Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats #1 Again

by Glenn Logan on Jan 23, 2012 7:16 PM EST in Kentucky Wildcats Basketball

Andy Lyons - Getty Images

We're #1 left and right!

As expected, both the Coaches and Associated Press poll elevated Kentucky to #1 for the second time this year. Tomorrow, the Wildcats will have their first test at the top, on the road vs. the Georgia Bulldogs.

To my thinking, Kentucky has been up and down over the last few games, barely eeking out a win at Tennessee (but to be fair, the Vols are improved). Then Kentucky easily handled the Arkansas Razorbacks in a game that, but for some crooked shooting, might have been one of Kentucky's better games of late. Finally Kentucky ground out a victory at home against the Alabama Crimson Tide in a game which saw UK miss many short, easy shots.

I think if I had to pick a team that was likely playing the best basketball right now, it would be Missouri. Defeating Baylor on the road is just very impressive to me. The Tigers have weaknesses, though, and if there is one team besides Kentucky who has the fewest weaknesses, it is certainly not them, but the Ohio St. Buckeyes. Since dropping that game at Illinois that saw the Buckeyes collapse in the second half, Ohio State has been throttling its opponents like they have something to prove.

If it sounds like I am down on UK, I'm not. They have earned this position and they deserve to be #1 in the land. The fact that they are not playing their best basketball (yet) can be seen as a glass half-full as easily as half-empty. No matter what others may tell you, in this writer's opinion, Kentucky's far from reaching their potential, and they are still winning every game. There's a lot to be said for that, and they are doing it with defense and by essentially refusing to let some spotty play stop them. After all, you want to be playing your best basketball in late February, not necessarily in mid-January.

I do need to say a word or two about the Syracuse Orange. That defeat at Notre Dame was a shock. I have seen Syracuse play many times, and it looked to me like they panicked after getting down about 12 in the second half, heaving up crazy threes from 23 feet over and over again. Up until that game, Syracuse had looked like a smooth wall, running over the competition with far superior play on both ends. I can't believe Fab Melo made that much difference.

By comparison, Kentucky has been down a few times in the second half, but they have yet to panic even once, and Syracuse is a much more experienced team. I think that says a ton about the confidence and presence of mind of these young Wildcats.

Okay, so here are the two polls, condensed, with some commentary afterward.

APRank	Prev	Delta	Coaches	Prev	Delta	Team	Wins	Losses	Votes	1st	SOS	SOS Proj.	SOS Rnk	SOS Proj. Rnk	Conference
1	2	1	1	2	1	Kentucky	19	1	1620	61	0.5370	0.5676	78	61	SEC
2	5	3	2	5	3	Missouri	18	1	1532	2	0.5291	0.5619	96	74	Big 12
3	1	-2	4	1	-3	Syracuse	20	1	1506	2	0.5917	0.6119	8	6	Big East
4	6	2	3	6	3	Ohio State	17	3	1411	0	0.5614	0.6006	37	16	Big Ten
5	7	2	5	7	2	Kansas	16	3	1383	0	0.5879	0.6095	11	9	Big 12
6	3	-3	7	3	-4	Baylor	17	2	1234	0	0.5848	0.6059	15	12	Big 12
7	8	1	8	8	0	North Carolina	16	3	1232	0	0.5508	0.5935	56	27	ACC
8	4	-4	6	4	-2	Duke	16	3	1176	0	0.6118	0.6130	1	5	ACC
9	10	1	10	12	2	Georgetown	16	3	1045	0	0.5702	0.5949	27	26	Big East
10	9	-1	11	9	-2	Michigan State	16	4	1009	0	0.6013	0.6299	3	1	Big Ten
11	12	1	9	10	1	Murray State	20	0	925	0	0.4643	0.4524	263	253	Ohio Valley
12	14	2	15	20	5	UNLV	18	3	886	0	0.5620	0.5866	35	36	Mountain West
13	16	3	12	16	4	San Diego State	17	2	832	0	0.5228	0.5668	109	65	Mountain West
14	17	3	13	14	1	Florida	15	4	709	0	0.5233	0.5745	107	51	SEC
15	19	4	14	18	4	Creighton	18	2	682	0	0.5316	0.5341	90	107	Missouri Valley
16	11	-5	17	13	-4	Indiana	16	4	609	0	0.5590	0.5854	44	38	Big Ten
17	21	4	18	22	4	Marquette	16	4	517	0	0.5792	0.5998	18	18	Big East
18	18	0	16	15	-1	Mississippi Sta	16	4	422	0	0.5375	0.5685	77	57	SEC
19	15	-4	21	17	-4	Virginia	15	3	414	0	0.5020	0.5475	148	90	ACC
20	20	0	22	19	-3	Michigan	15	5	396	0	0.5667	0.6037	31	15	Big Ten
21	24	3	20	23	3	Saint Mary's	19	2	345	0	0.5031	0.5099	144	137	West Coast
22	25	3	24	-	-	Kansas State	14	4	252	0	0.5585	0.5847	49	39	Big 12
23	-	-	-	-	-	Florida State	13	6	244	0	0.5978	0.6043	5	14	ACC
24	13	-11	19	11	-8	Connecticut	14	5	203	0	0.5929	0.6225	7	2	Big East
25	-	-	25*	21	-	Wisconsin	16	5	182	0	0.5666	0.5964	32	20	Big Ten
			23	24	1	Harvard	16	2	**	**	0.4663	0.4775	254	189	Ivy League
			25*	-	-	Louisville	15	5	**	**	0.5580	0.5954	50	24	Big East

