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Tyler Herro has never been one that lacks confidence.
Being nicknamed the “Bucket,” Herro has continued to prove at the NBA level just how lethal he can be. Having been a lottery pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Herro envisions a few thing that could’ve been different had he replayed his sophomore season at Kentucky.
Starting with the matchup versus Duke, one in which Kentucky was humiliated, Herro, who had fellow up-and-coming NBA player PJ Washington on that Wildcats roster, foresees that having been a far closer game had the two teams played later in the season, not right out the gate.
He even went on to say that the Wildcats would’ve won.
“It was so hype because we were 1 and 2 in the country,” Herro said when talking about the anticipation leading up the Duke-Kentucky matchup, one that helped kick off NCAA basketball on a national platform.
“If we seen them at the end of the year, we’d beat ‘em. No question,” he continued with in a live interview with ESPN’s Jordan Schultz.
It’s a bold statement having lost 118-84. Herro scored 14 points in the outing while Reid Travis went for 22.
To be fair though, Washington didn’t even play a full 20 minutes. His impact on the team was crucial once he found his groove in SEC play. That PJ would’ve vastly changed the outcome. That, and the Wildcats mindset just wasn’t there as Herro also noted.
Kentucky did have a pretty successful remainder of the season though as they managed to get all the way to the Elite Eight, the same around as the Blue Devils, before losing to SEC-rival Auburn.
Having been counted out early season, Bucket turned it on in 2019, just as he has at the NBA level.