Time Running Short: Kentucky needs to find a bench player besides Lamb

(I searched ‘Kentucky’s Bench’ this is what I got and is very true)

The clock is ticking for Kentucky to find a solid bench player.

SEC play is a whole different story; conference play for that matter is a whole different ball game, literally. The teams know one another, are familiar with who are in their league and usually the coaches already know what the others style of play is and have their team ready. Especially if you play for Kentucky, where even a school like Georgia who everyone knows them as a football school. One game, it doesn’t matter where you go on the road, I don’t care if it is Auburn or LSU, you’ve got to be playing your best game or you’ll get beat, simple as that.

We saw it against Georgia, foul trouble can come in and kill this Kentucky team because of their lack of depth of the bench, it’s been preached the whole year that this team could struggle in that department and guess what? It’s happening, with no end in sight.

Sure you have Doron Lamb coming off the bench but he may as well be a starter because of the minutes he puts in and the numbers he’s been putting up.

Other than that though…Who do the Wildcats really have to step up and be the man that DeAndre Liggins was last year? Or even a Perry Stevenson like player who can just come in and put up positive numbers. John Calipari is still convinced though that there still might be a player that will develop into that player that can come off the bench. He’s been putting the reserves through some very tough workouts in order to get them game ready and boost their confidence.

After all the four players off the bench (not counting Lamb because he is the sixth man) have only scored 75 points combined this season and that isn’t even good to be more than five percent of its teams total points on the year. Someone has just got to step up.

Stacy Poole is one of those players looking to deepen the Kentucky bench and take the roll of the next ‘microwave’ in the game for Kentucky.  According to the article that you can read more of HERE, In order to reach his goal, Poole is putting in extra work in order to gain more playing time for the Kentucky squad.

“I’m in the gym with coach (John Calipari),” he said. “We work out every day and I’m just trying to get after it.”

The workouts have been so intense that Calipari said,

“One of them, I won’t tell you which one, after 15 minutes threw up,” Calipari said. “So that’s where they are right now. They’re far behind.”

It turns out that player was Poole, who admitted he got sick after of the drills, but said he quickly got back out on the floor, just trying to get better.

You can tell Poole is a kid who ‘gets it’, I hate using the word because its cliché, but it’s true. Poole was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school and came to play for the Cats knowing who he would be playing behind the likes of Brandon Knight and Lamb. You can often see Poole up on the bench cheering his teammates on and being the first one off the bench when there is a time out. Poole understands the whole scheme of things and how important it is for the Wildcats to find that cavalry off the bench.

“We have a big chance to do something here,” he said. “We have a chance to win the SEC and I just don’t see nobody beating us in the SEC. We lost to Georgia, but when we play them in our home, I know we’re going to get them. I’m looking forward to that game. I don’t like losing.”

Poole is making a giant push right before a major stretch in the SEC season where the Wildcat’s will see Alabama and South Carolina on the road, Georgia back in Rupp Arena, Ole Miss and Florida on the road, Tennessee at home and then at Vanderbilt, a stretch that will likely show what kind of team the Wildcat’s really are.

The clock is against Poole, but if he can finish the push for minutes out on the court, everyone will see a huge difference in Kentucky’s play.

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