What's your expectations for this season?

[bbncal02]

Since a new season is nearly upon us (heck it might as well be upon us), what's your realistic expectation for this year?

Is it title or bust? Final Four? SEC Reg Season Title? SECT Champs?

Or is it a bit too early to say?


Personally, with as deep as we are, I think anything less than an E8 will be disappointing. We should also have a very good shot at winning the SEC- esp with Pearl now out of the picture.

But EweTee will probably be decent again. An UF looks to be somewhat reloading.

What say you RR? What do you see us doing and how will the SEC fare?

 

[AllBall]

6-7 losses overall, 2nd SEC Regular season, SEC Tourney champs and peaking for a F4 run. Beyond that it requires some luck and good breaks.

 

[gbl97]

I have to wait and see if we are 10 deep in good players or 10 deep in great players. Also, all the Final Four teams last year had a guy who could take over the game -- we'll see if Oweh (or someone else) shows that.

 

[Kingslayer07]

Elite 8 or bust(IF HEALTHY)

 

[Eastkybball]

Lowest expectations are top 3 in sec regular season with runner up in sec tournament. Atleast an Elite 8 this year.
My blue blood predicts sec champs and number 9.

 

[true-blue1]

At first I thought we would go 21-10 in the regular season but now I have to change that prediction because I had questions about Lowe running the team but not now after everything I have seen. I absolutely think he’s capable of leading us to the final four and with the right breaks we have a chance to win in it all!

 

[Anon1759768907]

anything less than 10 losses and a s16 or better and im satisfied

 

[Agent Redbone]

Final 4 with a pretty good shot at #9

 

[akaukswoosh]

Final 4 with a pretty good shot at #9

Works for me, and quite plausible if we stay healthy.

 

[storm1507]

I expect #9.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

I expect a FF right now.

But I want to see us play before I’m truly confident in that expectation.

Can we guard and can we rebound?

I have no concerns that we will score.

These guys have the appearance of being able to play defense.

Was our poor defense and rebounding last season a scheme problem or a personnel problem?

I think it was the latter.

JQ is going to be the difference in being very good or great.

I think if he’s a 30 minute a game guy then we will be great.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Needs to be an elite 8 with a close game to go to the final four. Alternatively, UK blows out its elite 8 opponent but thats less likely.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Elite eight at minimum. Win either SEC regular season or tourney. Chance at final four and then title.

 

[Vek96]

With a healthy JQ, anything short of a Final Four berth would be a bit disappointing.

Without JQ, sweet 16 would be good

 

[CELTICAT]

Only because your average elite 8 game is a total coin flip, I put that as the bare minimum. This team looks absolutely loaded.

 

[yoshukai]

I’ll be disappointed if we don’t make the final 8.

 

[ChicagoCat90]

My expectation is to be able to spend all of next summer watching UK national championship highlights that include this years team.

 

[anonymous_2024]

40-0 and win every game by double digits.

 

[The Ganner]

Expectation is top 10 team throughout the year, 1 or 2 seed, and playing 2nd weekend of the tournament. But tbh, anything shy of a FF is going to feel disappointing. And I want to take home SEC hardware. We need to win this conference.

 

[KentuckyFlyer]

I have to wait and see if we are 10 deep in good players or 10 deep in great players. Also, all the Final Four teams last year had a guy who could take over the game -- we'll see if Oweh (or someone else) shows that.

I agree with this. We have no idea what we have until we've played about 10 games. We could bring 9 home or we could lose 12, who knows??

 

[BlueBlood96Cat]

Well I think we have more athletes this year but nobody is jumping out at me when I got to see them the other day. Hard to predict when you don’t know if your best player will play or not. Anything less than a sweet sixteen is a failure to me. Championships are the expectation here right? Every single year. That’s why I’m a Kentucky fan. So championship is my expectation.

 

[Buckwheat Otay Is Dead]

Win and press

 

[rivercatinfl]

6-7 losses overall, 2nd SEC Regular season, SEC Tourney champs and peaking for a F4 run. Beyond that it requires some luck and good breaks.

I think that's spot on. We are going to lose a few but I agree with getting on a roll around the SEC tourney and continuing on into the NCAA's. GBB

 

[TomTraubertsBlues]

 

[LineSkiCat14]

If last year really was a lot of Pope's magic with a so-so and very injured roster.. then i have to think the expectation is a Final4 or at bare minimum E8. This is a better team than last year.

My fear would be, that last years team just happened to be perfectly complimentary with a lot of experience and moxy.. so .much so that they were able to play pull off these gutsy wins that even more talented players might not be able to do. But I really dont think this is the case. I think last year was a good team that Pope was able to get the most out of, and hes gonna be able to do that even more so this year.

Better roster, better talent, more depth. Coach Pope and staff have a year under them. SEC should take a step back and our schedule seems to be lighter. The downside is we don't have as much experience. But all told, we should be much better positioned this year.

 

[Coach Ken Reeves]

40-0

 

[KYAnywhereEverywhere]

Works for me, and quite plausible if we stay healthy.

