Kentucky Beat: Keys to the Game Tuesday night against Nicholls in season-opener

Mark Pope was so distraught after Kentucky lost 84-70 to Georgetown in their second exhibition game that he resembled Coach Herb Brooks in the movie “Miracle,” after Team USA lost 10-3 to the Soviet Union in a friendly prior to the 1980 Olympics Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. That’s how much he cares about this team, this program and this University. He played for Kentucky. He lives for Kentucky Basketball. To him, that game against Georgetown counted.

Tuesday night, the games start counting. The Wildcats open the season against the Nicholls Colonels. Nicholls is coming off a 20-13 season where they finished 13-7 in the Southland Conference and earned the No. 3 seed in the Conference Tournament.

This year’s Nicholls team will look a lot different. Their top six scorers from last year are all not returning.

Let’s take a look at my keys to the game ahead of Tuesday night’s matchup.

Keys to the Game

1. Getting out in transition
This Wildcats team is much better athletically than last year’s team. Getting out in transition will show that and put a ton of pressure on the Colonels’ defense. Nicholls’s team this season is vastly different, with 10 new players. Putting pressure on them defensively will really test their cohesiveness early.

2. Offensive efficiency
This is a key coming over from the Georgetown game. Taking good shots, making the high-percentage shots will put pressure on any team. Tuesday night is a good night to start building the offensive efficiency, especially for a team that may not be as good at three-point shooting and scoring as last year’s team. They’ll score, but being efficient will increase their offensive production.

3. On-ball defense
Kentucky didn’t do a great job against the Hoyas of putting pressure on the ball, which led to a lot of easy buckets and three-point makes. Pressuring the ball will make it hard for Nicholls, and any team, to move the ball.

4. Avoid the chaos
Last season, Nicholls avergaed 11.3 assists and 10.6 turnovers per game. That’s Jekyll and Hyde at its finest. Opponents, though, averaged 12.1 assists and 12.5 turnovers per game. These stats suggest that Nicholls can cause chaos on both ends of the floor. Don’t get caught up in that if you’re the Wildcats.

Score Prediction: Wildcats 93 – Colonels 60
Kentucky is the far-and-away better team, but this is a good opponent to play in the season-opener. The Wildcats, though, should win this game going away without fans sweating too much.