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Kansas Basketball: 3 takeaways from the Jayhawks’ victory over Kentucky

By Lukas Harkins

CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 14: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks encourages his team against the Kentucky Wildcats during the State Farm Champions Classic at the United Center on November 14, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 14: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks encourages his team against the Kentucky Wildcats during the State Farm Champions Classic at the United Center on November 14, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /
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LEXINGTON, KY – NOVEMBER 10: Diallo
LEXINGTON, KY – NOVEMBER 10: Diallo /

Kentucky is already quite poised

On a team led by top freshmen in the country, it is hard to jump into a top college basketball game like this and show poise and chemistry throughout. Yet, with every run that Kansas made down the stretch of this game, Coach Cal’s team was able to respond and make the big plays to stay in the game. When dealing with the experienced college players of Kansas, it could have been easy for them to fold under the pressure, but the team never backed down from the challenge.

Although the team did commit 18 total turnovers in the game (Kansas committed 11), the team seemed to respond to every major Kansas run throughout the contest to keep things interesting. Even though the Wildcats were not able to come away with the victory, they showed that they were not afraid of the big moment. There were definitely areas of the game that the team can improve on, but considering how young the Wildcats are this season, it was good to see how well the team is functioning this early in the season.

As Coach Cal gets more practices in and the team starts to gel better together, Kentucky has a real chance to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament once again. Even though they looked somewhat shaky in their first two wins of the season, Kentucky’s youth did not look too rattled in their first major game.

Kentucky fans surely would have wanted to come away with the victory in this game, but BBN should be able to see the positives in that the Wildcats were able to hold their own against a very good and fairly experienced Kansas team.

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