Three-Point Play: Panic time in Lexington, Trendon Watford, Mark Few

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Is it too early to be hitting the panic button at Kentucky? In today’s three-point-play national basketball analyst Eric Bossi explains why concerned Wildcats fans may be justified. Also, who looks good for five-star senior Trendon Watford’s forthcoming final four and did Gonzaga’s Mark Few take a shot at North Carolina?

Maybe it’s just me, but it sure feels like we have early season concerns about Kentucky on an almost yearly basis. If you peel back the layers, there are several reasons for this. Some are justified, some aren’t and more often than not it turns out that early season worries were simply blown out of proportion because it’s Kentucky and things that happen with power teams tend to get overblown.

Let’s face it, John Calipari in the Wildcats are in a perpetual state of replacing early entry NBA talent with more talent that is eyeing early entry to the NBA Draft. The Wildcats are always playing high profile events and schedule well and in all but three of Calipari’s 10 years in Lexington, the Wildcats have suffered at least two losses by Christmas time. It’s just the way things work. But before the season is over, Calipari seems to get things taken care of and they play some fun basketball.

This year, though, I feel like Wildcats fans who have hit the panic button may at least be a little justified. Let’s face it, this season’s guards haven’t been playing up to the high standards of previous Kentucky teams under Calipari and while P.J. Washington and Reid Travis can get things done on the interior, I don’t think either has reached go-to guy status. Kentucky is 7-2, but just 1-2 vs. top 100 opponents after falling to Seton Hall on Saturday and has three top 100 opponents coming up in its next four games.

Bottom line, there are more question marks than usual nearing the turn of the new year and the bigger concern is that recruiting isn’t going quite as well as usual. In past years, you could almost always count on turning the discussion to a No. 1 or No. 2 ranked recruiting class to quiet any worries but this year the Cats only rank (gasp) No. 8 nationally in the 2019 team rankings and have had some notable misses.

Keep in mind, these are the type of “problems” that fans of vast majority of programs around the country would kill to have.

Can things change quickly? Absolutely. None of us would be surprised if three weeks from now Kentucky has beaten North Carolina and Louisville, seen the light come on for a guy like E.J. Montgomery and landed a commitment from Jaden McDaniels. But, until a few of these things happen there’s at least a little reason to be concerned about the prospects of this year’s Kentucky team.

The No. 17 player in the class of 2019, five-star forward Trendon Watford, will be cutting his list of programs down to a final four on Friday. So, who looks best to make his trimmed list?

The way I see things, Alabama, LSU and Memphis look like locks to make Watford’s final group. He’s been on official visits to LSU and Memphis and went to Alabama unofficially during the fall as well. That leaves one more spot, and if I had to bet I would go with Florida State getting the last spot. Likely, that opinion doesn’t sit well with Indiana fans because Watford’s brother Christian played there. I get the connection, but it just doesn’t seem like there has been a great focus on either the Watford or Indiana side over the past few months. But, if it’s not Florida State rounding out Watford’s top four, then I would be floored if it’s not Indiana.

Either way, we’ll know soon enough who the last four teams standing for Watford are and if I get one or two on the list wrong, I’ll be pretty easy to find to take my lumps.

After a Sunday loss to Tennessee, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few made it pretty clear where he stands when it comes to NCAA president Mark Emmert suggesting last week that there isn’t any real hurry to investigate programs potentially caught up in the FBI’s college corruption case.

“I’m disappointed. I don’t think this is something the NCAA needs to take their time on,” said in an article from Dan Agnew on Yahoo! Sports Sunday. “There’s teams out here who are competing for Final Fours and national championships and they don’t need to stall this thing out. They need to make decisions and roll with it. I think that’s on Emmert. Emmert needs to step up and be a leader and make some quicker decisions.”

For the record, I agree with Few. The longer the NCAA drags out making any kind of moves to investigate, the more it looks like it has its head in the sand. But, that’s an entirely different conversation and not the most eye-catching comment that Few made.

On Saturday, Gonzaga will travel to North Carolina and I had a hard time reading this remark from the article and not seeing it as a taking a pretty major shot at Roy Williams and the Tar Heels in advance of their game.

“There’s two teams today who were competing who do it right. I know that to be true,” Few said. “And there’s a lot of teams who do it right – the national champions two out of the last three years. There’s a lot of great things. This thing is worth saving.”

After all, we all know that Villanova has won two of the last three titles. That year they didn’t win, 2017, North Carolina won and the Heels just so happened to beat Gonzaga in the title game.

Maybe what Few was saying just came out wrong -- and Monday night he clarified his remarks to say he wasn't throwing shade at Williams or Carolina. But I wouldn't have blamed Williams or any Carolina fan for reading too much into the statement or getting upset because prior to Few clarifying it sure read as a shot at the Heels.

I do know this -- whether he was taking an intentional shot at North Carolina or not, what was already a pretty intriguing game just got a lot more interesting.