Kentucky basketball: Is the SEC better or are the Wildcats worse?
By Drew Koch
The Kentucky basketball team has struggled to perform up to its normally high expectations thus far. Is the SEC really getting better, as people are saying, or are the Wildcats just not as good?
This year’s Kentucky basketball team has fallen short of Big Blue Nation’s normally lofty projections. There is still a lot of basketball to be played, and Saturday’s clash with West Virginia will go a long way toward shaping the ever-changing expectations of the UK fan base. But, are BBN’s opinions about this team’s underachievement due to lack of talent or an uptick in the competition in the SEC? I am ever the optimist, so I’d like to think it’s the latter, but let’s dive into the numbers just to be sure.
The case for an improved SEC
The SEC has 8 teams in the RPI Top 50. By comparison, the ACC, always regarded as the top conference in college basketball is tied with the SEC, having 8 in the RPI Top 50 as well. The other top conferences, the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big East and Big 12 lag behind. In fact, the SEC has more teams in the RPI Top 50 than the Big Ten (4) and Pac-12 (3) combined.
Digging deeper into the depth of the SEC, you’ll find they have 13 of the conference’s 16 teams in the RPI Top 100. The Big Ten has 8 in the RPI Top 100, the same number the SEC has in the Top 50. Once again, only the Atlantic Coast Conference rivals the SEC, as the ACC has 12 of its members in the RPI Top 100.
Two of Kentucky basketball’s three losses in conference have come against RPI Top 50 teams. The Tennessee Volunteers (13) and Florida Gators (26) both defeated the Wildcats. South Carolina may be UK’s worst loss in conference, but the Gamecocks are just outside of the RPI Top 50 at No. 56.
Don’t forget, South Carolina made the Final Four last season, defeating Duke, Baylor and Florida along the way. Speaking of the Gators, they joined the Gamecocks and our beloved Wildcats in last year’s Elite Eight. No other conference had more than one.
Of the nine year’s John Calipari has coached the Cats, five have resulted in both SEC regular-season and tournament championships. Only Florida, under the tutelage of Billy Donovan, have even been competitive year in and year out during that span. So, one could easily make the case that the SEC is much improved from years past.
The case for an underachieving UK squad
Much has been of this year’s Kentucky basketball team. A preseason top 5 team in the country, the Wildcats have definitely fell short of those projections through two-thirds of the season. The one word that comes to mind the most with this year’s team is inconsistency.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the inconsistency with this year’s Kentucky basketball team can be attributed to youth. Calipari always has young teams at Kentucky, but this team is much younger than any he’s had during his tenure. With John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, he had Patrick Patterson. With Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, he had Darius Miller. Last year, with Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox, he had Derrick Willis and Dominique Hawkins.
How nice would it be if Isaiah Briscoe or Issac Humphries returned for their junior seasons? Not so much for their production, because Calipari has never leaned on his veterans for a lot of production. He has his 5-star freshman carry that load. However, what this team lacks more than talent is leadership. A presence like Briscoe or Humphries would be good for this team right about now.
Instead, like in 2013-14, Cal is forced to push these young players to grow up quickly. It finally paid off for Julius Randle and company, when they rode their wave of talent all the way to the National Championship game. The previous season, after Nerlens Noel went down with a knee injury, the Wildcats never recovered. That team ended up in the NIT.
Now, this team is obviously more talented than the squad that bowed out to Robert Morris in the NIT. However, if they can’t learn to trust one another, they could be looking at a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Everyone is Big Blue Nation always has their eyes toward March. But, the month of February will go a long way toward determining the fate of this season’s Kentucky basketball team.