This Kentucky basketball team is DIFFERENT… Are they Final Four bound? | Kentucky Wildcats Podcast

This Kentucky basketball team is DIFFERENT… Are they Final Four bound? | Kentucky Wildcats Podcast

Kentucky basketball is about to start conference play and with all of this hype up to the daunting slate it’s got me thinking could this potentially be a very special season for Kentucky basketball you are locked on Kentucky your daily podcast on the Kentucky Wildcat part of the locked on podcast

Network your team every day all right what’s going on Big Blue Nation welcome on into locked on Kentucky your daily Kentucky Wildcats podcast I’m your host Lance doll rider for Sports Illustrated for various SEC related things but on this podcast we take a dive into all things Kentucky

Athletics today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel you can make every moment more and right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 money line bet that’s 150 bucks if your team wins fans you can visit fanduel.com lockon today to get started on today’s

Episode of lockon Kentucky we are going to be answering a listener question is this a special season for Kentucky basketball how do we feel about it what are The Vibes surrounding the Wildcats right now and we’re going to look ahead a little bit to SEC play surrounding that also on today’s episode

Bracketology update from ESPN and our boy Joe lonardi what does he have to say about the wild cats and where they are seated going to dive into that as well thank you so much for making lockon Kentucky your first listen every single day want to remind everyone out there

That we are free and available on all platforms if you’re watching on YouTube please subscribe to the show if you’re listening on podcast I would greatly appreciate it if you subscribed there as well so let’s go ahead and get into it we have a listener question that we are

Going to lead off today’s episode with this one comes from Justin Keith 1466 and he asks one question Lance does this year feel different every time this team takes the court it just feels special thoughts I think I agree with Justin Keith right here when you watch

This year’s team I know I make a big deal about numbers on this podcast when you watch this team separated from the numbers if you could not look at a box score any sort of statistical analysis before during or after the game you would watch this team and you would be

Stunned at how efficient they are on offense and how often they knock down their outside shots I think that has been the biggest refresher for me is how different Kentucky looks stylistically compared to the last decade of Kentucky basketball they look so different on offense

It forces you I think to think a little bit differently about this year’s Squad because the way they operate their offense has been so incredible it in your mind I think gives you a higher ceiling that you put on these cats despite a couple of different negatives

Which we will get to in a second so does this feel different Justin Keith I absolutely do think that this year feels different because Kentucky is playing different and it’s extremely fun it’s very entertaining to watch it’s something that we guesstimated on way back in the spring like as soon as the

NCAA tournament was over we looked ahead and we said hey this upcoming season is going to be fun you are going to see a lot of highlights you are going to see a lot of flashiness from this year’s team they will they make a Deep Run in the

NCAA tournament we weren’t sure we still aren’t necessarily sure but we knew that it was going to be entertaining nonetheless and here we are now 9-2 a really big win over North Carolina a solid win under Miami and underneath your belt you need some more resume boosters to feel confident about this

Being a special season every time they take the court Justin Keith says it does feel special and I don’t disagree with him I think kuy’s Personnel does have if they do mature quickly an opportunity to do something special in the postseason later on in the Slate but as for

Now I think that it is very important that we as fans and then the team is obviously doing this we don’t look too far ahead even though sometimes it is fun to kind of speculate because this is a very good team let’s be clear or at

Least they have the the ceiling of a very very very good team but you can’t ignore what’s right in front of you so is this going to be different it feels different will it be different I think that question will be answered at the beginning of SEC play it’s something we

Talked about on yesterday’s show it’s something we’re going to talk about again today you play Illinois State this Friday and all due respect to the Red Birds they are the worst opponent remaining on your schedule not named Vanderbilt you should win this game I don’t want to brush over it but you

Should win this game if you win that game against Illinois State this weekend you go on the road to Gainesville Saturday January 6th 12:30 tip playing the Florida Gators nine and three right now solid on the Kim pom ratings solid in the net I think that they’ve got a couple of

Different flaws but they person now and their height makes them interesting if you can win that game and you’re projected to lose that game right now by the way if Kentucky can win this game I think it speaks volumes to where this team is at maturity

Wise at what that point would be what 13 games into the season I think you have a chance to look ahead if you beat Florida and say hey we’ve got a legitimate shot to put together something special here and obviously it does not end with Florida A&M just a

Week later you go and play South Carolina and Arkansas in back-to-back Road games you will play uh you will play Tennessee twice You’ll Play Auburn You’ll Play Gonzaga in the middle of this for whatever reason this is going to be tough but if it really is different we

Will see the fruits of that labor of it changing and it starts with the Gators on January 6th so is this year different it feels different it feels special but ky’s got to do something and I think that it starts with picking up a big time win on the road first true Road

