Buy or sell: Your takes on Kentucky basketball

The 'Cats are down but not out.

After Tuesday night, though, a lot of Big Blue Nation is just feeling down.

Cats Illustrated publisher Justin Rowland asked for your takes on the state of Kentucky basketball after an ugly loss to No. 7 Kansas and you delivered.

Here are some of those takes followed with buy or sell analysis.

Buy. But I don't know how realistic it is to expect that to happen. Calipari probably always has contention "this year" on his mind and playing Allen a lot this year might seem to work against that for him. He's probably thinking that getting Boston and Clarke as much court time together is the way to go for this team to maximize his potential and we all know he has an aversion to putting guys on the court who can't defend. I don't know what Allen's true potential is as a defender but he's not close to the athlete some of the others are. I'd say this: We've seen what happens to Kentucky teams that can't shoot. Even if they're hot, they get knocked out because they go cold. Either they need someone like Allen to be ready for a game like that, or they need to show this ice cold shooting is just an aberration.

It did happen last year as well. If you look back over the Calipari era, you're right. We talk about how they struggle early because they're young, but they usually turn in a couple of performances that really make you think they're just going to be firing on all cylinders. That's fools gold. Any time your team is this young and shooting is a weakness, or appears to be, the learning curve is going to be there. When you don't have anything close to a settled point guard situation that curve gets a lot longer.

The defensive potential is fantastic. You've got a National Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Jackson, length and shot altering ability at other spots on the court, and the depth to play hard without worrying too much about fouls at most spots.

I wouldn't be too worried about the shot selection. That should be fixed. The point guard situation and the actual shooting? Fair to worry about those.

I think at the end of the season it won't be controversial at all to say they're good. But not all Top-5 or Top-10 players are created equal. Travis Graf and David Sisk as well as others talked about the weakness of this freshman class nationally. We're not dealing with De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, probably.

They're in a tough position, playing without a true point guard and learning to coexist with one another without a whole lot of seniority around them. I don't know what they're going to look like playing together by the end of the season. I do think they're both going to be quality players in the SEC, however.

I will say I'm wondering whether we should stop thinking about this as Clarke/Boston's team and more about Sarr and Jackson.

Right now the halfcourt offense is about as bad as it gets. I've watched a lot of college basketball this season and it's as ugly as any team's out there. The lack of movement, the inconsistent spacing, the very poor passing and even receiving passes -- it's brutal.

I'm not ready to say it can't improve a lot. In fact, I think it will. But this team would probably be a lot better off playing a more up tempo style especially the way the bigs can run the court.

Sell. If you're looking for silver linings I don't want to say there's no validity to this point. On the surface, you're right. But that's not really my takeaway. Kansas shot very poorly too. There was some good defense in this game so that's part of it, but there were a lot of bad shots. If I were a Kansas fan I wouldn't even feel very good about the win.

I do think your point about Brooks' significance is important. We're all talking about a point guard, shooting, shot selection, etc., but getting back the only player who played significant minutes for Calipari last year on this team will be a big deal, too. Maybe he'll be an emotional lift when he enters the lineup.

Part of me wonders, though, what he adds to what this team already has.

Buy. It seems like the "rush" gets worse as the game goes on. They start to press and panic in the second half as they get tight, the other team starts to settle in and execute, and they realize their set offense isn't working -- or doesn't exist.

There were way too many ill advised, untimely three-point attempts by guys who shouldn't have been taking them Tuesday night. In the second half alone I can recall two triple attempts by Cam'Ron Fletcher, one by Isaiah Jackson, and another by Terrence Clarke that didn't make sense based on the situation. That alone is four possessions in a tight game.

It's going to be a tall task, for sure. In terms of getting them to the point of being a problem, I don't doubt he can do it. I think he will. It's just hard when the point guard play is such an issue.

I'd agree on Askew. I'm not writing off someone who should be a really good three or four year player at a good program, but right now they're better off with Mintz.

Buy. Because not only is that the recruiting priority and reality, but the guys they're getting are not AD, Cousins, Wall, MKG, etc. It's the next tier. We've seen with the '16-17 and '18-19 teams that Calipari can still build contenders, but it's not quite the same. I just don't know that I ever see Calipari turning down long five-star athletes over more developmental shooters. Hard to see that happening.

