Dick Weiss on College Basketball
LEXINGTON, Ky.– What to make of this Kentucky team?
As usual, John Calipari’s Wildcats have a roster filled with future NBA players who are earmarked on mock draft boards.
Freshmen guards Robbie Dillingham, Reed Sheppard and DJ Wagner, 7-1 center Aaron Bradshaw along with senior wing Antonio Reeves are all listed as potential first round picks.
Calipari has created an assembly line for future millionaires since he arrived in Lexington in 2010.They had 28 players on opening day rosters. Seven of Cal’s former players–
Karl Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Sean Gilgeous- Alexander, Anthony Davis, Tyrese Maxey, Julius Randle, Bam Adebayo– among the 24 players selected for the NBA All Star game.in Indianapolis. Two others– De’Aaron Fox and Jamal Murray–were among the most discussed snubs.
It is an embarrassment of riches and a tremendous acknowledgement of Calipari’s ability to produce successful players at the next level.
But for all of his success on draft night, Coach Cal, who has been at Kentucky for 14 years, has only won one NCAA Tournament — in 2012.
And this year after a promising start, it appears it likely won’t happen again this season.
This version of the Cats is just too young, and their inexperience is reflected in an inability of play stretches of consistent lock down defense. This Cats can score They are averaging 84.7 points per game. But they are only 16-7 and in a tie for fifth place in the SEC with a 6-4 record because they can’t make enough stops.
Gonzaga is the latest team to paste the Cats, outscoring them, 89-85, Saturday at Rupp to win their first Quad 1 game of the season. They dominated play inside, scoring 50 points in the paint and grabbing 18 offensive rebounds. The Zags (18-6) are long. They got 23 points from 6-9 redshirt junior Graham Ike, 17 from 6-9 fifth year Anton Watson, 14 from 6-10 junior Ben Gregg and 12 from 6-10 redshirt freshman Braden Huff. They hurt Kentucky with ball screens pick and rolls and interior lob passes the Cats couldn’t defend, exploiting the fact Bradshaw is too weak physically at this point in his career to defend quality size in the low post.
Mark Few’s team desperately needed a quality win, and they got it by running an effective halfcourt offense and making a near perfect 18 of 19 free throws in the second half.
”I thought we could guard them one on one,” Calipari said. “We probably needed to trap more.”
Or front the post. Hey, it could have been worse if Kentucky hadn’t blocked nine shots.
“We got to fight more,” 6-8 sophomore Adou Thiero said. “Everything was easy for them in the paint.”.
The Wildcats have now lost three straight at Rupp Arena for the first time since it opened in 1976. Kentucky had not won three in a row since the 1966-67 season, when it
played at Memorial Coliseum.
“When you walk into this building and it’s packed like it’s been for three games, we just normally come up on fire and we haven’t,” Calipari said.
Kentucky has given up 94 to Florida, 103 to Tennessee and 89 to the Zags during this uncharacteristic losing streak.
The Cats, to their credit, dug their way out of a 12-point deficit to take a 56-51 lead in the second half. But even though Reed Sheppard scored 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks, they couldn’t finish the deal. The Cats trailed 85-84, but had the ball and Sheppard looked like he had an open path to the basketball. But instead of driving the ball to the rim, he lofted a lob pass intended for Thiero that was intercepted by Gregg with 5 seconds to play. Gregg made one of two free throws, but Kentucky never got off a potential game trying three- point shot,
Calipari left himself open for some second guessing when he kept instant offense Rob Dillingham on the bench most of the second half. Dillingham
played just four minutes, took zero shots. He wasn’t on the floor at the end.
There are always questions after losses, but time is running out in terms of fixing nagging problems.