Game that will have an actual scary environment I know the Louisville environment was fun that’s because half the stadium was Big Blue Nation but you’ve got to be able to pick up that win I think that when you look at the Personnel we talked about this a second

Ago ky’s guard play is so much better than it has been over the past few years statistically and then when you watch them on the floor they’re just good they’re just Uber talented Rob Dillingham Reed Shepard Antonio Reeves DJ Wagner those guys are special very good

Players um you can talk about you you can say what you want about DJ DJ Wagner but he does make a difference whenever he is on the court offensively he may not be superb um not not all four of these guys are going to be perfect but I

Think ky’s got some dogs out there man and that’s what’s going to matter once you get to March Madness your inexperience is going to be a question it’s going to be a cause for concern according to National Outlets when when selection Sunday does get here and everybody’s filling out their bracket

And all these different uh people with mustaches and bow ties are giving their opinions uh on TV about what the cats are going to do they’ll be like well they’re really good they do X Y and Z but they’re so young even though they have Trey Mitchell and uh Antonio ree

The defense is something that will have to improve if this year is going to be different you have to be able to protect the rim better and you have to switch and you have to rotate and close out on Shooters better because sometimes Kentucky just doesn’t do it and they’re

Not going to be perfect but it can be better I think it can be better hopefully that answers your question Justin Keith and then I want to turn that question to you listening on podcast or on YouTube what do you think about the Wildcats this year does it

Feel different is it going to be special will it be different you can answer all of that in the YouTube comments below or you can hit me on the socials at lock onuk on Twitter I want to get into Bracketology and then some closing SEC thoughts because of an article I saw

From the Clarion Ledger uh earlier today before I dive into that though I want to tell you guys about our friends over at FanDuel right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 money line bet over at FanDuel as this weather gets colder the NFL offers over on

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To visit fanduel.com SL lockon and kick off your NFL season that is FanDuel an official partner of the NFL all right continuing along here on the Wednesday edition of lockon Kentucky week is just flying by lall hanging out here with you really appreciate you tuning in to lock on Kentucky today if

You have not subscribed to the show would greatly appreciate it wherever you are listening want to remind you guys if you’ve got any questions for the show if you want something answered in relation to Kentucky basketball would love to discuss it here on the Pod so at locked

Onuk on Twitter you can DM me there um you could tag me in a tweet asking me a question or you can leave this uh leave the question in the YouTube comments below I’m sure uh other people in the comments will uh be more than willing to

Jump in and engage with you so if you’ve got any concern any excitement any question uh feel free to share it with us we I’d love to talk about it speaking of things that I like to talk about Bracketology homeboy Joe lenardi has put out some new Bracketology in fact he

Updated it again just yesterday and ladies and Gent gentlemen the Kentucky Wildcats have moved up two seed lines that is correct they have moved from a six seed all the way up to a four seed currently sitting in the Midwest region in Detroit they would start their campaign in Pittsburgh playing against a

13 seed in kentu or excuse me in Indiana interesting notes here about the Wildcats and where they are seated again on this four seed line notable teams that are comparable to UK North Carolina who moved up to a four seed Memphis Duke those are the other

Four seeds here and then the 13 seeds that Kentucky May potentially be facing off against Indiana UC Irvine UNCW and then MCN State obviously Indiana uh a home and home opponent for the next four seasons uh excuse me they’ve got four games lined up uh over these next few years do

The wild cats and the hooers that would be an interesting matchup in the NCAA tournament obviously some history there between these two schools but as we continue to point out anytime we do any of these Bracketology reports um you can’t necessarily sit here and say oh

Look ky’s going to play Indiana and then that’s a definitive we can look at some teams that are kind of floating around the seed line that they may play they may play a sford they may play an akan they may play a Michigan State they may play a Princeton they may play somebody

Like Vermont or James Madison um maybe a Texas or a Virginia Tech if they fall just a little bit further Fort Wayne um which I am just now realizing is in fact a a basketball team Kentucky could play a number of different teams so you can’t NE neily

Look at just the individual match up and be like okay well this is who ky’s going to play um because Jolan already said so in December a lot of moving and shaking is going to happen over these next couple of months speaking of moving and shaking do you think that these number

One seats are going to stay the same Purdue Houston Arizona and then Kansas Kansas the only non-automatic qualifier across these four one seats AC according to homeboy lonardi number two seats Florida Atlantic Tennessee Yukon who has moved down from that one seed line and then Marquette some interesting teams here at

The top and this is something that I believe Isaac shade of the locked on uh Tar Heels podcast and I talked about a couple of weeks or so ago we talked about how teams like UNC teams like Kentucky right now they’re good they’ve got very high ceilings