On your point about the defense I'll buy. And I think that's an important thing to underscore. We're all talking about the problems and they're real. But if this becomes one of the top two or three defensive teams in the country and there's marginal or nice improvement on offense, it's a different story. If you can be the best defensive team in the country -- not totally unrealistic with this group -- that alone can carry you a long way.

Sarr's fouls were inexcusable and that's why Cal called him on it after the game talking to the media. He's a senior and that can't happen.

However, based on how his career at Wake went, fouls are probably going to be an issue for much of this year. A couple of those second half fouls were just mental, not knowing the situation. The fourth was a little iffy with the ball-handler running into him but that was a smart play by KU. Sarr has been in big foul trouble twice in three games. Buckle up.

You knew the effort was going to be there after the Richmond game. Playing on ESPN against Kansas in the Classic, that was a given. But as David said in his prediction, effort alone isn't going to overcome the offensive ineptitude this early in the season. Good to see guys playing hard, though.

They definitely aren't but I don't think it's any inherent selfishness or any me-first attitude. It seems like a combination of things. Nobody setting the table, young team, some guys who have been "go get yours" up until now. The passing has got to get a lot better. The ball movement is as bad as I've ever seen from a Kentucky team.

I'll agree with that. I don't remember it being any uglier. College basketball as a whole has become a lot harder to watch in recent years and this team has been uniquely tough on the eyes so far.

I'm sure Cal is hoping that can happen because his productivity when he's in the game was through the roof. He's their best offensive option right now. Great post moves, excellent feet, the team's best passer right now. Sweet shot. Another shot blocker. Take him out and a committee can provide some of what he gives on defense, but not offense. He's important and it's really hurt them when he's been out.

I know there are a lot of Kentucky fans who feel that way. At least the results over the last decade have been a lot better than they were the decade before it. It's interesting that I've started to see a lot of Duke fans saying the same thing as well.

Buy. I know there are a lot of people who will say they're going to be fine. Maybe they will be depending on what fine means. In fact there's good reason to believe that what we've seen the last two games might not mean a whole lot in terms of forecasting what they'll look like in February or March. But a lot of fans especially had this as a top-5 team, mentally, before the start of the season and they're going to be out of the top-25 and deservedly so when the polls come out.

When people say this I'm interpreting that as saying they are going to slowly improve until they become one of the better teams in the country and a factor going into March Madness. I don't have any issue with someone feeling that way, and it could be a lot worse than that. But right now we've got to talk about what we're watching and we're watching some bad basketball so it's fair to point that out.

Buy. I like that take a lot. Well said. This could be the third best team Cal has had at Kentucky after '11-12 and '14-15, however you want to rank those two. I don't see any reason why that can't be the case. If that happens, being Cal's third best defensive team alone should guarantee that they're still going to have at least a nice season.

Mintz does look like the better option in terms of the lion's share of the point guard minutes. That said, I'm still not totally sure what to expect from him. But he looks like the better option now. They will need Askew at some point this year so he's got to keep playing.

I don't know if it will play out exactly like that but I tend to agree that the issues we've seen will probably prove to be fatal flaws if your goal is a national championship. Only at a few programs is that the hope every year and that's just how Kentucky fans are going to think about every team they've got. I do think your projected trend line for this team is pretty spot on.

Offense definitely needs to be the overwhelming focus now and moving forward. The defense will be fine. Could be great. The team will go as far as the halfcourt offense will allow them and there might not be many days to waste with it being such a big project this season.

Just don't see the zone thing happening. The defense isn't broke and the guy who goes 98% man defense every year is not changing that this season.

I could envision a scenario when physicality hurts them against a team or two but I'm not too worried about the post defense. The post on offense when Sarr is out? They'll have to get creative.

One of Askew's biggest issues is picking up his dribble so agree with you there. Spacing has also been bad.

I'm sure a lot of people feel this way and so far I can't say they're wrong. They've often been discussed in the context of being Cal's first "top-5" guys in a while and they don't necessarily look like his other top-5 guys with a couple of exceptions.

At times Boston going one-on-one has been a necessity. It just hasn't been a high percentage thing. I like how he goes and gets the ball for second chances but he's got to wake up and block out on the defensive glass. He's also been too lackadaisical with the ball at times.

As for Clarke, I could see him being an important facilitator but I'm not sure he's got the court awareness or passing skills for that yet. He seems like someone who will be impactful throughout the season stepping inside the line for long twos, driving for floaters, and working the baseline for easy buckets, but he's been a bit more quiet than I expected.

