Kentucky 73 Vermont 69

Final. Hope our shooting improves Tuesday or it could be a beat down like the Cats put on the Jayhawks a few years back.

That will be a nice top 50-75 RPI win by the end of the year. Vermont isn’t a bad team. Good early test. On the ball defense is extremely concerning.

I knew Vermont was good. Agree this was a good test for the young Cats. Don't know if they will be ready for the big test on Tuesday.

Cats must use some zone tuesday, if they cannot keep Vermont from going by them playing man to man then Kansas will have a field day. Vick, Graham and Newman is a great trio of guards for them.

Another W ...That's the good thing. I did like the way that the Cats ran their offense / spacing a little more today than in the opener. Defensively, they still have a Loooong way to go, especially on the man/man, pressuring the ball. I agree with others in that they look better in the zone. A team has to be able to play good man / lock down defense to win big and use the zone in spots, imo. This group may be a very good pressing team as well.

Vermont was a good basketball team and are very well coached, they don't try to be someone they're not, stick to their system.

Bottom line is all of us demanding U.K. fans have got to know that this U.K. bunch is going to take time. Hopefully, we will be ready to go about Feb. and March.

On a side note about J. Dykes ....at least I don't remember hearing ..."look for that nail in the floor" (on the FT line) at all. I think that he replaced it with "this is a 4 / 13 seed in March" , at least for today. :lol2:

Good win over a good team.

Nice win for the young Cats. Solid Vermont team, experienced with an outstanding point guard. Improvements from previous outing, at this point that’s all you can hope for.

That will be a nice top 50-75 RPI win by the end of the year. Vermont isn’t a bad team. Good early test. On the ball defense is extremely concerning.

The first mid-major rankings I saw had Vermont at #3 behind St. Mary's and Gonzaga (both top 25 teams). That is a really good win.

I honestly thought UK played a little above their heads and Vermont struggled knocking down shots in the first half, though they had good looks. One the Cats could have dropped, but they found a way to prevail. A long way from establishing an identity. Very poor on the defensive end.

Vermont was good competition, as Purdue discovered in last year’s NCAA tournament when they barely survived in their game with them. They will be in the NCAA tournament again this year.

Was hoping to see the zone defense, but Vermont was wayyyyyyyy too good at shooting the trey for that. Man-to-man defense is a struggle so hopefully we will be able to play zone against Kansas.

Vermont was good competition, as Purdue discovered in last year’s NCAA tournament when they barely survived in their game with them. They will be in the NCAA tournament again this year.