Excitements/Concerns for Upcoming Season

[WeWant9]

Tomorrow night we are back at it! What has got you ready to go, and what are some concerns you may have?

On the excitement side, I think this is going be skilled and deep team with a lot of weapons. Defense, rebounding, and toughness should all be there this season. I don't think we will see much ball watching this year, guys will be going after it.

Main concern (which is becoming too common) is getting and staying healthy. Very possible we are down three guys to start the season (JQ, Lowe, and Aberdeen). Outside shooting is one concern of mine, I could see this being a very hot or cold type of team from 3. I just don't want to see them keep bombing if they're not falling- really think we can thrive driving the ball this year.

Overall, my excitement level is pretty high. Once the team gets more familiar in their roles and with each other, I think we'll see UK beat the brakes off some good teams. I could also see a few games leaving fans scratching their heads, but I think we will see improvements from now through March in all key areas.

[SportsFan]

Oh boy....do I say how I really feel and what I really think? Or just be positive.

Well, the good news is there are two sides to every coin. The bad news is we've seen them both with this team in their first two exhibition games.

I think Purdue showed us our ceiling, that we are national championship contenders. Unfortunately, Georgetown showed that we're definitely not shoe-ins for anything!

Would I be surprised if Kentucky wins it all this year? At this point and assuming health, no... because they have the pieces. Would I be surprised if it turned out to be a duplicate of last season? Again, no....the one thing necessary to win a single elimination tournament like March Madness is consistency.... and the Jeckyll and Hyde performances of the two exhibition games are a good indication that's something to be concerned about. Especially since this year's team isn't nearly as good of a shooting team as last year.

Hopefully this will be the year we cut down the nets for #9. But I have a feeling that if we don't, it could be a repeat of Cal's first UK team with Wall, Cousins, Patterson, Bledsoe, Miller, etc. that shot something like 1 for 16 from three point range in the Elite 8 loss to West Virginia.

[WeWant9]

I do agree the shooting will not be like last year, but I do feel overall team defense and rebounding will be greatly improved.

[South jones]

My biggest concerns are in
juries, outside shooting and can they handle the physicality like they saw against Gtown

Positives are defense, rebounding, depth and hustle(these guys seem to really get after it

I'm really looking, hoping for a good/great season

[TheZookeeper]

I think the outside shooting concerns are overstated. Every player in the rotation can theoretically hit 3s, which was not the case last year with Amari. Moreno is probably the last meaningful player you want to see shooting a three, but even he hit one vs Georgetown, and he's also the third string center.

There's no one on this roster as proven a shooter as Brea, or even (when open) Almonor. But last year's team was also relatively unathletic and sometimes had trouble getting good shots because they didn't need to help on drives much. This year I predict we'll see more open looks because we have guards with "gravity," as in the defense gets pulled in when they have the ball. And even decent shooters hit open shots at a good clip. I think we'll shoot more threes per game, at a slightly lower percentage, but also shoot 2s at a higher percentage and get to the line more. In other words, more multi-dimensional. And the defense should be way better.

I have two main concerns. The first is whether we have the top-end talent to win it all. The depth is obviously great, probably the best in all of CBB. And I know Oweh is a preseason AA, POY watchlist guy, but I'm less optimistic on him than the media seems to be. I think JQ can be that guy, but we still don't know when he'll be on the court.

The second is related to that last point--I don't really trust our bigs. Garrison will probably still be inconsistent, and Moreno is a good but probably not great freshman. JQ is the answer, but, again, when does he see the court? I'm really thankful to have Mo Dioubate on the roster because I think he will be a consistent presence when he's on the court and raise our floor, especially defensively. Offensively I don't worry too much, until Pope has a bad offensive team I'll continue to assume that will sort itself out.

Overall I'm expecting top 3 in the SEC, top 10 all year in the rankings, and one of a handful of teams with the potential to win it all at the end of the season.

[ganner918]

Shooting is the obvious concern, but mostly for what we saw against Georgetown. They were backing way off a lot of guys and playing a packed in defense that we struggled to drive against. Maybe we can attack it better with Lowe and Aberdeen in the game - but what we do when an opponent backs off of most of our guys is a big question.

Also, we looked great defensively against Purdue who isn't incredibly quick and athletic, much worse against Georgetown who resembles a lot of SEC opponents we'll face. Again, no Lowe or Aberdeen so hard to see. But we've got to be a lot better defensively than we were last year.

[Davidmack]

I’m just worried about Lowe staying healthy.

[Pete Hogwallop]

I'm excited to see our toughness. I can't imagine there's a lineup out there tougher than one that has Oweh, Dioubate, Quintance and Aberdeen in it.

After the Georgetown game, I'm concerned that coaches may have figured out Pope's offense. The Hoyas knew exactly what we were going to do... maybe before we did.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Injuries, outside shooting, rotations..

[Pobilly]

Excitement. Has been much better since CAL left. To start this year it is in a good place but a realistic place. Excited to see how deep with talent we actually are against good competition. Exhibition games are just that. We took Purdue more seriously than they did and it was a bad matchup for them. Gtown is bully ball and Pope has not figured out how to play against bully ball with his style of offense. It was another good learning experience.

Concern: Injuries. We lose Lowe and Aberdeen and we are in a world of hurt as we had no ball movement. Would it always be that way this year, maybe not but PG injuries will not allow up to reach out potential for sure. Even more so than last year.