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Five Hurdles Before a Perfect Season

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Five Hurdles Before a Perfect Season Empty Five Hurdles Before a Perfect Season

Post  Carolina Kat Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:43 am

5 hurdles that could derail Kentucky's chances at a perfect season

PUBLISHED Tuesday, Aug 20, 2013 at 6:33 pm EDT
Mike DeCourcy Sporting News

Kentucky coach John Calipari can’t really get angry with the person who started all this talk about the Wildcats possibly going undefeated this season. He’s the one who’s at the epicenter of the conversation.

He challenged recruits such as power forward Julius Randle to join this group of Wildcats and take a shot at something that’s no one under the age of 40 has ever witnessed.

Calipari enters his fifth season at Kentucky and is in search of his second national title with the Wildcats. (AP Photo)
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(OK, so Indiana’s perfect 1976 season was 37 years ago. How many 2-year-olds knew it was happening?)

"We're chasing perfection. We're chasing greatness. We're chasing things that have never been done in the history of our game," Calipari said during a May news conference. “I don't mind a little pressure. I've had it my whole career. I've had the gun to my head for 20-something years. And you know what? I'm at my best when the gun is to my head."

With the release of Kentucky’s full schedule for the 2013-14 season Tuesday, we can see that gun is loaded. The schedule appears to be more formidable than the one the Wildcats faced when they managed a 38-2 record on the way to the 2012 championship.

Of course, the team could be better. No one’s yet seen Kentucky’s full squad in any sort of action. Three of the team’s top recruits — guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison and forward James Young – did not attend summer school, though they’re expected for the start of fall classes. And thus they weren’t able to engage with their teammates and coaches in summer practices.

There’s plenty of time for UK to assemble itself, especially now that the NCAA has allowed teams to stretch the start of regular practice into September.

Here are the ways in which this schedule presents itself as more imposing than the 2012 champs faced:

1) The Champions Classic is tougher: When UK faced Kansas in the first edition of this made-for-TV doubleheader, the Jayhawks wer replacing six of the top nine players in its rotation and 71 percent of its scoring. Although Kansas turned out to be a fantastic team that extended their string of Big 12 titles, they knew so little about their potential that coach Bill Self spoke afterward of being pleased with how they’d competed.

This year’s UK opponent in the Nov. 12 doubleheader at Chicago’s United Center, Michigan State, is Sporting News’ preseason No. 2 team and universally expected to contend for the NCAA title. The Spartans have nine of their top 10 players back from a year ago and nearly 80 percent of their point production. It’s a very challenging game for a Kentucky team that will, again, rely heavily on freshmen.

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2) The North Carolina game is on the road: Even if P.J. Hairston’s situation is straightened out by Dec. 14, this group of Tar Heels will not be confused with the formidable bunch who visited Rupp Arena in early December 2011 and left with a loss only when All-America-bound Anthony Davis blocked their attempt at a final shot. But Carolina at full strength will be a capable team, with Harrison and forward James Michael McAdoo both NBA first-round talents.

The Tar Heels do not lose often at the Smith Center. They almost never lose there to non-ACC opponents. They’ve won 63 consecutive non-conference games at the Smith Center — a streak that began in the 2005-06 season. Plus, that’ll be the first true road game for UK’s freshmen.

3) Louisville is a known quantity now: The Cardinals will have to visit Rupp Arena on the afternoon of Dec. 28, but they’ll arrive as reigning NCAA champions, with seven of their top nine players from the championship squad.

The team that went to Rupp in December 2011 became a Final Four squad, but only after finishing 10-8 in the Big East regular season. This Louisville team will be far more imposing.

4) Florida will be highly motivated: Presuming the Wildcats can somehow get through all of that and the SEC regular season schedule without falling, they will arrive at the Gators’ O-Dome to close the regular season on Saturday March 8. Can you imagine what the atmosphere would be like were the Gators in position to spoil an undefeated season for UK?

In 2011-12, the Wildcats were pushed hard in a final-day road game at Florida, winning by only three points. But those Gators were inconsistent and had lost three of four entering the game. UF has six of the top eight players from last season’s Elite Eight squad, plus promising point guard Kasey Hill to perhaps bring the offense a greater sense of direction.

5) The NCAA field could be stronger: It was obvious Carolina was roughly Kentucky’s equal in 2011-12, though we never got the chance to find out after Heels point guard Kendall Marshall left the tournament with a broken wrist in their second game. And however great Syracuse might have been with Fab Melo at center, he was ineligible by the time the tournament began.

We can’t know what developments might affect the quality of the field when we get to March, but this season appears to be fairly loaded with Duke featuring forwards Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, Kansas bringing in super freshman Andrew Wiggins, Arizona loading up in the frontcourt with freshman Aaron Gordon and Michigan State and Louisville stacked as we’ve already noted.

By the time the Wildcats get to March, chasing a title might seem just as daunting as chasing history will all winter.

Carolina Kat
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