Kentucky is just hitting the easy button

tide is 4 point underdogs at home
bama has no answer for noel...

      So we have to try to match up with five star players at each position. But the best player KU has is going to have a big night against the weakest part of our team. All arm chair coaches like to speculate what to do against the other team. Here's my game plan. Pray that Noel gets the flu and doesn't play. That would be plan A. Plan B would be to shoot about 75% from the outside. I know this sounds pretty negative. I'm just trying to describe what I see in the game. We all love to watch Releford drive and hit those uncanny layups. I bet Noel is licking his chops right now. Releford will win some of those battles, but Noel is likely to win more. I was very surprised that we opened at 3.5 or 4 point underdog. I was afraid it might be more like 12. I suppose there is still some belief that Kentucky is not all that good. I'll say this - if Bama can keep this game competitive we have a much better team than I believed and Anthony Grant is one helluva coach.

    To have any chance to win this game the Tide must.

• Shoot well over 50%
• less than 10 turnovers
• be close to perfect at the line
• cause at least 15 turnovers
• get Noel into foul trouble in the first half.
• get back on defense 
• contest their two best three point shooters as much as possible
• hope that one of our players has a career night.
• come close to breaking even on the boards. 

    Kentucky's talent is not a great deal better than Alabama except in the post. I keep wondering if we will ever see Gueye and Jacobs on  the floor together. This might happen although our lack of depth would make it a gamble. I do think we could win this game if things break our way.  But Kentucky is going to have to help us win. Maybe they have foul trouble (if Kentucky ever has foul trouble in the SEC) or shoot the ball poorly.   Or catch the flu.