Kentucky Basketball: Can the young Wildcats win the SEC in 2018-19?

ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 22: Nick Richards #4 of the Kentucky Wildcats and his teammates reacts to their teams loss to the Kansas State Wildcats during the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at Philips Arena on March 22, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. The Kansas State Wildcats defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 61-58. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Last year

The Kentucky Wildcats had six five-star players last year in Quade Green, Nick Richards, PJ Washington, Jarred Vanderbilt, Kevin Knox and Hamiduo Diallo. All those players were only able to muster up a five seed in the NCAA tournament.

Without a bonafide star, they were not able to find the ability to win games in the NCAA tournament. With their main core being freshmen that did not help either. Having a bunch of stars is great but one star to get the ball to probably would have helped them in the tournament because they would have been able to play around him.

The team lacked offensive firepower as they were only 72nd in offensive rating and they were 100th in defensive rating. The focus will have to go towards more efficiency on offense and defense. The talent is there but the overall production was not good last year.

Kevin Knox led the team in scoring with 15.6 points per game. Shai Gilegous-Alexander had 14.4 points per game, PJ Washington had 10.8 and Hamiduo Diallo had 10.0 points per game. The team was able to win the SEC tournament but they only went to the second round in the NCAA tournament last year.

The NCAA tournament is one of the hardest stages to play and this year’s team will have to be ready to play on that stage.

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