Why the Kentucky Wildcats Are Overrated

Associated Press After watching a few games of the new, revamped Kentucky Wildcats, there was one thing that I thought that stood out. The Wildcats are way too overrated at the preseason poll, having the No. 3 spot. What fans have to understand is that the national champions from last year was arguably the most talented group of college basketball players to ever be on the same team. This year, coach John Calipari brought in one of America’s top recruits once again, but however this time the Wildcats youth showed. The Wildcats have so far started the season 1-1 with a win against Maryland and a loss to Duke. The Maryland vs. Kentucky game was ugly, scrappy and disgusting. The Wildcats had a chance in the first half to put the Terps away for good with a 49-36 lead, but Maryland battled back with the excellent play of center Alex Len. Maryland was much more physical in the frontcourt, out-rebounding the Wildcats 54-38, including 28 offensive boards. Kentucky’s top recruit, Nerlens Noel, was completely outplayed by Len as he let him finish with 23 points and 12 rebounds. The Wildcats were lucky enough to come away with a win against a good looking Maryland team, 72-69. However, they were exposed in many parts of the game. Then came the Blue Devils. Kentucky came out with a much better showing this time around, but the experience of the Duke team was too much for the Wildcats to handle. The rebounding game for them was much improved as they tired out Duke at 27 boards on the glass. However, Duke’s centerpiece of their offense in Mason Plumlee was benched for most of the game with foul trouble. This allowed Noel to finish with a very impressive stat line of 16 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and three steals. Would he have been as effective if Plumlee had avoided foul trouble? Freshmen Alex Poythress was the most impressive player for the Wildcats against Duke. He was all over the court getting put-back dunks and making the scoring plays the team needed. He finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. However, Duke’s experience and senior leadership proved too much for the Wildcats. Senior guard Seth Curry took ownership of the game and almost single-handedly won the game. Duke ended up winning, 75-68. The Wildcats have many questions that need to be answered. In time, they will, but right now No. 3 is way too high of a ranking for this young team, in my opinion. Who is going to step up and be the leader they need? Who is going to be their go to guy in crunch time? Is Nerlens Noel going to be the force everyone expects him to be? Can these freshmen grow in time for the to tournament? We will see. Right now, I don’t have the Wildcats cracking the top-10. The post Why the Kentucky Wildcats Are Overrated appeared first on FootBasket.