Heading into the second half of college basketball season, it is hard to turn on ESPN without hearing about the University of Kentucky Wildcats. The Cats are ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the 12th consecutive week. They have been voted unanimously as the No. 1 team for five of those weeks.
Why is this such a big deal? Well, with only a little less than half of the regular season left, the Cats have a fairly simple schedule ahead of them. The remainder of their opponents this season are unranked SEC teams. This isn’t to say they aren’t going to be good games, but if the Cats continue to play like they have so far this season, I would think they can finish out the season with a perfect record.
The Wildcats have been quite the unstoppable force this season. They have played a nine or 10 player rotation all year which is pretty uncommon in my opinion. Head coach John Calipari has said over the past few weeks that he may or may not stick with that rotation when it comes to the post season. This has given the Cats a great advantage when it comes to fresh legs and energy.
Calipari has also talked about the fact they need to keep playing with lots of energy considering other teams have a lot of motivation to take down the unbeaten Cats. In a recent interview, Calipari mentioned he would like to see improvement in unforced turnovers. He said he feels like if they continue to improve in the areas of turnovers and energy they will keep winning key games.
Only nine NCAA DI basketball teams have ever completed a perfect regular season. Wichita State was the last to do so just last season. Only seven of those nine went on to win a National Championship, the last being Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers in 1976. Will Kentucky remain undefeated and go on to win a National Championship? I guess we just have to wait and see.