But they’re not in that cream of the crop they’re not the best of the best of the best right now that’s reserved for your Purdue for your arizonas for your Florida Atlantics I feel like Kansas Houston maybe Tennessee you’ve got some really good teams on top of really good teams like UK and

UNCC can Kentucky find a way to elevate themselves to this three seed line maybe which by the way includes clud Clemson Wisconsin BYU and Illinois can they find a way to get up to that line which they could have had they beaten UNCC Wilmington awesome but uh but they they’ve got

Chances that’s what we keep talking about they’ve got chances they’ve got plenty of quad one opportunities with the way Mississippi state is um moving up the rankings by the way um there’s a chance that when the Bulldogs come to town that’s a quad one opportunity uh for the Kentucky

Wildcats they play January 17th at home and that’s four four games into the SEC SEC slate so there’s a chance Kentucky could pick up a quad one uh there at home against the Bulldogs which would be really nice um unexpected I think um Shout Out Mississippi State for losing

To Southern by the way I don’t think we put enough emphasis on that on the show uh but KY is going to have their their fair share of opportunities and that’s kind of where I want to transition here is the SEC and how it’s built this season

Because there are some really good teams I think at the top and I think it’s one of the most balanced leagues through the middle uh that we’ve that we’ve seen consistently over these past several years and then when you look at what they’re projected to do in the NCAA

Tournament nine teams are projected to get into the field right now that is the most Standalone the most out of any conference in America the Big 12 has eight teams projected to get into the field there was an article released earlier this morning December 27th from The clar Ledger Tennessee is number one

In this article’s SEC Power Rankings Auburn is number two and then Kentucky has moved up from number five to number three the fact that they were that low to begin with is kind of kind of shocking and then this is what the article says about the wild cats we keep

Banging the young team drum with the wild cats who have six freshman in their primary ninan rotation but only two teams in college basketball turn it over less frequently than Kentucky it might be inexperienced but it this looks like it could be one of those UK teams that

Makes that irrelevant so the wild cats right now I think are making their way up they’re building momentum they got that went over UNC and there are still some doubters I would argue I’d argue that Kentucky is better than auburn and I would argue that Kentucky has a higher ceiling than maybe

Any team in America maybe not name Purdue if Purdue actually puts it together you never know what the the boil boiler makers are going to do um but I think Kentucky has that second gear that I think maybe even some of these better teams in the SEC

Don’t I don’t know if Auburn has that second gear with the way that they play I don’t know if they’ll ever allow themselves to have that second gear with the rotations that they have I think if they played a little tighter unlike Kentucky I think they would be better

Which is interesting Tennessee plays really good defense but their offense is nowhere near I think the top four offenses in this league in fact I believe they’re like six excuse me sixth or fifth in the SEC in adjusted offensive efficiency on kenpom Kentucky has that ceiling on offensive defense they can

Play really good defense they’ve got the length now with Bradshaw and Yugo to play that defense they’ve also got the I I think the a chance to be the best offense in the country night in and night out so we talk about does it feel different we talk about is it going to

Be different we discussed Bracketology ky’s moving up there we discussed the SEC slate ky’s got some chances we discussed these power rankings that have come out today from the Clarion Ledger ky’s on the way up I’m just really hoping that we don’t look up here in a couple of

Weeks and things have just kind of Fallen apart I mean a loss to Florida isn’t going to kill you it’s definitely not but it would suck if you if you fight hard in that game and you don’t pick it up Kentucky really would really like to have that win I

Think I hope they get it that’s going to do it for today’s episode of lockon Kentucky you can follow the show on Twitter at lockon UK you can follow me on Twitter at Lanore and you can follow the show over on Instagram that is at Kentucky podcast any questions comments

Concerns leave those in the YouTube comments below hit me on the socials I will see you all tomorrow for a preview of Kentucky versus Illinois State hope you guys have a great rest of your day and God Bless

Kentucky basketball may have a special team this season.

On today’s episode of Locked On Kentucky, Lance Dawe discusses a listener question about the Kentucky Wildcats. Doesn’t this year just feel different? Doesn’t this team feel special? Dawe explains what feels special about the squad – their elite guard play, with Rob Dillingham, Antonio Reeves leading the charge – alongside their two big men Aaron Bradshaw and Tre Mitchell, who seem to play well together. The offense, which has refused to open things up for years, finally looks changed. It’s a major reason Kentucky feels different this season.

But is it truly different? What’s UK’s ceiling? Dawe shares his thoughts on the future, the two upcoming games against Illinois State and the Florida Gators, and provides an update on Bracketology.

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