*	Tie
**	Coach's poll only

Comments:

I think the Connecticut Huskies are still over-ranked in the Coach's poll.
Shouldn't Vanderbilt be in there somewhere?
Not buying Louisville at 25th. Beating the struggling Pittsburgh Panthers is just not enough.
Baylor loses two back-to-back, one at home, and they drop only 3?
The Coach's poll still has Duke ranked way too high.

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to add yours below.

0 recs | 25 comments

Comments

Syracuse ... will get another shot tonight .. with Cincinatti

ukcris - January 23, 2012 reply

Cincy is giving them all they can handle......this could be interesting

Greg Alan Edwards - January 23, 2012 reply

Syracuse is really big.....and they play big.....but they do not appear to be all that fast, at least from first scrutiny

Greg Alan Edwards - January 23, 2012 reply

not sure what happened at ND ... I watched part of that game ... and Syracuse was just lost

I can’t see how losing one guy could make that big of a difference in how they play – but obviously it did

ukcris - January 23, 2012 reply

Duke, UNC, and UConn were all overrated at beginning of year

UNC is very good, but the notion that they were a cut above was wrong. I consider UNC to be weakest member of the Big 4 (OSU, Syr, UK are other obv). UConn’s overestimation was based on the ridiculous overhype of Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond. Both will be nice pros, but neither are anywhere near as valuable as the punditry presumed. UConn is not a top-25 team at present. Duke has no athleticism and Austin Rivers is the most overrated player on a major team. He probably ranks about 1000 in D-1 offensive efficiency and he doesn’t play D or move well without the ball. None of the Duke guards are capable of guarding talented players 1-on-1, which is why their defensive numbers are so bad. They are lucky to have only lost 3 games…should have lost 1-2 more.

Kevin Hurst - January 23, 2012 reply

Buy

After all, you want to be playing your best basketball in late February, not necessarily in mid-January.

I do like the fact that we are grinding them out when we aren’t playing well, shows fortitude. Just hope we don’t have a replay of last year tomorrow night…

EagleTDL - January 23, 2012 reply

I think this may be the right time for UK to get back to #1 in the polls.

They did not handle it well the first time, in my opinion. I think they have learned a few things since then, and now the ranking will hopefully cause them to continue to improve at a fast pace. It will be that much more motivation for our opponents – especially on the road. The Cats will have to learn to live with that extra target on their backs.

Of course the poll is more of a popularity contest that anything else, but dang it, they like us! Hopefully they’ll still be liking us when the last game is done.

GriffinRC - January 23, 2012 reply

FSU winning at Camron and not in ESPN poll or Coaches ???

And Louisville is still somehow in top 25 (ESPN only)…..Duke loses to a still unranked opponent and drops 2 spots????

OvaDwayneBowe - January 24, 2012 reply

my bad FSU is in the AP poll

but how do the coaches not see them as a top 25 team ?

OvaDwayneBowe - January 24, 2012 reply

And they dominated UNC....

memphis wildcat - January 24, 2012 reply

Mainly because their other losses were BAD

they have enough votes to be “26”, and as long as they handle themselves the should be 20-21 in both next week.

floundringaround - January 24, 2012 reply

"a game which saw UK miss many short, easy shots."

Davis was really getting “banged” on his put-backs, Alabama was very physical under the basket……not sure he missed many easy shots. Teague missed one he should have made, but, it was contested also.

Bama didn’t block alot of shots, however, their physical play changed alot of shots.

I agree that we must learn to play and score when the play is rough, however, scoring in traffic and with a body on you…..is not an easy shot!

seattlekat - January 24, 2012 reply

I saw the "easy shots" reference

and thought exactly the same thing. Right down to Teague’s blown layup. The announcers were pretty oblivious to how Davis was being pushed around. On one play, as he was grabbing a rebound underneath the basket, JaMychal Green hip-checked him out of bounds (Cal said it was into the cheerleaders), and the officials called it a turnover. Jim Spanarkle’s response was that Davis normally had good hands but lost that one out of bounds. That kind of thing happened a lot. But if the refs are going to call the game that way, we have to give as good as we get.

