School: University of Kentucky
Location: Lexington Kentucky
Est.: 1865
Enrollment: 19,292 (undergraduate)
Nickname: Wildcats
Famous alumni: Ashley Judd, Mitch McConnell and Jim Leyritz
Famous KANSAS alumni that made Kentucky relevant: Adolph Rupp (relax UK fans, all in fun...but seriously)
Conference: SEC
Last year's record: 29-9 (10-6)
Players to watch: Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrance Jones. Yep, so they might have some talent out there.
What they do well: Calipari utilizes relationships with the mysterious world wide Wes to recruit. That about covers it right? Sorry, couldn't help myself. In all seriousness Kentucky is a talented team but it's very early in the season and the sample is so small I'm not sure I can accurately tell you what they do well.
I think the obvious thing base on our small sample size is that this is a team with talented offensive weapons. Kentucky shot 61% from the field while converting 40% of their three point attempts against Marist. Granted they only attempted 10 three pointers but that is because they have athletic size and they are able to get to the basket for high percentage shots in a lot of instances. This is a team with two regulars over 6'10" and two extremely athletic 6'8" and higher players as well. They'll rebound well, they will attack the basket and it will be a matchup challenge for a lot of their opponents.
What they do poorly: They don't seem to handle curfews well. What's that, something about rocks and glass houses? Tyshawn twitter who? Ah forget it.
So far the biggest gripe that seems to be coming from the Kentucky fanbase is related to their defensive aptitude. That's pretty common for a team that plays a high number of freshman and is pretty common for any team early in the season. I wouldn't put too much into it at this point other than knowing that their are going to be opportunities in this game for Kansas to exploit some early season defensive mistakes.