Kentucky has not won a game in five weeks but SEC coaches still seem to believe the Cats are a "dangerous" team. (SEC Photo)
Kentucky has not been able to score more than 64 points in its last six games, all losses, and ranks 259th out of 329 Division I teams with its 41 percent shooting percentage. If that’s not bad enough, the Cats have made 24 more turnovers than their seven opponents. Yet as the Cats prepare to open Southeastern Conference play Saturday night at Mississippi State, SEC coaches don’t seem to sense the 1-6 Cats are dead and buried like many UK fans do. Or at least that’s what some coaches said on the SEC coaches teleconference Monday.
“It’s young players. We understand that this game is about experience and obviously they’ve had a ton of success with one-and-done types and I think they have some guys that are probably characterized as some one-and-done types on that roster now, so we feel like they’re definitely going to get better,” Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said.
“They obviously got off to a slow start, but there are so many factors that play in to why they possibly did that. But we know that the talent is there and it could click on at any time.
“I hope it doesn’t click on two games from now when we play them but we know that the talent is there and we’re going to approach it that way because they’re going to be dangerous before it’s all said and done and I think everybody around the league believes that.”
Maybe SEC coaches do believe that. If so, that’s reason for hope for UK fans. Or maybe SEC coaches just don’t want to poke the bear — or in this case the Wildcat — to wake him up.
Certainly Mississippi State coach Ben Howland had nothing but positive things to say about his first SEC opponent.
“Kentucky is Kentucky, it’s one of the iconic, all-time winningest programs in the history of college basketball,” he said. “They played a very difficult schedule, it’s not like they’re starting off with a bunch of cream puffs and building their way up.
“They do the same thing every year, they played a very tough schedule. Even a game like against Richmond is incredibly difficult. They had three graduate transfers. They’re an older team that knows how to play. That’s a tough game for everybody.”
But Kentucky did not win a game in December, the first time since February of 1904 UK did not win a game in a calendar month where it played a full schedule. When the Cats play Saturday, it will have been 37 days since their last win. The previous longest drought without a win in UK history was 31 days in 1923.
“I’m not worried about Kentucky having success this year, they’re going to have success. I just hope that when we play them, we get a chance to beat them,” Howland said.
