Lexington Herald Leader has X as preseason #17

[Mr. Neutral]

http://www.kentucky.com/682/story/581606.html

[bluegrass]

The guard position is too much of a question mark to put this team in the top 25.The first 6 weeks are going to be a roller coaster.Our veterans have to step up until the younger guys get more experience.CJ can't go 1-6 from the line and D Brown can't have 4 turnovers.Let's hope Crawford will be eligible-I'm not counting on it.

[Mr. Neutral]

I would agree, blue. Unless our guard play and FT shooting improve markedly, and quickly, there's no way X is a #17 team.

[muskieman]

The guard position is too much of a question mark to put this team in the top 25.The first 6 weeks are going to be a roller coaster.Our veterans have to step up until the younger guys get more experience.CJ can't go 1-6 from the line and D Brown can't have 4 turnovers.Let's hope Crawford will be eligible-I'm not counting on it.

Brown has had trouble with turnovers, this is not the first time.

CJ started slow from the line last year but end up better than I thought.

The guard play is the weakness right now but I think it has the best potential to improve because they have talent and seem to know the game. It is like the last few years when we could have done better if we had the talents of the the 2 or 3 players at one position all rolled into one player.

[bluegrass]

I would agree.Over the next few years, the guard position is going to be one of our strengths. We'll just need to be patient

[madness31]

I wouldn't expect the degree of foul shooting trouble to continue but wouldn't be surprised if we shot worse than last season. Turnovers should improve dramatically but there will be bad games where FT and/or turnovers are real problems. You do need to realize that there was very little time to get the team ready for the Findlay game. Yes the players have some experience playing together but official practices have only recently kicked off. With the addition of so many new players it should be expected that the first few games will be sloppy.

I expect our size and experience in the post as well as solid defense to keep us in games. Strong outside shooting from BJ and Redford could be the difference in those games. Hopefully the team can gel before we face Missouri but expectations should be kept reasonable.

I'm not sure the inexperience at point excludes us from the top 25 but its understandable to take a wait and see attitude. The potential is high but the learning curve could take longer than desired. Hopefully the league does well in non conference to give us a chance to fight our way into the tourney in case we start slow.