Kentucky Basketball: Why the Wildcats will struggle to win titles this year

1. The Wildcats are young and inexperienced

As I said, Kentucky is extremely talented, but they are also very young and, by virtue of that, inexperienced. The Wildcats have eight guys who have played in every game this season and all are averaging double-digit minutes. Of those eight, five are freshmen and two others are sophomores with just one senior. And even that senior, big man Reid Travis, is in his first year with the program after transferring from Stanford. That means that of the players in Kentucky’s eight-man rotation, just sophomore forwards P.J. Washington and Nick Richards have been with the program for more than one season.

The inexperience of the Wildcats will make it difficult for them to overcome either Tennessee or LSU for the SEC regular-season title and when it comes to post-season play experience matters. The freshmen quartet of Ashton Hagans, EJ Montgomery, Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson, and Immanuel Quickley are all 19 years old and Travis is the oldest member of the rotation at 23. The average age of the rotation is 19.8, the youngest of the top three competitors in the conference.

Tennessee has the oldest rotation at 20.8, they are also the most experienced in tournament play, having reached the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament last season. While LSU is closer to Kentucky in terms of rotation structure with a senior in his first year with the program (Kavell Bigby-Williams), they also have four freshmen contributing for them. Unlike the Wildcats, LSU has two juniors, Skylar Mays and Marlon Taylor, and their main piece is a sophomore, guard Tremont Waters. While Waters is only a year older than the Kentucky ballhandlers, that year of experience can be immeasurable.