2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Team Previews – Kentucky Wildcats
The Kentucky Wildcats enter the 2011/2012 men’s college basketball season with some unfinished business to attend to after suffering a heart-breaking 56-55 loss to Connecticut as a two-point favorite in the Final Four of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats did not run away with SEC last season with a 10-6 record in conference play, but they turned on the jets in the SEC Tournament and captured the title with a dominant 70-54 romp over Florida as 1.5-point underdogs. They finished last season with an overall record of 25-8.
The majority of the experts are in agreement that this is one of the top teams in the nation. The ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and the preseason AP Poll each ranked Kentucky second only to North Carolina. The Sporting News and Rivals made it unanimous that the Wildcats are the second-best team in the country on the eve of the start of a new season.
The main reason that the expectations for this year’s team runs so high is the return a good portion of the players that were responsible for last year’s success. Their leading scorer from last season is gone but sophomore forward Terrence Jones is more than capable of filling the void. Last year he was second on the team in scoring with an average of 15.7 points a game and led the team in rebounds with 8.8 a game. He will be joined by Doron Lamb and Darius Miller, who are a pair of guards that combined for 23 points and six rebounds a game last season. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The starting five will be rounded out with a couple of new faces in freshman guard Marquis Teague and freshman forward/center Anthony Davis. Teague was ranked as the fifth-best recruit in the country and will fill the void at the point position. Davis is a raw talent that could very develop into one the top rebounders in the SEC. Another true freshman that should provide some extra fire-power off the bench is guard Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Kentucky begins its march for a national title this upcoming Friday night with a home game against Marist. The Wildcats will be tested early with a Nov. 15 matchup against No.13 Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden. Also, be sure to circle Dec. 3 on the calendar for a showdown with the No.1-ranked Tar Heels. Play in the SEC gets underway with South Carolina coming to town on Jan.7.
BetOnline has opened the Wildcats as the prohibitive odds-on-favorite to win the SEC this season at -145 with Florida the next favorite at +220. Their odds to win a national title are at +425, which is second only to North Carolina at +325.
The ‘over/under’ line on Kentucky’s probable seed for the NCAA Tournament is 1.5 with the money line on the ‘over’ at -140 and the line on the ‘under’ at +110. The talent to win a national championship is there as is the motivation. If this team stays healthy and plays up to expectations, anything less than a spot in the national title game would have to be considered a disappointment.
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