A theme has presented itself in Kentucky‘s first four games: slow starts, followed by quick recoveries and bloated leads. The total product has been undoubtedly impressive with three blowout wins and one nail-biting loss on the big stage, but the Wildcats have been objectively better with two players on the floor — both bench pieces.
Well, bench pieces by definition. They’re clearly starter-quality talents in their own right, just not in the starting lineup. How long that’ll be the case appears to be shifting by the game.
Let’s put a basic, surface-level stat out there to simply make a bigger point: Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham are a combined +150 in the plus/minus through four games.