Preview: Kansas at Kentucky
· Yahoo Sports
It’s a college basketball heavyweight clash tonight, as the Jayhawks travel to the Chicago to take on Kentucky in the yearly Champions Classic. Both teams have 2-0 records after taking care of business in their opening tune-ups, but each team is being truly tested for the first time tonight.
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With dangerous perimeter threats like Milan Momcilovic (formerly of the Iowa State Hawkeyes), and some legitimate athletes, Kansas will need to dictate the tempo, wall off transition opportunities, and establish control in the half-court, and hopefully running an effective half court offense, something that’s been lacking in recent years under Self.
Coach Mark Pope likes to assemble teams that can spread the floor and shoot. However, fans of BBN have been underwhelmed by the talent he’s been able to assemble in Lexington so far. Kentucky comes in ranked just 35th by Bart Torvik, largely based on preseason inputs, with the 26th ranked offense and 55th ranked defense. The Wildcats don’t currently look like a team that will force a lot of turnovers, which is good given Melvin Council’s absence and reliance in Taylen Kinney. They do look to be a solid offensive rebounding team so far, so Self will need to keep that in mind as he continues tinkering with the frontcourt configurations early in the season.
Ultimately I think it’s pretty clear that Kansas has an overall talent and athleticism advantage, but Kentucky will shoot threes and loo likely shoot them well, which can keep a team in just about any game. Kansas is currently a 4.5 point favorite, and even without Council, that sounds about right to me. I think Kentucky scores more than Self would care to see, but Kansas will establish themselves well enough on both ends to come out on top in a close game.
Kansas 79, Kentucky 73