Dave's Early CBB Triple Dime For Tuesday
Obviously played at a neutral site. Last year, Kentucky and their kids weren't very good early, especially not in Lexington. They lost to Michigan State in Chicago, lost to Baylor in Arlington, and lost at North Carolina (who wasn't that good, come to find out). The problem with assuming the same this year is they do have more returning players, have already played two games, and have a huge size advantage over Kansas. With that said, all those games last year were close.
Kentucky does have the usual compliment of Freshman, but only Towns has been starting, and he's had a tough time staying out of foul trouble. Point is that I don't think Kentucky's youth is as much of a factor as it has been in past years, at least not this early. It's actually KANSAS who played four Freshman against UCSB, and what does concern me is that they turned the ball over 16 times (more than UCSB) and let UCSB shoot over 50% from inside the arc. That could be a huge problem, because even if Towns does get into foul trouble, Kentucky brings in Trey Lyles (6'10") and Dakari Johnson (7'). The Wildcats should simply dominate inside.
Tyler Ulis (Fr) is a pure shooter off Kentucky's Freshman bench who went off from behind the are against Buffalo. In that game their Freshman were 7-8 from the charity stripe. Against Grand Canyon, as a team Kentucky shot 73% from the line. That's ALWAYS a good thing, especially when a team is trying to cover a short spread late.
Kansas will start three Sophomores and two Juniors, with FOUR Freshman sitting on the bench. It may well be the Jayhawks who are the inexperienced team here, so I will lay the points here. BetOnline had them at -4, but as I type this CRIS opened at -5.5. Another reason for more outs and a solution as to how to get these out quicker.