By the end of next week....

Jul 9, 2004
93,075
38,060
0
The only way Im worried is if we go to these two places and aren't competitive. Losing is one thing. Not being competitive, which is hard to imagine they will be after beating Duke at a neutral site, would give me a little cause for concern. I believe our guys are mature enough to handle it though.
 

TheDude73

Heisman
Jan 7, 2006
23,935
23,106
113
Even if we lose both (God forbid), as long as we play hard, I’m still excited for the year.
I fully believe (not pumping HerrosHeros sunshine) we win both. Clemson will be a surprising easy win because statistically in all areas they are WAY below UK, and the couple of games I saw were painful.

Gonzaga will be the usual - but this time UK comes out of Seattle with the W. My prediction is a somewhat back and forth game (+/- 5 pt leads for each team) before UK wins in the end by 8-12 pts. But I think it will be a high scoring affair as Gonzaga can hit threes.

I think we come out of this week 9-0 and top 3 ranking (depending on how the other top 5 teams do).
 

TheDude73

Heisman
Jan 7, 2006
23,935
23,106
113
We definitely need to win one of those games.

Not necessarily for end of the year stuff but just for a boost in confidence as we enter the tough parts.

Clemson is 7-1 so both games will likely be a battle but I like our chances in both games.
That 7-1 is a bit bloated against real cupcakes and a loss to the mighty Boise State. Take a look at the ESPN side-by-side stats comparison on the game. They aren't even close except maybe in steals and points allowed. About the only thing they might have is good defense, but frankly so did Duke, WKU and for a while (when they weren't tackling us) Ga St.

We average 96.7 ppg and they are around 79.4. We hold a solid rebounding edge at 45 pg vs. 37.8. Our assists are crazy at 21.1 vs. their 14.8. We average twice as many blocks.

I like our chances for a comfortable win at Clemson.
 

PoBilly

All-Conference
Mar 18, 2012
2,784
4,460
98
Heck we will be fine win or lose but I think we win 1 for sure and are in both. Pope beat Gonzaga last year IIRC with a lesser team. Maybe it was 2022. I looked at last year. They did not play.
 
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Wunky

Heisman
Jan 16, 2021
4,259
17,660
78
We will know exactly what this team has and does not have.

The thing is… under Cal, you knew there was very little chance of the team growing much from December to March.

So while I agree that we’ll know what we have and don’t have, you can no longer extrapolate that to the whole season, because this team will continue to grow and be coached. Deficiencies will be concentrated on and improved, if not entirely corrected.
 
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BigBlue1992

All-Conference
Apr 17, 2011
1,873
3,283
0
That 7-1 is a bit bloated against real cupcakes and a loss to the mighty Boise State. Take a look at the ESPN side-by-side stats comparison on the game. They aren't even close except maybe in steals and points allowed. About the only thing they might have is good defense, but frankly so did Duke, WKU and for a while (when they weren't tackling us) Ga St.

We average 96.7 ppg and they are around 79.4. We hold a solid rebounding edge at 45 pg vs. 37.8. Our assists are crazy at 21.1 vs. their 14.8. We average twice as many blocks.

I like our chances for a comfortable win at Clemson.
Oh yeah I think we’ll win too but it can also be said our stats are bloated too.
 

bucsrule8872

Heisman
May 30, 2005
24,397
29,352
0
We could lose both and still feel good about this team. Littlejohn is not an easy place to play and their fanbase will be fired up. And traveling across country to play a really good Gonzaga team is a tough assignment.

This is a good week coming up, win or lose I think we should continue to be positive. This is a good team, but it is going to take some losses.
 

ukcatz12

Heisman
Mar 27, 2009
5,199
12,325
0
We average 96.7 ppg and they are around 79.4.
That's largely due to a difference in tempo. We're 4th in tempo at 73.4 possessions per game and they're 293rd at 66.4. Our offense is better, but not tremendously so on a points per possession basis. We're at 1.19 points per possession and they're at 1.16.
 

UKWildcats1987

Heisman
Sep 9, 2021
18,831
32,082
113
Not really worried if we lose unless we get blown out in both games. I suspect we will go 1 and 1 and that's fine.

All teams are gonna take losses this season. Don't see many teams losing less than 5 to 6 games. Gonzaga maybe because of their high school conference schedule.
 
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