College Basketball Summer Buzz

Kentucky Wildcats
2010-11: 29-9, (NCAA tournament - Final Four)

A year after watching more than 75 percent of its offense leave for the NBA, Kentucky fans weren't sure what to expect in John Calipari's second year as head coach. The team that Calipari had put together -- including freshmen Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb -- was highly regarded, sure, but it didn't quite have the same cachet as the high-octane group that had reached the Elite Eight the year before, led by John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson.

And while it took some time for the coaching staff to figure out how to best utilize last season's wave of newcomers, the unusually deliberate Wildcats (210th in tempo last season) reached the Final Four on the strength of their outside shooting (making 39.7 percent of their 3-pointers, good for ninth-best in the country), steady ballhandling (turning the ball over on 16.1 percent of possessions, 10th-best nationally) and stingy defense (ranking 15th in the country in adjusted efficiency, according to kenpom.com) -- all while playing with essentially a six-man rotation.

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