This is not my area. I'll have to get my pal UKFan4Life in here to comment on it. He knows everything and anything about Kentucky basketball.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Wave:</div><div class="quote_post">This is not my area. I'll have to get my pal UKFan4Life in here to comment on it. He knows everything and anything about Kentucky basketball.</div> So who else was surprised by Kentucky last year? The whole nation? Yeah, that sounds about right. They were preseason ranked number 16 and were expected to have an off-season for a Kentucky basketball team. They suffered a heart breaking loss to Louisville (and a few other teams before that), but little did everybody know, Kentucky wasn?t going to lose a single game after that until the NCAA Tournament. Can Tubby repeat with another season like the last one? I doubt he?ll be able to get another 26 game winning streak, but Kentucky has high hopes for next year with the new recruits coming in. Everybody is hyped up about Kentucky?s two new 7 foot centers, Lukasz Obrzut (7?3) and Shagari Alleyne (7?4). I?ve had the privilege of seeing both of these guys play with the rest of the UK team for next season, and I must say I?m impressed. Lukasz Obrzut (otherwise known as ?Woo? for short?) is easily the better of the two. I saw him nailing 3 pointers under pressure, bring the ball up the court under pressure, and he has almost an uncountable number of post moves. He can do it all. Granted, next year will be his year of adjusting to the college game of basketball, but he will play. UK needs someone to fill in for the center position. This guy will be him. Shagari Alleyne however, was the opposite of Woo. Alleyne is a project, plain and simple. He has no post moves and is very uncoordinated. Tubby told me of how he?s going to help Alleyne improve though, and I must say it?s a genius idea. He?s going to give Alleyne one post move at a time and let Alleyne work on that move until he?s got it down, then he?ll give him one more, let Alleyne work on it until he?s got it down, then another, etc. The sky is the limit for a play who?s 7?4 and has an 8 foot wingspan. Plus, it was just plain cool to see Alleyne dunk without jumping. Now what about the rest of the team? The rest of the team has gotten better and has seemed to compensate for the loss of Bogans, Estill, and Camara. Cliff Hawkins is the most improved. He was knocking down 3?s from all over the court. If he can keep up that kind of 3 point consistency, then you can expect Hawkins to be a mid to late pick in the NBA draft. Antwain Barbour is the one who surprised me the most. He was all over the floor. I saw him dunk on Tayshaun Prince, block a Shagari Alleyne hook shot, and block Lukasz Obrzut mid-range jumper. He could get up. He showed some tenacious defense that seemed to be somewhat absent from his game last year and has even further improved his shot. I saw that Erik Daniels had been working on some post moves, which signaled to me that he might be playing down low somewhere this season (he is 6?9, after all). Daniels passing game is still there and he had seemingly become a pretty good post player. Gerald Fitch hasn?t really added anything new or impressive to his game, but he doesn?t need to. He took what he had and improved it even more. As Tubby told me, ?Gerald Fitch is one of the most underrated players in college basketball.? I must say that I agree. Unfortunately, Chuck Hayes was with the Pan Am team when I saw the players playing, so I didn?t get to see Hayes play. But since he?s with the Pan Am team, I?m sure he?s just as good-if not better-than last year. Kelenna Azubuike, a player who is going to be seeing a lot of playing time at shooting guard next season, was out with a small back injury, but has since recovered and is back for action. Azubuike AVERAGED 40 POINTS in high school, so we can expect great things from him offensively this upcoming season. Kentucky, however, isn't done recruiting as most people think. Tubby has an abundance of high-level guard recruits that he's look at. Two of them will be making a visit to UK next week. More info on them later. If you need to know anything else, let me know.
