UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 12 years and nine years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
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ESPN’s Jay Bilas and CBS’ Greg Anthony are not only outstanding college basketball analysts but they also know what it takes for a team to reach a Final Four — because both of them did it with Duke and UNLV, respectively. Therefore, it’s interesting to get their thoughts on some of the challenges this Kentucky team faces as it begins its quest for the school’s eighth national title Friday in New Orleans.
Topping the list of concerns the experts have about Kentucky is inexperience. The Wildcats are far and away the youngest team in the NCAA Tournament.
“This is the first time for these guys. They have never played this many games before,” Bilas told tomleachky.com. “In high school, you don’t play this many games during the regular season and you certainly don’t play with this intensity level with travel and school and all that stuff. So, it is different. Does that mean that they can’t do it? Of course not. They are good enough to beat anybody. I think that it has been proven over the years that the best team does not always win this thing and especially this year.”
That’s because Bilas has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he thought the field of at-large candidates for this year’s tournament was the weakest in years and that could mean fewer upsets this March.
Anthony says the game doesn’t change but the circumstances might at this time and that’s where a young team could have an issue.
“What becomes unique about it is that you could potentially have matchups where you don’t have a familiarity with an opponent and that could be an issue at times,” Anthony said. “This is where as a young team, you can start talking about inexperience because it is far more difficult to make adjustments let’s say, case and point, that Thursday and Saturday. You play a team that wants to get after it and they try to turn you over and create tempo that way.
“Then the next game you have 24 hours to flip the switch and go up against a tempo control zone team. They like to play the matchup zone. Those are the kind of situations that in the tournament that can create problems for you because you don’t have time to prepare and the younger you are obviously, the more difficult that transition could be. Those are the things that you definitely have to deal with but having said that, Kentucky is such a talented team and the way they compete and get after it defensively, they have all bought into that. I think it gives them the opportunity to accomplish the goal which is to get to the Final Four.”
Anthony and Bilas agree that one thing that helps offset the inexperience of Kentucky is the Wildcats’ will to win.
“Everyone likes to point out what are issues for Kentucky, but the reality is that I think that they are a basketball team that knows how to win,” Anthony said. “I think when you combine that skill and I think sometimes people don’t appreciate the ability to win games, find ways to win games, and make plays when they have to be made, I think you have to be impressed.”
Bilas has seen Kentucky make significant improvement over the course of the season and he says that speaks to the maturity of the youngest players.
“I think the thing that has impressed me most about Kentucky is about how they have continued to improve and while improving they have been winning,” Bilas said. “There are a lot of teams out there, especially young ones, that when they play in a new environment or they face a tough challenge, they lose and then they learn from that. You learn more by losing often times but mature teams are the ones that can win and take a hard look at themselves and say, ‘You know what, if we had played this way against the best teams in the country, we would have lost this game,’ and get better that way. For the most part, Kentucky has done that.
“They have answered the challenge by winning the game in front of them and dealing what they have had to deal with on the floor at that time but they have also learned from that and have been able to get better and better through the course of the season. If the Kentucky team that I saw in November was playing that way now, they wouldn’t be ranked number two. They have gotten much, much better since then. It is a totally different team than it was in November and December.”
And Anthony gives coach John Calipari the credit for keeping this group so focused from the start to now.
“It is so true that the younger you are as a player, the more you are trying to prove what you can do as opposed to playing to your strengths and focusing on your results, which is to win basketball games,” Anthony said. “I think that the fact that at times they didn’t play great, they still never — and it is the calling card all season long — they never lost their resolve or their focus on the objective, which was to win the game. If you are a Kentucky Wildcat fan, or like college basketball or are a potential opponent, you have to respect the fact that they are not just a young talented team, they are an excellent basketball team.”