This is similar to another take I responded to earlier. It's technically right but Kansas didn't look very good. I'm sure they'll be good later in the season, but neither team looked very good. I can buy into "Kentucky will improve" a lot more than I can buy into "look what they did in spite of all this". It was ugly. Gonzaga beats that team we saw by 20+ points.

I think he'll get the personalities and styles to mesh on the court but with this group being so young and encountering more early adversity than usual in a weird year I think they could really use a good couple of games coming up. You don't want this to spiral out of control and have guys start to doubt each other.

In a best case scenario this is a team with a bunch of guys who can go for 12-15 points on any given night: Sarr, Jackson, Brooks, Clarke, Boston. Then others who regularly chip in with 5-8. Sarr and Boston look like guys who may be able to go get a bucket. But there is obviously know Murray, Monk, or sophomore Washington.

I think I agree with you but he's probably not going to change. And I would only say he should change if the recruiting strategy is also going to change, and that's not going to happen either. If he's sending out a new team of mostly five star freshmen every year then what he's doing is probably the right style. But it's definitely behind the times. When he's saying they need to shoot 17-20 threes per game I don't really know what to think about that. It would put them in the 300s of the national rankings in terms of threes attempted per game, but based on what we've seen from this year's team I'm not going to say he's wrong. To your point, teams with Murray, Quickley, Herro, and others also attempted roughly that many, so it's not just based on personnel.

I'd imagine you're right about that. Interestingly enough they've seen mostly man so far and they have been better scoring against the few zone sets they have seen. Not sure what to make of that. I think some teams will continue to play man and pressure the ball against them because they haven't been strong with it and don't have a point guard.

I'd have to agree on Jackson and Sarr. Mintz might be the best option at point but not sure if I'd say he's the third best player on the team yet. Maybe, but we'll see. On the foul trouble that's correct.

It seems like they could find a way to play Allen and hide him on defense by surrounding him with that length and some defensive versatility.

In fairness to Calipari remember more than a week ago when he said he told his wife that he just watched the worst scrimmage a UK team has had since he's been in Lexington? I didn't know what to make of that comment but it's hard to believe he wasn't being totally truthful now.

Seems like every other year they have at least a guy or two who can knock down outside shots and fill it up from range. Not several of them but at least one dead eye shooter. This year seems like it could be worse than usual in that respect.

It's definitely a curious phenomenon, just like Kentucky football going against the modern trend in football.

The one thing I would say sort of in Cal's defense -- although I agree with you -- is that Kentucky is one of the few teams that can kind of get away with going against that trend because of the kind of player they're able to recruit. But I do think it hurts them in the six game season when being susceptible to cold shooting will kill you.

That's absolutely true. They will regress to the mean. What they're doing is statistically unsustainable and that's a good thing. At one point in the game against Kansas I thought 10 guys with blindfolds could knock down more outside shots out of pure chance. And if you factor two or three extra threes dropping against Richmond and Kansas that does impact what the outcomes would look like. It does seem like most of the time when UK teams have been awful from three early, even if they recover some they still eventually run into issues with it.

It worked with Fox, Monk, and Bam. They were not top three players in their class but with hindsight we can obviously say they were at that level, to your point. It worked with the '18-19 team because PJ Washington stuck around and had a breakout and because Reid Travis transferred in. But it's really hard to do it with a team mostly dominated by young guys. I do think we have to change the way we talk about it to include more nuance because this team is going to have older guys in Mintz, Sarr, and even Brooks to a lesser extent.

I don't think this will be an NIT team but I'm also not totally confident about what direction the season goes.

Definitely top 10 on defense. I think they hope to be top 50 on offense. Right now they're probably not top 200 on offense.

That's a good point and worth mentioning. It impacts all teams but it's easy to see how it would be even more of a challenge for a team like Kentucky's.

I'm guessing Montgomery would be coming off the bench. He'd help a little, but someone like Quickley or even Hagans would help a heck of a lot.

Cal got the better of him early. Self has taken some control of late. I have to admit to thinking that the first half last night looked a lot like other Cal wins against Self. When UK has defeated KU in the Cal era they have been swatting shots all over the place and that's what the game looked like. He's just never put an offense this bad on the court, at least for now.