Will These Cats Finish Down The Stretch?

All your life people tell you it's not how you start, it's how you finish. This little piece of advice reverberates across the college basketball landscape every spring as conference play winds down and tournaments begin. This year's Wildcats have nine games left until the SEC postseason play, which can make or break your season as you sneak into the tourney, but that's a story for another time. 

With this number of games left, major damage can still be done to our seeding and where we have to play in March. This all starts with SEC West foe LSU this Saturday down in Baton Rouge, kicking off the nine-game stretch.

Will these 'Cats run the table? This task is one that can be done but will be a challenge. If the losses come, or when, depending on who you are, it will be on the road. Even when playing soft, the 'Cats are just too tough at home. This is not the team that drops one in Rupp.

The most likely place to lose is going to be the game at Vanderbilt. The Commodores downed Mississippi State in a game that ended up being closer than it should have. If Jermaine Beal comes out hot from behind the arc and A.J. Ogilvy finds a way to shut down DeMarcus Cousins, we could easily drop one in Memorial Gym.

With the firepower that the 'Dores have on offense and size to match up with Cousins and Patrick Patterson, they could go stride for stride with the 'Cats. Not to mention the overall weird setup of their gym, which they take advantage of at all times.

In getting past Vandy, I think making the trip to Knoxville will be the next real test for this team. The road, in that environment, can rattle any team. Plus, this is a team that knows how to win big games. They proved this earlier this year, knocking off then and current No. 1 Kansas.

However, the Volunteers are not playing well right now, and after all of the hits this team has taken, can they punch back from one more? The questionable losses to teams like Georgia raise a few eyebrows about the 'Vols validity.

Finally, we come to the last team that scares me, a team mentioned above. That would be the Georgia Bulldogs. I'm not really sure what it is, but something about this team just scares me. Maybe it's the fact that they have bounced us late the last few years and I'm still having a Billy G hangover. Still, this team showed some grit the first time we played them and this time the game will be in Athens, which will be rockin' when that 'Cats visit. 

These are not the only teams that will give Kentucky fits; with the likes of Florida and Mississippi State still on the schedule there is more than three games to worry about. After this article, I think I'll just take the games one at a time, starting this Saturday.