SEC Tournament 2012: Why the Kentucky Wildcats Are a Lock for the Championship

Kentucky has been given a gift not afforded many teams at this time of year: They can actually hit the cruise control through an SEC Tournament they will dominate. 

The SEC is not some collection of awful basketball teams. There are a good amount of programs that will do their fare share of damage in March. I like Tennessee and still say they continue to get little love nationally. Vanderbilt and Florida also continue to be scary teams that can get hot in an instant. 

None of that matters, though, because Kentucky is by far the best team in the conference, and they will show as much this week in the SEC Tournament. Here is why:

Interior Defense

You normally want to go strong to the hole. Against Kentucky, I would recommend not thinking about driving the lane, no matter how hard you are bringing the rock. 

The Wildcats had nine blocked shots in their regular-season finale against Florida. That brings the season total to 278—a school record. 

Kentucky owns the paint and takes great pride in that fact. 

No Problem Scoring

Kentucky can be stingy and is a perfect 16-0 in conference, but the real pain in playing the Wildcats is their prolific offense. 

They come in 18th in the nation, putting up 77.7 points per game and making it hard to match their wits. 

They have two players who can fill the stat sheet in Doron Lamb and Anthony Davis—and the latter is precisely the reason Kentucky edges out just about every team in the nation. 

Anthony Davis

I am not about to say this time of year can be dominated by a one-player team, because it can't. Kentucky is as deep as any team out there. 

That being said, it pays to have the best player in the nation on your team, and the Wildcats have that in Davis. 

The 6'10" freshman forward is playing well beyond his years, and he has season averages of 14.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. 

Davis is the SEC Player of the Year, All-Defensive Player of the Year and Sporting News Player of the Year. Kentucky is a great team without Davis. With him on the floor, they are unbeatable. 

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