Gary Payton tells us who will beat Kentucky in the SEC
by Charles Jay
Gary Payton, who spent many years as an All-Star point guard in the NBA and is no doubt ticketed for the Hall of Fame, is never lost for an opinion when it comes to the game of basketball. Of course, his major area of expertise as far as BetFlix viewers are concerned has been the NBA.
But with March Madness upon us, he is taking a different route this week.
Shooting a few baskets on his home court while wearing the jersey he donned during his his Oregon State glory days (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), Payton crossed over in his analysis, not only to college basketball, but to the SEC tournament, and the question at hand was whether anybody could beat top seed Kentucky, which has benefited with a rise to the top during John Calipari's first year as head coach, which is also the freshman year of expected #1 draft pick John Wall.
The two top contenders would appear to be Vanderbilt and Tennessee. How did Gary Payton weigh in?
"I don't think Vanderbilt can do it," he said. "I don't think they're strong enough to deal with Wall and all the guys on Kentucky." He may have a point there, in that Kentucky, with its other prized freshman, center DeMarcus Cousins, beat down AJ Ogilvy by 13 points in the first meeting, then went to Nashville for the rematch and won it by two, although it should be noted that they shot just 36% in that one, and Wall has hit just seven of 23 shots in the two meetings.
Payton figures Bruce Pearl's Volunteers have a lot better chance to upset the Kentucky applecart, despite the absence of the suspended All-American, Tyler Smith.
"Tennessee has beaten Kentucky already and I think they can do it again in this tournament," he says. "Kentucky, watch out."
Watch out indeed. The Vols looked mighty tough in Knoxville in February 27 when they scored a 74-65 upset, holding the Wildcats to 35% from the field and keeping Wall relatively quiet.
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