UNLV is quietly threatening to break the top 10. That can’t help us with Shabazz.

Something Cal wondered: are we getting better? It’s a good question. Everyone assumes we’ll be better 6-8 weeks from now, but what would be the indications? We should track those each week to see what progress we’re making. I do like line charts.

Wheatgerm - January 24, 2012 reply

UConn is over-ranked

1. The BE, as a whole, is over-ranked.
2. Vandy has to “win” their way back in the Top 25.
3. Louisville does not deserve to be ranked. Folks are still buying into the Pitino spin,
nevermind what they see on the floor.
4. Baylor is long, lean, and learning to play together, much like the Cats. One of he few teams that matchup very well with UK. Can be and will be scary good when they jell…..I have no problem with their ranking.
5. Duke is most generally ranked to high…..something we have to learn to live with.

seattlekat - January 24, 2012 reply

Cannot believe I am going to defend...

Never mind. Just cannot make a comment on SOS. Still over ranked

memphis wildcat - January 24, 2012 reply

So Doug Gottlieb does not have an AP vote.

He caused a bit of a stir by saying he would vote Ohio State No. 1.

Who voted for Syracuse:
Nick Jezierny, Idaho Statesman, Boise
Paul Klee, Champaign IL NewsGazette

Who voted for Missouri:
Scott Johnson, Daily Herald, Everett WA
? (many voters, such as our good friend Jerry Tipton, do not reveal their votes)

Wheatgerm - January 24, 2012 reply

Gottlieb

What an ass. He would never, ever, ever give UK its due…Mediocre player, awful analyst, and arrogant ass.

permitfly - January 24, 2012 reply

You are being much too

kind to the jerk.

kywineman - January 24, 2012 reply

I'm embarrassed to admit

I kinda like him. I know. I don’t really understand it myself. I think he knows what he’s talking about, has good insights, doesn’t always say what everyone else says, and expresses himself well. That’s a pretty good combination.

But I can’t deny, p-fly, there is an element of arrogance there somewhere. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t come across (to me) as a likeable guy. His persona is hard, his delivery rapid-fire. So his opinions seem a little – what can we say – self-important? Maybe if he had more fun on camera and smiled more, instead of being so determined and serious about what he was saying. I dunno. Image is a funny thing.

Wheatgerm - January 24, 2012 reply

The picture you chose for the article is phenomenal

jc25 - January 24, 2012 reply

Heh.

Thanks. I liked it as well. :-)

Glenn Logan - January 24, 2012 reply

UK/Rankings

Have liked Mizzou all season (amazing, considering Haith..but he is my co-COY with Crean right now). Watch Kansas to survive in the Big 12, though. Not the same as when UK routed them. I think Louisville will close strong, so am OK with their being ranked. UConn, Duke, MichSt, GTown, SDSU, StMarys Bigs East and Ten all overrated, period.
Re Cats, some thoughts: Teague shoots too much, distributes too little; Miller and Lamb do not shoot enough; Teague and Jones need to protect the ball; Cal needs to play Witjer, Beckham and Vargas more; need some 3D (Jenkins will kill them); Jones will be in old form come March, play like a demon; pray that MKG, AD stay healthy!!!

permitfly - January 24, 2012 reply

I have to disagree that Teague shoots too much.

He just doesn’t make enough of his shots. When the other team’s defense is geared to stop Davis and Jones, the only way to loosen them up is to take advantage of what they are giving up. Teague is starting to get better opportunities to drive to the basket and he must continue to do so. If they try to stop him, then he must find the open man. He is showing signs of improvement in this area.

kywineman - January 24, 2012 reply

Ay, there's the rub.

If a player doesn’t make enough of his shots, is he shooting too much? Such a philosophical question. A Socratic dilemma.

But I know what you mean. Alabama wasn’t going to leave Davis open for a lob; it challeged Teague to score, and he’s going to have to accept that challenge. Unfortunately, if we put together a video of all the layups he has missed this year, we’d have quite a show.

Wheatgerm - January 24, 2012 reply

Chronic problems that have been an issue, usually, for ... decades?

We miss too many easy buckets.
We leave too many open 3s on defense.
We take too many bad shots.
We give up too many easy buckets under the basket.
We don’t move enough on offense.
We don’t come in ready to play.

I could go on. But hey – that is basketball. We’ve done a pretty good job overall. Just have to keep trying and keep improving – and when we win #8 all Cat fans will celebrate for a day. And then – we’ll all start thinking about #9.

GriffinRC - January 24, 2012 reply

A Sea Of Blue