Kentucky Wildcats vs. West Virginia Mountaineers: Talent vs. Toughness

The Kentucky Wildcats are the most talented team in the country.

The West Virginia Mountaineers are the toughest.

The Wildcats will come into this evening’s Elite Eight contest sporting NBA talent up and down their lineup, including two sure-fire lottery picks. The Mountaineers will put five guys on the floor that you might see in an MMA octagon if professional basketball careers don’t pan out.

It’s almost cliché at this point, but these two teams get it done using contrasting styles. Kentucky wants an open floor to run and dunk in. West Virginia wants floor burns. Lots of them. Glorious strawberries that stick to the bandage so they can rip them off in the locker-room and laugh maniacally.

It’ll be a game of thoroughbreds vs. thoroughly bruised, and the battle will likely turn on which team can dictate their style to the other.

Keys for Kentucky

Kentucky has shown a penchant for winning fast and slow games alike. Their perimeter players obviously make up one of the best two or three backcourts in the country, so getting in an up-tempo game against the Wildcats is as advisable as challenging Britney Griner’s manhood.

But even if your guards can force Kentucky to play manageably slow as Cornell did, the USS DeMarcus Cousins becomes more of a factor in the ball game.

So the first key is to play fast and slow tempos at the appropriate times. Against Cornell, I thought Kentucky did a good job of running when the transition numbers dictated and then getting Cousins and Patterson involved when the possession was obviously of the half-court variety.

Code words like patience, shot selection, and unselfishness all tie in to the above sentiment. Kentucky won’t lose in this tournament unless they take the bait to play too fast, take quick shots, and lose their patience.

Keys for West Virginia

West Virginia has the perfect team to take Kentucky out of their comfort zone on offense. Most all of WVU's starting five are long, physical athletes that really get after it on defense. They take pride in getting into the chest of offensive players and guarding every inch of the floor.

Against this style, inexperienced players, especially talented ones, tend to lose focus on ball movement and offensive execution; and take the physical defensive play as a personal affront to their balla-ness. Selfish, manhood-measuring antics ensue, and that’s when bad things happen to good basketball players.

If you see Wall or Bledsoe over-dribbling or taking mid-range jump shots, trying to count Rucker Park style coup on an ever-woofing opponent, then you know Kentucky is playing right into the Mountaineers’ hands.

At the macro level on defense, Bob Huggins will try to add to the confusion by varying his defensive looks between man-to-man, a switching man-to-man, and a couple different zones. Huggy Bear’s goal is to put the inexperienced Kentucky guards on the psychiatrist’s couch with this confusion. He might even try to burn John Wall’s retinas with his glorious mustard suit.

I suspect the Huggins’ variations of zone will play a huge part in this game. Sometimes WVU will play their zone straight up and entice jumpers from UK non-shooters that were 2-for-15 beyond the arc against Cornell. Sometimes Hug’s Thugs 'n Harmony will trap with their 1-3-1 to steal some possessions.

To boil it down, the Mountaineers will be the best, most physical, and complicated defense Kentucky has played all year, so it will be interesting to see how Wall and Bledsoe react.

West Virginia’s offensive prospects in this game are, well, offensive. The Mountaineers aren’t a good shooting team. More importantly, they don’t have creators to make hay off the bounce, which means they’ll need to rely on motion and weak side screening to move the ball and find driving/cutting angles.

The problem with that is Kentucky does such a great job getting into passing lanes for deflections and steals. So it’s very important that WVU cuts hard, screens solidly, and passes crisply, otherwise that slow-paced style I mention above…Yeah, that’s out of the question.

Instead of running offense and keeping Kentucky in meat grinder, the ‘Neers will be watching asses, elbows, and dunks all game.

If WVU turns it over 20 times like they did against Washington, they’ll lose by 20.

Prediction

For Kentucky, it's patience and taking good shots either in the half court or transition.

West Virginia has to try to confuse Kentucky on offense with multiple defensive looks and then take care of the basketball on offense to keep Kentucky out of transition.

If the game is close in the last five minutes, West Virginia can bully their way to a win. If Kentucky takes the shots they're comfortable with, the Mountaineers have no chance in a shootout with the Wildcats.

Unless they sign Gilbert Arenas.

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Kevin writes the leading college hoops blog March To March .

Follow him on Twitter: @MarchToMarch