Kentucky still has one more non-league game. It'll be late next month against third-ranked Kansas inside Rupp Arena. But, for the most part, the non-SEC portion of the UK's schedule is, as they say, now in the books.
How have John Calipari's 10-2 Wildcats handled things? Let's grade them!
Offense: A-
Kentucky ranks fifth nationally in offensive efficiency and is doing so while playing at a top-20 tempo. In other words, the Wildcats are fast and efficient. And they're only turning the ball over on 14.7 percent of their possessions, which ranks eighth nationally and is terrific for a backcourt led by two freshmen. UK has scored at least 92 points in eight of its 12 games and broken the 100-point barrier four times -- after last season never scoring more than 94 points in 36 contests. So there's a lot of good stuff here. The only reason I went with an A- instead of an A+ is because of the poor 3-point shooting.
Shooting: F
It speaks to how good Kentucky is at other things that the Wildcats are a consensus top-10 team despite shooting just 33.2 percent from 3-point range, which ranks 229th nationally. Malik Monk is the only player averaging more than 12.0 minutes per game who is shooting better than 34.5 percent from beyond the arc. De'Aaron Fox is at 15.4 percent. Isaiah Briscoe is at 27.8. Like I wrote earlier, only two national champs -- 1988 Kansas and 2011 Connecticut -- have ever won titles while shooting this poorly from 3-point range. That doesn't mean Kentucky can't win it all, of course. But it does mean history suggests it's unlikely unless the perimeter shooting improves.
Freshmen: A
Kentucky's first-year players, even the five-star recruits, don't always immediately adjust well to college basketball. But this group has been great. Monk (21.4 points per game) and Fox (16.3 points per game) are the team's top two scorers. (Monk has a 47-point game already. Fox has a triple-double already.) And then there's Bam Adebayo, who is averaging 12.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in 25.6 minutes per game. Those three -- Monk, Fox and Adebayo -- were Kentucky's three most heralded prospects and the ones expected to play big roles this season. So far, so good. They've been terrific -- especially Fox.
Veterans: C
Only three non-freshmen -- Isaiah Briscoe, Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins -- are averaging more than 12.0 minutes per game, which is among the reasons Kentucky ranks 347th in the "experience" category, according to KenPom. Briscoe, a sophomore guard, is averaging 15.1 points while shooting 52.9 percent from the field. That's good. But Willis and Hawkins haven't made any real statistical improvements. Willis took 3.8 3-pointers in 18.6 minutes per game last season and made 44.2 percent of them. Now he's taking 2.9 3-pointers in 19.1 minutes per game but making just 34.3 percent of them. So the senior forward is playing more but shooting less and way worse from 3-point range. Meantime, Hawkins, a senior guard, is shooting 31.4 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from 3-point range. Bottom line, if Kentucky wins the SEC and anything beyond, it won't be because of the upperclassmen. It'll be freshmen-driven for sure.
Defense: B
This grade, in the big picture, is low because UK actually ranks sixth in defensive efficiency. But it's hard to ignore that the Wildcats have only played two good offensive teams -- UCLA and North Carolina -- and allowed both to shoot exactly 53.0 percent from the field. UCLA put 97 points on the Wildcats. UNC put 100 on them. That Kentucky managed to split those games is a testament to its offense.
Overall: B
Kentucky has been favored in every game but lost twice -- at home to UCLA and on the road to Louisville. So it's impossible to pretend things have gone as planned because, by definition, they have not. But, that said, everything is cool. Everything is fine. The UCLA game got away from the Wildcats and provided a surprising result, if only because A) Kentucky was favored by 11 points at home, and B) most didn't realize how good UCLA was at the time. But UK remains the only sensible pick to win the SEC. And the Wildcats can still secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and, yes, win Calipari's second national championship.
They're not the favorites to cut nets in April.
That's still Duke followed by UCLA.
But everything that was on the preseason table remains on the table.
UK's next game is Thursday at Ole Miss.
