NCAA Basketball: Mock 2020 NCAA Tournament Elite 8 predictions
4) Kentucky Wildcats vs 6) Penn State Nittany Lions
Jake Verboven
Pat Chambers has got his crew back on track after stumbling to the finish in the regular season. After an improbable win against Coach K and the Blue Devils in the Round of 32, they were able to take down a rising Illini team to make it to the Elite 8 where they will face the Wildcats of Kentucky. Penn State runs everything on offense through their star, Lamar Stevens.
Stevens stands 6’8 225 pounds and does the vast majority of his damage inside the arc. This won’t be easy with the 6’11’’Nick Richards (2.1 BPG) and 6’10’’ E.J Montgomery (1.1 BPG) manning the paint. It becomes even harder when the Nittany Lions struggle shooting outside the arc as a team (32.5%).
Coach Calipari has the Wildcats playing their best basketball when it matters most. The backcourt of Quickly, Hagans, and Maxey should have a field day against the inferior guard play of Penn State. They had just come off of upsetting Baylor, and this trio of guards is playing with a different kind of energy and confidence over these past couple of weeks. Between the advantage, the Wildcats have on the perimeter and the size advantage they have upfront, I don’t see them having any problems taking down the 6th seeded Nittany Lions.
Kentucky 83, Penn State 68
Cody Larson
Going into this tournament, Kentucky and Penn State were not sitting on top of my ”teams to be in the Final Four” rankings, but evidently, even this series is not immune to the inescapable spirit of March Madness.
The first glaring aspect of this game is the height discrepancy. Kentucky is the 31st tallest team in the nation while Penn State is only 113th. Kentucky will control the boards, and while the Nick Richards/EJ Montgomery tandem might struggle on defense keeping up with Lamar Stevens, they should get by pretty easily down low on the other end.
This game is truly decided though, like most of Kentucky’s games have been, in the guard play. While Penn State does have solid defensive guards in the likes of Myreon Jones and Myles Dread, the offensive firepower of Tyrese Maxey (who always shows up when the lights are brightest) and Immanuel Quickly might just be too much to handle; Ashton Hagans controlling the pace of the game makes that only more true.
Stevens likely does his due work for Penn State, but Kentucky out rebounds and outscores the Nittany Lions from the perimeter to advance on to the Final Four.
Kentucky 74, Penn State 69
Cody Gerena
This is a surprising matchup considering the way that both teams had to take to come so far, with Kentucky beating New Mexico State, BYU, and Baylor, and Penn State beating Utah State, Duke, and Illinois. The Nittany Lions would’ve been led by senior forward Lamar Stevens with Lamar leading the team’s scoring at 17.6 points per game and being within one of the lead at the rebounding and assists at 6.9 rebounds per game and 2.3 assists. The Wildcats top scorer is sophomore guard Immanuel Quickly, who has scored 16.1 points per game.
Even though these are two quality teams with good players, Kentucky has the better starting team overall with four players scoring over 10 points per game compared to Penn State’s two. It should also be brought up that the Wildcats have tournament experience while the Nittany Lions do not which could also play a huge factor when it comes to playing for a spot in the Final Four. In the end, the Kentucky Wildcats would beat Penn State and end their Cinderella run while also finally getting past the Elite Eight hurdle that has prevented them into getting into the Final Four twice since 2017.