Having NCAA championship dreams for UK basketball? Here are the omens to watch.
Fast-break points from “Who-Dey Ville”:
21. John Calipari. After Kentucky’s 66-55 win at Alabama, the UK men’s basketball head coach said “My focus is on March.”
20. Dreams of number nine. If UK’s blowouts of Tennessee and Kansas plus its grind-it-out road wins at Texas A&M and Bama have you envisioning the Wildcats’ ninth men’s hoops NCAA title in 2022, there are some numbers and some omens you should be watching.
19. Kenpom as a tourney screen. Those with a penchant for metrics maintain that each season’s NCAA champion is apt to come from among that group of teams that are ranked in the top 20 in both adjusted-offensive efficiency and adjusted-defensive efficiency in stats guru Ken Pomeroy’s ratings.
18. A super seven? Through Sunday’s games, there were seven “dual qualifiers” in the Pomeroy Ratings — and Kentucky (fifth in adjusted-offensive efficiency and 11th in adjusted-defensive efficiency, respectively) was one. The others were Gonzaga (2, 10), Arizona (12, 5), Houston (8, 12), Baylor (9, 18), Auburn (13, 14) and Duke (11, 15).
17. Omens that have historically foretold UK’s fate. There are two qualities that have been shared by all eight of Kentucky’s previous NCAA title-winning teams.
16. “The Tennessee omen.” No UK men’s basketball team that went on to win the national championship has ever lost a game to Tennessee.
15. Applicability to the 2021-22 Cats. The current Cats put a 107-79 beat down on Rick Barnes and the Volunteers in Rupp Arena on Jan. 15. The rematch on Feb. 15 in Knoxville looms rather large if you put stock in “the Tennessee omen” in regard to UK’s 2022 NCAA championship aspirations.
14. “The native Kentuckian omen.” On every one of UK’s eight previous NCAA championship teams, you will find at least one player from the commonwealth of Kentucky among the Wildcats’ top six scorers.
13. Applicability to 2021-22 Cats. Former Pendleton County star Dontaie Allen is currently UK’s ninth-leading scorer (2.7 points). Barring a late-season explosion in production from and opportunity for Allen, this omen will not be in the current Cats’ favor.
12. One more thing to watch. With Sahvir Wheeler presently averaging exactly 10 points a game, the 2021-22 Cats boast five double-figure scorers. In the John Calipari coaching era, only one prior UK team had five players that all averaged at least 10 points a game — the 2011-12 NCAA championship team.
11. Ex-Cat Cam’Ron Fletcher. The former UK men’s basketball forward has appeared in all 22 games so far for Leonard Hamilton and Florida State (13-9, 6-6 ACC) and is averaging 5.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and making 48 percent of his shot attempts and 38.9 percent of his three-point tries.
10. Ex-Cat KeKe McKinney. The former UK women’s basketball forward made her return to the commonwealth last Thursday when her Charlotte 49ers (11-7, 7-1 C-USA) visited Bowling Green to face Western Kentucky in a crucial Conference-USA East Division showdown.
9. A happy return. In a 79-74 Charlotte overtime victory over WKU, McKinney went for 14 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, three blocked shots and two steals.
8. “Shouting out” KeKe. After the victory, Charlotte Coach Cara Consuegra said, “I really want to shout out KeKe. It’s easy to look at her stats for a double-double, but her leadership is crucial to us. There were some hard moments in this game. I was tough on our kids today. We had to flip the switch and KeKe was the one encouraging us. She did an incredible job.”
7. Still a stat stuffer. On the season, McKinney, a 6-foot-1, super-senior graduate transfer, is averaging 7.6 points, and team bests of 8.0 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots for Charlotte.
6. Missing KeKe. In what has been a slog of a Kentucky women’s hoops season (9-10, 2-7 SEC), the Wildcats have missed McKinney’s toughness and ability to “do the little things” that lead to victory.
5. Ex-Cat Kameron Roach. The fomer UK Hoops backup guard is also on the roster at Charlotte as a grad transfer. The 5-6 redshirt senior is averaging 3.1 points in 14 contests.
4. Huge week for Morehead State men’s hoops. Coach Preston Spradlin’s Eagles (19-6, 11-1 OVC) will face both of the other two top teams in the Ohio Valley Conference within a 48-hours window.
3. Belmont. On Thursday at 8 p.m. (EST), star big man Johni Broome and Morehead will be in Nashville seeking their fourth straight win over the host Bruins (19-5, 9-2 OVC). MSU beat Belmont 83-74 on Jan. 20 at Johnson Arena, and won the final two of three meetings vs. Coach Casey Alexander’s squad in 2020-21.
2. Murray State. On Saturday at 4 p.m. (EST), the OVC-leading Racers (22-2, 12-0 OVC) will visit Morehead. It is a rematch of Murray’s 77-66 home-court victory over Morehead Jan. 29.
1. High stakes. In a league with a clear “Big Three,” the postseason advantage of winning the league regular-season title is potentially immense. In the OVC Tournament, the regular-season champ can face no more than one of the other two top teams.
Conversely, if seeds hold, the second- and third-place teams will meet in the OVC tourney semifinals, then the winner would have to beat the regular-season champ in the finals.
For Morehead State, there is a whole lot riding on this week.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 12:17 PM.
