Kentucky basketball: Preview, prediction vs Kansas St. NCAA Tournament
By Drew Koch
The Kentucky basketball team punched their ticket to Cat-Lanta last Saturday, and advanced to their 7th Sweet Sixteen in 9 years. On Thursday night the Cats will take on the Kansas State Wildcats.
The 5-seed Kentucky Wildcats are the highest remaining seed left in the South Region. UK knocked off Buffalo last weekend to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The No. 8 seed Kansas State Wildcats will face off against the Cats on Thursday night. Bruce Weber’s team is all that stands between the Kentucky basketball team and their second consecutive trip to the Elite Eight.
The Kentucky Wildcats have been led by their freshman phenom Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 23 points, 7 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 3.5 steals during the first 2 games of the NCAA Tournament. Shai got some help in the Cats first game from fellow freshman Kevin Knox.
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Knox had a game-high 25 points in the Cats opening game against Davidson. Unfortunately for Knox, he only had a pedestrian 8 points the following game against Buffalo. Thankfully for Kentucky basketball fans, Hamidou Diallo stepped up big in Knox’s absence. Hami knocked down a corner three-pointer, played elite-level defense and had two highlight-worthy dunks. Diallo finished the game with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
Kentucky’s opponent on Thursday night plays much different than the Buffalo team that Kentucky ran out of the gym over the weekend. Bruce Weber’s plays a much slower brand of basketball with an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball. Kansas State has held their opponents below 67 points per game on average, and rank 46th in the nation in that category. Let’s preview Thursday’s game:
Date – Thursday March 22, 2018
Time – 9:37 PM ET
Location – Atlanta, Georgia
Venue – Philips Arena
TV – CBS
Live stream – CBS Sports Live
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Keys to victory for the Kentucky Wildcats
Big Blue Nation would love to see more of the same from the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday night against Kansas State. The Cats averaged 86.5 points in their first 2 games of the tournament, and would love nothing more than to keep this game a high-scoring affair. KSU has failed to crack even 70 points thus far in the tournament.
The Cats have kept their turnovers low. Against Davidson the Wildcats had only 9 giveaways, and turned the ball over only 10 times against the Buffalo Bulls. Kansas State forces opponents into about 14 turnovers per game, so the Kentucky basketball team needs to keep their errors to a minimum.
The Kansas State Wildcats employ a small lineup for the majority of the game. Makol Mawien, at 6’9″, is the tallest player who plays any meaningful minutes for Kansas State. Kentucky’s size inside should be a huge advantage over KSU, both in rebounding and interior scoring. I look for PJ Washington, so long as he stays out of foul trouble, to have a dominant performance.
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Kansas State players to watch
The Kansas State Wildcats are led by a pair of juniors, Dean Wade and Barry Brown. Both players average over 16 points per game. Wade can knock down the three-point shot, but prefers to do his damage on the interior. Wade has been out since the Big 12 Tournament, but there’s a good chance he could return for the clash against Kentucky.
- Dean Wade – 16.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists
- Barry Brown – 16.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists
- Xavier Sneed – 10.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 40.8 FG% shooting
Prediction
Regardless of Dean Wade’s status, this is a game that favors the Kentucky basketball team. Kentucky has won 9 of their last 10 games, and are playing their best basketball of the season. Kansas State is statistically over-matched in almost every category, but the games, especially at this time of the year, are not played on paper. That being said, so long as Coach Cal has his team focused on the team and not the seed, I think the Cats prevail.