Jay Bilas says Kentucky is "very good" with "significant room to get better"

Jay Bilas will be on the call tonight for Kentucky’s highly-anticipated matchup against LSU in Baton Rouge, joining Karl Ravech in the booth for ESPN. Prior to tip-off at 7 p.m. ET, though, the college basketball analyst shared his thoughts on the Wildcats — among 68 total teams.

The Bilas Index

Bilas released his 1-68 men’s college basketball rankings for 2021-22, “The Bilas Index, Volume I,” self-appointed as the “greatest and most comprehensive evaluation of basketball accomplishment and predictive measure of future performance known to mankind, and perhaps beyond.” He describes it as a true “evaluation of detailed data analytics and on-court scouting of actual game performances, not just results.”

Long story short, Bilas has new rankings and breakdowns he wants to share with the basketball world, with Kentucky coming in at No. 9 overall in the latest installment.

Wildcats are “very good,” with focus on transition defense and rebounding

“The Wildcats are very good and have significant room to get better,” Bilas said. “When you play Kentucky, the keys are transition defense and rebounding. Sahvir Wheeler is among the nation’s assist leaders, and he pushes the ball up court as quickly as anyone. And as long as Kentucky gets a shot up without turning it over, Oscar Tshiebwe will go and get it. Kentucky is the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country, grabbing over 43% of its own misses. The one area that Kentucky does not excel in is getting to the foul line. This is a better free throw shooting team, by percentage, than John Calipari has had in a while, but Kentucky is not getting to the line often.”

No. 9 overall? Certainly higher than the Wildcats were ranked in the latest AP Poll (No. 16) and a few notches higher than they’re ranked in the Coaches Poll (No. 13).

Defensive success for the Tigers, but struggling offense

What does Bilas think of LSU? Again, he’s higher on Will Wade’s bunch than AP and Coaches Poll voters (No. 21/No. 21), ranking the Tigers No. 12 overall.

It’s not due to offense, though. While Bilas is incredibly confident in LSU’s defensive abilities, he believes the team’s offense is “not good or efficient.”

“The Tigers can defend,” he said. “This is an explosive team that can press, pressure, challenge and disrupt. LSU can turn you over, take the ball from you and block your shot with superior depth and length. LSU is highly ranked because of its defense, which is No. 1 in the county. However, the LSU offense is not good or efficient. The Tigers do not shoot the ball well at all, hitting only 31% from deep, but are a solid offensive rebounding team. The question is, will LSU’s offense improve to help its defense? There are no shutouts in basketball, and the offensive difficulties were apparent in the loss at Auburn.”

Kentucky puts up 83.9 points per game and allows 60.5 points per contest, good for a 23.4-point scoring differential. Meanwhile, LSU scores 77.7 points per game while allowing just 55.3 points per contest, a 22.4-point differential. Pretty, pretty close.

Will elite offense or defense win out in Baton Rouge?