Lex Vegas Odds: UK Basketball Over/Under

What say we take a break from football talk for a while? You’re welcome.

Now that it’s Kentucky basketball season once again (thank God), it’s time for Big Blue fans everywhere to make their predictions concerning how the team will fare this season so that we can begin bickering among ourselves and with fans from inferior schools. Now that we’ve had a chance to see the Cats play outside of scrimmages, I think now is a great time for some speculation about what the stats for Kentucky might look like at the end of the season. I’ve included some important categories below along with over/under counts for you to mull over while you watch other SEC schools play quality football tonight.

Let’s get started:

Wins: +/- 33.5

Kentucky’s 38 wins last season were enough to propel the Cats into the SEC tournament championship game and bring home a national title, setting the bar pretty high for Cal’s fourth season. The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether this team has the potential to match the insane number of wins achieved by last year’s national champs. It’s fair to say that this season’s team isn’t expected to win as many games as last year’s, but the Cats have a chance to get close to that number, depending on how quickly and strongly the team gels.

Home Losses: +/- 0.5

No one has been as good as the Cats in defending their home court over the past three seasons. In fact, it would be impossible to be any better. As you might remember, Kentucky is undefeated in Rupp Arena under John Calipari. With a team as young as this season’s, I would normally say that UK will likely drop a home game this year, but the home non-conference schedule isn’t all that tough and the team should be firing on all cylinders come conference play. We shall see.

Nerlens Noel’s Blocks Per Game: +/- 4.0

We have all heard that Noel is a great shot blocker, but comparisons to the Great Brow at this point are premature. Nevertheless, that won’t stop media and fans from speculating, and reports that Nerlens could be a greater shot blocker than Davis are floating around. Still, I’m putting his BPG over/under at 4, a ridiculously high number but modest in comparison with Davis’s 4.7 last season.

Tournament Trophies: +/- 1.5

Last season, of course, the Cats botched the small title game and nailed the big one. I think that the Cats’ chances look pretty good against the rest of the SEC for an SEC tournament title, but will they improve enough by March to be in serious contention with other top tier teams for it all? We can only hope, but things look promising for this team.

Games the Dance Team Doesn’t Wear Black Pants: +/- 3.5

I’m leaving some room here for the games around Christmas, during which I’m looking for some blue Santa suits.

Players with Flat Tops: +/- 2.5

We’ve already seen the Fresh Prince ‘dos from both Noel and point guard Ryan Harrow this season. Will there be another Cat that rocks the top? I’m calling “over” on this one. I’m looking at you, Jarrod.

Times Calipari Sticks His Tongue out at Jerry Tipton: +/- 1.5

Will it happen again? We can only hope.

Thoughts? Projections? Other over/under categories worth looking at? I’m looking forward to this season’s surprises. And banners. Mostly banners.

My Twitter Followers: +/- 1.5. Thanks Mom. @AdamSchiltKSR