I don't know what any of these power rankings mean this early in the season. Come early December the picture becomes clearer.

As a Gator, SEC only. Pope is also a good dude who is right for UK, I think the Cats are gonna be in for a tight game against Louisville but Cats in a close game in the Yum Center, UK 75-72. 

For me, this comes down to how well Louisville shoots the three. If UK can keep them off the line, Louisville will have a tough time winning. 

This is one of the bigger toss ups in the rivalry in a while. This will either be a track meet and high scoring or both teams gets caught up in the emotion and its a low scoring rock fight. Either way, I see Kentucky winning by 3-5 points.

 

For this to truly be a Rivalry, Louisville needs to win from time to time. No result in this game will really shock me.

Louisville will probably have the best player on the court and a coach the team really believes in. I just don't feel good about this game.

1 minute ago, Jumper_Dad said:

For this to truly be a Rivalry, Louisville needs to win from time to time. No result in this game will really shock me.

Louisville will probably have the best player on the court and a coach the team really believes in. I just don't feel good about this game.

Absolutely agree on your first statement. 

If you're referring to Mikel Brown, my concern is he will try to press and do too much. He should be looking to drive and distribute to shooters. 

Does UK not believe in Pope? What's the deal there?

25 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Does UK not believe in Pope? What's the deal there?

I am still in wait-and-see mode... though I'm cautiously optimistic.

College basketball is in a different place. If five years ago we said that UK and UL would both be hiring two new head coaches at the same time in 2024, with one having an unproven track record at BYU (and the school's 4th? choice), the other with some success, but only at a mid-major, we would get laughed out of the gym. Both fanbases believe there is good energy about things, which is great. But as we know, this is a results-oriented business. To this point, neither has done much, or had much of an opportunity to.

2 hours ago, bugatti said:

I am still in wait-and-see mode... though I'm cautiously optimistic.

College basketball is in a different place. If five years ago we said that UK and UL would both be hiring two new head coaches at the same time in 2024, with one having an unproven track record at BYU (and the school's 4th? choice), the other with some success, but only at a mid-major, we would get laughed out of the gym. Both fanbases believe there is good energy about things, which is great. But as we know, this is a results-oriented business. To this point, neither has done much, or had much of an opportunity to.

Kelsey definitely has an advantage that Pope doesn’t; UK isn’t coming off the worst two years in the history of the program. 

Having said that, PK’s grace period will be over after this year if he doesn’t win a couple tournament games.

2 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Absolutely agree on your first statement. 

If you're referring to Mikel Brown, my concern is he will try to press and do too much. He should be looking to drive and distribute to shooters. 

Does UK not believe in Pope? What's the deal there?

No, they love Pope. I was referring to the past several years at UL and now they have a coach the team and fans are 100% behind. 

54 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

No, they love Pope. I was referring to the past several years at UL and now they have a coach the team and fans are 100% behind. 

Ah, I gotcha. I'm with you now. 

 

At least Coach Pope will be able to make the trip and game. lol

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1GTNCN9xKN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Point totals for players on Draftkings. Only 5 players listed on there.

Spread moved from Louisville-3.5 to -4.5 which is surprising considering most of the bets on Kentucky.