If this team gets the opportunity to play Kentucky again they'll beat them.
There is a mentality being built in this team and we saw some of it against Texas. Throughout this season this team has managed to pull out close wins. Some of those wins have come through luck but most have come through hard work and supreme effort. Jamari Traylor showed a lot of that effort in his sprint, sprint-block, sprint-dive play that nearly ruined veteran play-by-play man Bob Davis's voice with lots of game time left. The play elicited a fist pump from Coach Self and lots of enthusiastic celebrations from the bench.
This team is hungry. Despite all the success of winning 16 of 19 games, this team has remained hungry and it shows when they go on runs like they did against Iowa State after getting down 19 and 14. Even though they couldn't finish that game on a run big enough to claw back into the lead, they showed they're capable of not giving up even when they're being bested in a hostile environment. They won't face that type of crowd in the tournament but having faced it and played through it will help them later this season when they face other difficulties and need to claw back into the game from a deficit.
KU has played several types of teams who play several types of offense and defense. They have been able to learn from earlier losses like the one against Kentucky and Temple. The game against UK showed them how NOT to play against a very tall team. You can't go around their bigs, you have to go through them. You have to play smarter than them which is what they did against Texas. KU moved the ball very well, got the open looks they wanted and made good on most of those opportunities.
The Temple game taught them they have to get supreme effort throughout the game from everyone, not just a couple of players. This is not a team that can rely on just two or even three players to win a highly contested game. The worst team they will face is Texas Tech and they just beat Iowa State like a drum. Sure, they might face a 15 or 16 seed in the tournament and that team will be worse than Texas Tech but that is the extent of the "easy" part of their schedule. TCU all but beat West Virginia on the road. The game tomorrow night will not be an easy one. This team will not lose that game due to lack of effort, that is for certain.
Meanwhile, down south and more easterly, Kentucky is going to yawn it's way through an SEC schedule that will be the equivalent of blunting a good chef's knife on a glass cutting board. Kentucky is going to have plenty of cupcakes that could very well cause their skills to erode by the time the tournament comes around. They are going to have to be self-motivated because they aren't going to face any serious challenges in the remainder of their conference schedule. I believe they will get challenged in the second and third round of the NCAAs and should they get to the Elite 8 they will get a team like KU and could very well not make it to the Final Four. Coach Cal can become very sardonic in his tone and that wears on guys through a long season when the height of their excitement is playing at home in front of a friendly crowd in a blowout win. Sure, they're fun for the home crowd but winning by 50 over Missouri doesn't exactly teach you anything about your team.
Kentucky hasn't been challenged by anyone in their conference yet. They've been taken into overtime twice but neither of those games was because their opponent played particularly well. More to the truth, Kentucky played so poorly they played down to their opponent's level in those games. Calipari isn't going to know what button to push when it comes time to do it in the tournament and his team is getting truly tested for the first time by a quality opponent. It will have been over three months since they faced someone good enough to kick them in the shorts and take them down and they're going to blink.
This KU team is not going to get bored with themselves and become lackadaisical. They have learned they cannot do that. I honestly believe if given the opportunity to face Kentucky again they will be tested enough and motivated enough to take them down. The Kentucky team that played KU, UNC, Texas, and UCLA earlier this season was motivated to win those games. In the tournament EVERYBODY gets motivated. Having already beaten KU, Kentucky would not necessarily be as shot in the ass to beat them again and given that KU would be facing someone who already embarassed them they would more likely want to win the game no matter if it takes place in the Elite 8 or Final Four.
There is a saying I believe in. It goes something like "every man needs to taste his own blood once in a while". KU has done that this season in two games. From one of those I would love to see a rematch. I think we'd make them taste their's for a change.
There is a mentality being built in this team and we saw some of it against Texas. Throughout this season this team has managed to pull out close wins. Some of those wins have come through luck but most have come through hard work and supreme effort. Jamari Traylor showed a lot of that effort in his sprint, sprint-block, sprint-dive play that nearly ruined veteran play-by-play man Bob Davis's voice with lots of game time left. The play elicited a fist pump from Coach Self and lots of enthusiastic celebrations from the bench.
This team is hungry. Despite all the success of winning 16 of 19 games, this team has remained hungry and it shows when they go on runs like they did against Iowa State after getting down 19 and 14. Even though they couldn't finish that game on a run big enough to claw back into the lead, they showed they're capable of not giving up even when they're being bested in a hostile environment. They won't face that type of crowd in the tournament but having faced it and played through it will help them later this season when they face other difficulties and need to claw back into the game from a deficit.
KU has played several types of teams who play several types of offense and defense. They have been able to learn from earlier losses like the one against Kentucky and Temple. The game against UK showed them how NOT to play against a very tall team. You can't go around their bigs, you have to go through them. You have to play smarter than them which is what they did against Texas. KU moved the ball very well, got the open looks they wanted and made good on most of those opportunities.
The Temple game taught them they have to get supreme effort throughout the game from everyone, not just a couple of players. This is not a team that can rely on just two or even three players to win a highly contested game. The worst team they will face is Texas Tech and they just beat Iowa State like a drum. Sure, they might face a 15 or 16 seed in the tournament and that team will be worse than Texas Tech but that is the extent of the "easy" part of their schedule. TCU all but beat West Virginia on the road. The game tomorrow night will not be an easy one. This team will not lose that game due to lack of effort, that is for certain.
Meanwhile, down south and more easterly, Kentucky is going to yawn it's way through an SEC schedule that will be the equivalent of blunting a good chef's knife on a glass cutting board. Kentucky is going to have plenty of cupcakes that could very well cause their skills to erode by the time the tournament comes around. They are going to have to be self-motivated because they aren't going to face any serious challenges in the remainder of their conference schedule. I believe they will get challenged in the second and third round of the NCAAs and should they get to the Elite 8 they will get a team like KU and could very well not make it to the Final Four. Coach Cal can become very sardonic in his tone and that wears on guys through a long season when the height of their excitement is playing at home in front of a friendly crowd in a blowout win. Sure, they're fun for the home crowd but winning by 50 over Missouri doesn't exactly teach you anything about your team.
Kentucky hasn't been challenged by anyone in their conference yet. They've been taken into overtime twice but neither of those games was because their opponent played particularly well. More to the truth, Kentucky played so poorly they played down to their opponent's level in those games. Calipari isn't going to know what button to push when it comes time to do it in the tournament and his team is getting truly tested for the first time by a quality opponent. It will have been over three months since they faced someone good enough to kick them in the shorts and take them down and they're going to blink.
This KU team is not going to get bored with themselves and become lackadaisical. They have learned they cannot do that. I honestly believe if given the opportunity to face Kentucky again they will be tested enough and motivated enough to take them down. The Kentucky team that played KU, UNC, Texas, and UCLA earlier this season was motivated to win those games. In the tournament EVERYBODY gets motivated. Having already beaten KU, Kentucky would not necessarily be as shot in the ass to beat them again and given that KU would be facing someone who already embarassed them they would more likely want to win the game no matter if it takes place in the Elite 8 or Final Four.
There is a saying I believe in. It goes something like "every man needs to taste his own blood once in a while". KU has done that this season in two games. From one of those I would love to see a rematch. I think we'd make them taste their's for a change.
