Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats' Lack of Depth Won't Hurt Them in Weak SEC

The Kentucky Wildcats rolled through the non-conference portion of their schedule with relative ease. Their only loss came against an improving Indiana squad, and they picked up marquee victories over Kansas and North Carolina.

If there has been any concern to this point, it's been a lack of depth. Only six players get extended playing time for the Wildcats, and just two other contributors see the floor for more than eight minutes per game.

Luckily for Kentucky, the SEC isn't nearly as strong of a conference in basketball as it is in football. Only three or four teams, led by Florida, will pose much of a threat to the Wildcats during conference play.

That means they should be able to survive the journey without suffering many, if any, setbacks. Outside of winning the conference, Kentucky's main goal right now should be to secure a No. 1 seed in the tournament, and it's hard to imagine them falling short.

Doron Lamb leads the group of core players at 15 points per game, but Kentucky's real strength is on the interior. The trio of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones will pose matchup problems for just about every team in America.

Size plays a prominent role in college basketball because there are so few talented big men to go around. So when one team has three legitimate threats in the paint, it's a huge advantage.

And while there are only six major contributors, none of them play an exorbitant amount of minutes. Three guys play just a tad over 30 minutes per game, which is reasonable and should allow them to have some gas left in the tank come March.

A lot of credit has to go to head coach John Calipari. He has done a nice job of balancing winning now and preparing for the most important games at season's end.

Kentucky is learning to play with different combinations of the six players on the floor so there will be chemistry in March Madness regardless of who's playing with whom. That's unlike other teams that suffer a significant drop off when star players are taken out for a breather.

The lack of players used by the Wildcats will surely get a lot of attention as the sports focus turns toward college basketball in the coming weeks, but it's more of a talking point than an actual concern fans should have about the team.

Kentucky will be just fine in SEC play by keeping the same plan of attack it has used to accumulate a 14-1 record so far.