Kentucky was ranked number one in the nation in offensive efficiency (source: kenpom.com) going into its matchup with Indiana but when the big men couldn’t score inside and too few perimeter shots failed to go in, UK found itself bounced out of the NCAA Tournament. But whether you look at the top 20 offensive teams or the top 20 most-efficient defensive teams, a majority of them are watching the Sweet 16 from home. However, if you look at the teams that rank in the top 20 in BOTH categories, all four are still playing–Virginia, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova.
This was a Kentucky team too reliant on its offense to win and that made them vulnerable to the kind of game that unfolded Saturday night in Des Moines. Throughout his coaching career, John Calipari’s teams have almost always been able to win games with defenses when they would make under 40 percent of their shots. But this team managed to win only a handful of games in which it shot under 45 percent from the field and the Cats were winless when they scored fewer than 70 points. The defense got better late in the season but UK didn’t have the rim protection it needed against good teams. Skal Labissiere was the guy who was expected to provide the offensive punch in the paint and shot-blocking that this team too often lacked. As Calipari often says, these guys are not machines and Labissiere just wasn’t ready to be who this Kentucky team needed him to be at this time.
This season didn’t last as long as Big Blue Nation hoped but it still provided a lot of fun times. I love watching great guards and the tandem of Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray was spectacular. Ulis, in particular, was amazingly consistent. It’s one thing to bring the effort every game but quite another to also match it with production and Ulis delivered almost every time he took the court. We knew how good he was but nobody nationally was talking about Ulis as the nation’s best point guard when the season started. Now, Ulis is one of four finalists for the Naismith Trophy that goes to the player-of-the-year and he should have been a consensus first-team All-America (the US Basketball Writers Association members who put Ben Simmons on the first team ahead of Ulis should have their voting privileges suspended for a year).
As a basketball fan, I’m rooting primarily for two teams at this point–Gonzaga because of Kyle Wiltjer and Notre Dame, which endured such a tough beating to UK last year in Cleveland. I’d love to see either or both make it to a Final Four but I don’t think the Irish will get past UNC. I’ll pick Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma and Kansas to make it to Houston.
-Tom Leach