The Cats are back.
While the national media seemed to think it was all over for Kentucky when John Calipari left and took his recruits with him, Mark Pope had other plans on both fronts.
He’s not only been terrific on the recruiting trail but also passed his first real test, a 77-72 win over the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils.
The Wildcats were on fire to start the game but eventually cooled off from deep and took a nine-point deficit into the half. Kentucky took far better control of the ball in the second half and ended up with a +14 differential in the last 20 minutes, outscoring Duke 40-26. Andrew Carr led the way with 17 points, and six Wildcats scored at least eight points.
The way Kentucky battled and just how gritty they continued to fight gave fans one takeaway: This team is among the best in the country. Here’s an excerpt from Myron Medcalf’s piece on ESPN that listed Kentucky as a National Championship contender.
“It’s early. Very early. Let’s start there. But, at this point, the pool of potential title contenders — in a men’s college basketball climate that might not feature the same dominant UConn team we’ve seen over the past two seasons — is vast. On Tuesday night, Kentucky proved it belongs in that mix. That grind-it-out effort over a Duke team with three projected NBA draft lottery picks was impressive because of the way the Wildcats won. It was a battle down the stretch, and they made late plays to get the victory,” Medcalf wrote.
The Wildcats do have some problems though, and they really don’t have that go-to option as of now. However, that could change throughout the course of the year as a player like Jaxson Robinson could step up in a big way.
That said, this was a great start, and one should only expect them to continue dominating as the season progresses.