I don't think staying healthy is going to be as important this year as most teams most years. I think we legitimately go two deep at every position with starter level talent and have guys that can be shifted around to go three deep if necessary. The talent on this team looks pretty uniform. Also, Pope proved last year that he can win even when he has to get creative with lineups due to injury. If there's one guy I wouldn't want to lose though it's Mo. He's a hulk that has a nose for the ball. He's going to be a tone setter and play hard every single game.

 

[KYAnywhereEverywhere]

This is the most excited I've been for a season to start since the anticipation for the 14-15. We win either the SEC season or tourney or maybe both. I really can't see something less than Elite 8 at the end of the year. I just see this team getting knocked out by fluke or poor performance before then. I think the reason a lot of people can't commit to saying Final Four is because Mark hasn't done it yet. If he had one under his belt, this season would feel like a gimme.

 

[Monday Nitro]

Elite Eight game and competitive in that game with it coming down to a coin flip the last five minutes to see if we make it to a F4.

 

[ukfan042]

With the talent on this roster, I think an Elight 8 run is the minimum standard. As long as JQ is healthy, we will have an outstanding chance to get to a Final 4 and potentially a Natty.

 

[rivercatinfl]

No question the roster has incredible talent.
I'm anxious to watch them in a real game. Preseason or not Purdue will be a load for us. I do think we have better athletes than Purdue but they are really
good.
It will be good to see how we blend and who takes THE shot when we need a bucket.
This is gonna be fun!!

 

[JPFisher]

Press more, have more 3pt shooters (Kam, Collin, Trent, Lowe, Johnson, and Sr.Oweh vs. Brea, Robinson, and Jr.Oweh), and be better conditioned than everyone else.

We take care of that and build off of what we did last year, we're heading to a FF.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I don't think staying healthy is going to be as important this year as most teams most years. I think we legitimately go two deep at every position with starter level talent and have guys that can be shifted around to go three deep if necessary. The talent on this team looks pretty uniform. Also, Pope proved last year that he can win even when he has to get creative with lineups due to injury. If there's one guy I wouldn't want to lose though it's Mo. He's a hulk that has a nose for the ball. He's going to be a tone setter and play hard every single game.

You better be knocking on wood mister. We have seen now, two different years where injuries really concentrated to one position group (last year with Kerr and Butler, and a few years ago with Grady and Tyty), and it cost us, sometimes badly... sadly, you can never have enough. I wouldnt feel safe unless we had 5 of every position.

 

[Dead Cat Bounce]

Hulk smash.

 

[Artlaibesghost]

I have to see us play a few times before I can decide. The hype train is barreling down the tracks this off season but in reality other than Oweh there ALOT of questions that cannot be answered until we start playing. 1 .How well will JQ perform coming off injury. 2. Can Lowe run Pope's offense effectively. 3 Will Garrison improve especially on D.4.can Jelavic handle the physical play of the SEC. 5 How will our freshman actually play under the bright lights.6. Will Chandler step up to the next level, and many more. Predicting #9 or bust at this point is delusional.

 

[Goingfor9]

We bc have massive quality depth it’s ff or bust this year. One of the next two. Seasons is a must get to ff

 

[Drogon]

I believe in Jaland Lowe and I believe in Mark Pope. I expect a FF. Anything lower than an E8 is a complete bust.

It just stands to reason that Lowe is better than just some high-volume scorer. He's surrounded by a ton more talent and this should help him not just as a shooter, but as a playmaker. The space he will have is to do those 2 things should be as good as any player gets anywhere else in the nation. Everyone else eats from the full plates he will fill.

Overall defense will be immensely better especially once JQ is in the mix.

 

[Broker]

With the talent on this roster, I think an Elight 8 run is the minimum standard. As long as JQ is healthy, we will have an outstanding chance to get to a Final 4 and potentially a Natty.

I think we will be better than good on offense but if our defense is anywhere similar to last year the elite 8 will be our ceiling. Defense travels, offense, not so much.

 

[bbncal02]

I think we will be better than good on offense but if our defense is anywhere similar to last year the elite 8 will be our ceiling. Defense travels, offense, not so much.

Defense doesn't win as many championships as it does in football, but it's vital for sure.

You can run the best defense on Earth in basketball and a guy can just shoot it right over you and hit a tough shot. Happens. BUT. You're right in the fact that on-ball defense is a cornerstone of a championship team.

Who will be our mad dog and get up in someone's face? I just don't know yet.

 

[Dward13]

I expect improvement over last season.

We were never able to string together more than 2 or 3 good performances in a row last season. I want to be one of the teams that is a threat this year.

Any team that is a legit threat shows during the season they’re capable of running off 8, 9, 10 good to great games in a row.

Other than that, 3-4 less losses at least. Top 3 sec finish at least. SEC tourney finals at least. At least an E8.

i’m with everyone else on the tournament. E8 is a coin flip and a round we’ve had terrible luck in. It’s hard for me to ever just expect a final four unless we’re head and shoulder more stacked than any team in the country like 96 and 2015. Those were two teams I knew before they played a game it was actually less likely they didnt make the final four than did.

This team is nice on paper but not like those 2.