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Published Oct 24, 2021
Buy or Sell: Your Hot Takes on UK Basketball
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Justin Rowland  •  CatsIllustrated
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@RowlandRIVALS

After Kentucky's annual Blue-White Game CI publisher Justin Rowland asked Twitter users for hot takes on the Wildcats.

Here they are in typical Buy/Sell format...

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I think what made Toppin so intriguing last year was you could see that if he puts it all together he could really have a very high ceiling. He just wasn't close to reaching that even though he was sometimes one of their better players.

Tend to agree the minutes are tougher to envision because of the number of skilled offensive players Kentucky's going to have. But we're going to see some of him.

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I don't know if they would necessarily beat anyone but they can be one of the better teams out there with him. And agreed, my biggest question about Kentucky this year is what happens when Tshiebwe is on the bench.

Based on the Blue/White Game alone I'm not sure there's a backup big guy who is going to adequately fill that void in the middle. They can steal a few minutes with someone here or there but may consider going small as well.

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Agreed. Keion Brooks has not been the model of consistency at Kentucky and in my opinion Ware still needs to get stronger. He gets the ball near the rim and has a hard time finishing, but he does play hard.

Hopkins is a different kind of player than those guys but I liked what I saw and he's definitely in the conversation for a lot of minutes if he continues to play at that level.

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Sell. Get what people are saying when they go there but I'm just not sure going 12 deep would be wise. You've got to mold a team, get guys comfortable playing with each other, and build your late season rotation over time. Just don't see that happening with 12 guys rotating.

But who misses out? No clue on that. CJ Fredrick being hurt doesn't help his case, especially with other shooters on the roster. Jacob Toppin needs to find his place. I'll say they will eventually go eight or nine deep but not sure who is ultimately on the outside looking in.

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No clue how his future is going to shake out in terms of where he's taken. Need to see more in terms of his handle, shot creation, and what kind of role he's going to have in what Kentucky's doing. But he is farther along than I expected and the biggest surprise so far.

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If you're just going by the numbers then Fredrick is who you've got to go with. He's been a 46-47% three-point shooter for two seasons in the Big Ten so even while Davion Mintz, Kellan Grady, and TyTy Washington could be big-time shooters, that's a high number. We'll see if he does enough of the other stuff to get on the court much.

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I like the thinking there. Coming off a bad season and a lot of uncertainty with the program's future he's got a veteran squad. It has just been compiled very differently than the Unforgettables were. Lots of transfers. The way that Pitino team played was just so endearing. Time will tell.

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Probably not. I think he's a pretty good scorer and has some good qualities but on a team that has some good shooting otherwise he's going to have to show he can bring some other things to the table.

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Sell. I'm sure Washington will be among the top three scorers. Not sure if Collins or Hopkins will be. It wouldn't shock me if one of them is there, but between Tshiebwe and his putbacks, Grady, Mintz., etc., I can't imagine only freshmen will be top three scorers. I wouldn't bank on all three being first round picks after this year either. I bet one of them comes back.

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Sell. I think you've got to have a little more star power to get to a number like that usually. I like this team a lot but pretty much everybody has them in the 10-15 range preseason. That's probably right around where I'd have them so would expect at least a couple more losses than that.

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He looks like a very good player, no question. One of the things Calipari does really well is get guys who are maybe slightly underranked because they're trending in the right direction late. Herro, SGA, etc. TyTy Washington saw the ranking spike late but he probably could have been even higher.

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Sell, too high. How many college basketball teams average that many points? You'd have to play at the pace of the '16-17 team and be insanely efficient. I'd guess mid-high 70s.

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Sell. It wouldn't surprise me if Kentucky won but I think it will be a close game. Based on reports from the Duke-Villanova scrimmage apparently Wendell Moore and Paolo Banchero were really good. I could see this one going either way but might give Kentucky a slight edge based on overall experience.

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Sell. That's a really hard bar. I think it will be a good bounce back tour but Cal's best teams were some really outstanding college basketball squads.

I tend to think of the '09-10, '11-12, and '14-15 teams as Calipari's best with the '16-17 team after that.


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Bill Spivey had 567 rebounds in 33 games during the 1950-51 season. That's 17.2 rebounds per game. That's probably going to be tough to reach but I could see him being among the national leaders in rebounding for sure.

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