Why the Wildcats wont win the National Champisonship

Why Kentucky won’t win the National Championship

The Kentucky Wildcats are currently 11-2 with an 6 overall ranking after beating SEC opponent Ole Miss in their opening conference game. Kentucky’s out of conference schedule was pretty tough they played 4 top 25 teams in Michigan State, UCLA, North Carolina and Louisville and finished 2-2 against those teams. Kentucky is one of the most talented teams we have ever seen and arguably the most talented team in the country with potentially 4 NBA draftees from this year freshman recruiting class alone.

Although the Cats are talented their inability to shoot the ball from three could hinder them as the season progresses. As a team Kentucky shoots a disturbing 33.2 percent from three. Coming into the season point guard De’Aaron Fox was expected to shoot the ball much better like he did in high school, currently he is shooting 15.4 percent from behind the arc. In the Wildcats losses their opponents have ran zones against them to prevent them from driving to the basket also forcing them to make perimeter shots. By running a 2-3 zone it keeps the Wildcats from getting to the lane and finding open cutters for easier baskets. Kentucky does most of its damage offensively in the paint and in transition, when they are forced to make perimeter shots and run half-court offense they seem to struggle by having long lapses without scoring points.     

None of their guards or wings for Kentucky shoot the ball well on a consistent basis except shooting guard Malik Monk. Monk this season has played well season averaging 21 PPG on 49 percent from the field along with 39 percent from three. Although he shoots the three ball well he shoots most of his shots off the dribble, the Wildcats lack a 3-point marksman. If opposing defenses don’t allow the Cats to score a lot of points in transition and make sure they are limited to one shot on offense Kentucky could struggle to score points at times.  Along with the bad three-point shooting Kentucky struggles from the free-throw line shooting 68 percent which needs to improve before tournament time.

The Wildcats are a great team they have all the qualities to make it to the Final Four, they are a top 10 rebounding team with over 47 a game, elite on and off the ball on defense, and have players at every position that can make plays. There only major flaw is perimeter shooting, if they can fix that during conference play we could potentially see the Cats in Phoenix this April.