk that Malik Newman and Diamond Stone may be one of this years package deals.
This trend looks to continue to 2016 as Jayson Tatum may be forming a power couple with Harry Giles in college.
"He has talked about possibly joining forces in college with fellow 2016 stars Harry Giles and Dennis Smith, both of whom were also at the Elite 24.“It would mean a lot,” Tatum told SNY.tv in June. “That would be something that would be very special for all of us, that is, if all three of us come together and make it happen. It’s a pretty big piece for me with the relationships to see who you would play well with on the basketball court.”“Jayson Tatum and I talk about that all the time,” Giles also told SNY.tv in New York. “I talk to Dennis Smith, too. We all talk about it all the time, but nothing is set in stone.”Giles and Tatum won a gold medal earlier this month with the USA U17 team at the World Championships in Dubai.“We had a lot of fun, especially winning that gold medal,” Tatum said."
Tatum will be setting visits soon and should have Kentucky on his list. We will see how this one plays out.
Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
I believe in Mark Stoops and I think the football Cats will exceed the expectations that most pundits have set for them. I have seen a lot of predictions that UK will go winless in the SEC again and I’m not buying that. However, this type of opinion seems to reign supreme.
"KENTUCKY – I’ve got the Wildcats losing twice by the end of September and then winning just one more in almost a virtual repeat of last year’s 2-10 season. Here’s why – in the three seasons that Mark Stoops’ predecessor coached the ‘Cats, Joker Phillips won just four conference games. Stoops has as good a chance of turning things around as anyone but UK needs a lot more time and many, many more thoroughbreds. Kentucky is a young team but with the exception of an off week before the Vandy game on Sept. 27, this will be a long year in the Commonwealth. MY PREDICTION: 3-9 over-all, 0-8 in the conference, and 0-6 in the SEC East."