Winning in the sport of college basketball isn’t easy, especially when you’re most team’s “Super Bowl” of the year. On Saturday afternoon, John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats met the fate of defeat for the third time this season. The latest misfortune was unexpectedly delivered by the gritty, hot-handed Alabama Crimson Tide. Beginning South Eastern Conference play with a loss is not ideal and time is only running out for the Wildcats to find their niche.
While Kentucky has responded well after their two previous losses, such a response is more significant now than ever before. Following Saturday’s conquest in Tuscaloosa, the time for experimenting has come to an end.
Kentucky will host Texas A&M on Tuesday and Vanderbilt on Saturday before traveling to Georgia next Tuesday. The Wildcats will be sizable favorites in each, which provides the opportunity for Calipari & his team to find their momentum leading up to what will be a grueling three-game stretch.
The fourth game on Kentucky’s remaining schedule, though, will be in Auburn, Alabama against the 12th-ranked Tigers. Circumstances can certainly change in the next 12 days, but this will most likely be a highly intense SEC showdown. While Kentucky will have every chance to win, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index is currently giving the Wildcats just a 29.9% chance to pull off the upset.
A quick turnaround with the 14th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs will further test Kentucky’s abilities, though the game will indeed be played in Rupp Arena. Despite the Bulldogs being currently ranked ahead of the Wildcats, ESPN’s BPI heavily favors Kentucky (71.6%) to win.
The final game of the three-game stretch will be the following Saturday, as Kentucky hosts the Kansas Jayhawks. Though Bill Self’s team lost Udoka Azubuike to a season-ending injury over the weekend, the Jayhawks are rarely a no-show when playing the Wildcats. In fact, Kentucky is winless against Kansas over the last three seasons.
However, home court seems to be playing an advantage in this game by ESPN’s BPI favoring the 18th-ranked Wildcats (65%) over the seventh-ranked Jayhawks.
Calipari’s teams usually take time to find their mold. However, that mold wasn’t necessarily found a season ago. Kentucky lost four straight to start the month of February, a low that saw Kentucky fall out of the Top-25. The team’s Sweet Sixteen exit didn’t come as much of a coincidence, as their inconsistencies were blatant throughout the season.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats are off to roughly the same start as they were a year ago. Their offensive flow appears to be stagnant and opposing teams mysteriously remain hot from behind the arc. Though the challenging stretch of games will come a few weeks earlier this season, a 1-2 or 0-3 showing would be costly.
One bright spot to the end of last season was Kentucky’s capture of the SEC Championship. However, in an improved conference, the Wildcats have plenty of room to better themselves.
If Kentucky wishes to make their way to the Final Four, let alone win the SEC title, they’ll need to handle business over the next six outings and further on down the stretch.