There is no way.
OK, Michigan St. vs Grand Valley St. was an indication that Michigan St. was a little over-rated. And the game didn't count.
Ohio St. was integrating a lot of freshman into its rotation in its exhibition game. And the game didn't count.
But this one counts. Gardner-Webb 84, Kentucky 68. Are you kidding me? For Kentucky's sake, I hope this is simply a case of North Carolina vs Santa Clara, where no one will care at the end of the year. Because if this is any meaningful indication of Kentucky's ability?!!! Gardner Webb was 8-21 a year ago. GW's only top 200 win last year was Lipscomb.
This is truly shocking.
I was thinking of writing a column on how there is really no reason to be shocked by anything until January. After all, the pre-season polls are often wrong, or may be measuring a team's expected success in March, not current ability. I was thinking how often the announcers get excited when an underdog team is hanging around 12 minutes into the game. Its only 22-18. They haven't been blown out yet. And how this grates on me. The game starts 0-0!
Heck, even when I flipped past Michigan St.'s second exhibition game and saw they only had a 3 point lead in the second half, I didn't think you could learn much from it. I was a little surprised that UConn struggled with Morgan St., but they fought through it and picked up the win. But Gardner-Webb 84, Kentucky 68. This is pretty mindboggling. (I'm not sure if the link will be stable, but Kentucky posted an early recap here.)