The Kentucky Wildcats need to watch out for these two Oakland stars
In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Kentucky Wildcats will take on the Horizon League Champion Oakland Golden Grizzlies.
The Golden Grizzlies have played a handful of Power-Six schools this season and have competed in every one of these games, so Oakland is coming into this game looking to win.
While the Wildcats should be able to take care of this team, there are a couple of Golden Grizzlies that the Wildcats need to know before this game tips on Thursday evening.
The player who brings the most concern is Horizon League Player of the Year Trey Townsend who averaged 16.9 points per game on the season. He also leads the team in rebounds averaging 7.8 a game. Townsend is an interesting player because he is listed as a forward but only stands 6'6. Watching film on Townsend, he is a three-level scorer, but he does like to put his back to the basket, which will not work against Kentucky. If I had to guess Adou Thiero or Justin Edwards will draw the assignment on Townsend, and they should be able to slow him. With him being their primary scorer, he will likely still score about ten points, but Thiero and Edwards won't let him take over the game. Both Thiero and Edwards have the height advantage over Townsend at 6'8.
The other player to pay attention to is Jack Gohlke, who averages 12.2 points per game on the year, but he only shoots three-pointers. He has shot the ball 335 times, and only eight of those shot attempts have not been three-pointers. He shoots about 9.6 three-pointers a game and is shooting 37% on the season, so Kentucky needs to be ready. Only one player in all of college hoops has shot more threes than Gohlke. The 6'3 sharpshooter has the making of a March Madness hero, so the Wildcats need to push him off the three-point line and contest everything he puts up. If he makes one or two, it won't kill you, but if he makes six or seven, the Wildcats could be in trouble.
