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

3 of 4

LEXINGTON, KY – NOVEMBER 28: Reid Travis #22 of the Kentucky Wildcats shoots the ball against the Monmouth Hawks at Rupp Arena on November 28, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

2. Reid Travis is becoming ineffective

Summertime in college basketball has become transfer season, and it was thought that Kentucky had landed the best immediately eligible transfer on the market when Reid Travis, a 6-foot-8 forward decided he was going to spend his last year playing basketball in Lexington. Reid had spent the previous four seasons playing for Stanford, where he averaged 19.5 points and 8.7 rebounds for the Cardinal.

With another top recruiting class coming in, it was thought that Reid would be the perfect veteran complement to help keep the freshmen on track as they traversed through their first season. As the season began, it looked like Travis was going to be a real force for Kentucky, going for 22 and 7 in the opening-night loss to Duke. In the team’s first 11 games, he averaged 15 points and just over six boards per game.

But, since beating North Carolina just before Christmas Travis has since averaged just 8.4 points per game, while increasing his rebounding average to 7.2 per game. Unless Travis rediscovers his offensive game from early in the season and is able to take some of the production load off of Washington and the freshmen, Kentucky will not be successful in March.

Home/Kentucky Wildcats