How "The First 10 Games" have looked over the last 3 years

We are 10 games into the season and this Kentucky team has started to answer some questions, while others still linger. The Baylor loss last week was disappointing, but last night's win over Boise State got the young Wildcats back on track. With an 8-2 record after 10 games, Kentucky still sits in a good spot to create their own destiny as the season goes on. Kentucky looks like a team with the talent to compete for a national championship-- but a team far from reaching that potential at this point in time. Thinking back to the national championship team, at this point in the season-- most of us felt like we were looking at a legitimate national title contender. After 10 games last season, Kentucky still had a ton of question marks and looked more like what we thought at the time might be more like a Sweet 16 contender.  I thought it would be interesting to look back at the statistics and numbers after 10 games for the previous 2 Kentucky teams in comparison to this year's Kentucky team. 2011-2012 National Championship Team 2012-2013 NIT Team 2013-2014 Current Kentucky Team   Overall Record: 2011-2012 : 9-1 2012-2013 : 7-3 2013-2014: 8-2   Quality Wins: 2011-2012 : Kansas and North Carolina  2012-2013 : Maryland 2013-2014: Providence and Boise State **Thoughts: The national championship team had something neither last year's team nor this year's team has yet... big time quality wins. Both North Carolina and Kansas were nationally ranked and made for early impressive wins. Maryland was an average team last year, and Providence and Boise State are both quite possibly NCAA tournament teams, but not necessarily marquee opponents/wins.   Questionable/Bad Losses: 2011-2012 :  None 2012-2013 : None 2013-2014: None **Thoughts: I thought it was interesting that at this point in all 3 seasons, Kentucky hadn't suffered any losses to teams who were not at least potential NCAA tournament teams.   Losses to Potential NCAA Tourney Teams: 2011-2012 : Indiana  2012-2013 : Duke, Notre Dame and Baylor 2013-2014: Baylor and Michigan State   Average Points Per Game: 2011-2012 : 81.8 ppg 2012-2013 :  78.1 ppg 2013-2014: 80.8 ppg   Average Points Per Game for Opponent: 2011-2012 :  59.1 ppg  2012-2013 : 61.8 ppg 2013-2014: 63.4 ppg **Thoughts: Although the numbers aren't VASTLY different, it's clear that this team is still not to the elite level defensively of the national championship team.   Leading Scorers/Top Performers/Consistent Performers: 2011-2012: Michael Kidd- Gilchrist (13.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg), Anthony Davis (11.8 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 44 blocks) 2012-2013 : Nerlens Noel (10.7 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 39 blocks),  Archie Goodwin (15.8 ppg)  2013-2014: Julius Randle (17.8 ppg, 12.0 rpg), James Young (13.9 ppg), Willie Cauley Stein (9.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 43 blocks)   3-Point Field Goal %: 2011-2012 : 36.18%  2012-2013 : 37.48% 2013-2014: 32.5% **Thoughts: Despite coming into the season as what Calipari called one of his best 3-point shooting teams at Kentucky, this year's team is shooting the worst clip so far of the past 3 years.   Free Throw Shooting %: 2011-2012 : 67.76%  2012-2013 : 61.52% 2013-2014: 67.0% **Thoughts: Cal's teams are notoriously bad free throw shooting teams. I would have guessed that this year's team would have had a WAY lower percentage. I think the difference is that the teams are shooting more free throws due to the new emphasis on foul calling, so the misses seem more frequent and crucial.   Average Margin of Victory: 2011-2012 : 22.7 points  2012-2013 : 16.3 points 2013-2014: 17.4 points **Thoughts: That national championship team had the "put you away" mentality with weaker teams.   Field Goal %: 2011-2012 : 49.47% 2012-2013 : 49.86%  2013-2014 : 48.2%   Rebounds per game:  2011-2012 : 42.0 rpg 2012-2013 : 37.9 rpg 2013-2014 : 44.3 rpg   Assists: 2011-2012 : 152 assists  2012-2013 :  166 assists 2013-2014 : 129 assists **Thoughts: Some of the assist numbers likely have to do with point guard play, but also the team's overall ability to move the ball around in the offense.     Blocks: 2011-2012 :  100 blocks 2012-2013 : 80 blocks  2013-2014: 78 blocks    Turnovers: 2011-2012 : 130 turnovers  2012-2013 : 126 turnovers  2013-2014 : 132 turnovers  **Thoughts: All of Kentucky's point guards in the past 3 seasons have faced struggles early on, likely accounting for the similarly high turnover numbers.   Point Guard Assist:Turnover Ratio: 2011-2012 : Marquis Teague (46 assists, 27 turnovers) 2012-2013 : *Not enough minutes logged by Ryan Harrow to compare at this point 2013-2014 : Andrew Harrison (35 assists, 23 turnovers)   National Ranking: 2011-2012 : #3  2012-2013 : #22 2013-2014 : #10