Keep Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on the Bench

“BENCH HIM COACH!”

Lately a lot of talk has been going on about the Kentucky Wildcats and their starting line-up conundrum in Lexington. I know a couple of Wildcat Blue Nation writers have written about it, and like I’ve said on the podcast (if you didn’t listen, shame on you because I have a face for radio) that’s a really good problem to have when you have McDonald’s All-Americans on your bench and every player is so talented it’s hard to keep them off of the floor, but I say, don’t start Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

I’m not bashing the guy, nor am I concerned about the way he’s playing. I’m not worried about his hustle or desire to play the game, nor am I worried about his ability to flat out get it done on the court, he has all of that and more. When Kidd-Gilchrist comes into the game, something good happens. As Cal said in his postgame report, when Kidd-Christ is on the floor, he’s slapping his hands on defense and getting after it, diving on the floor for loose balls and then the other players begin doing it, the other players begin clapping their hands and getting after it, the guy is a natural leader.

This isn’t an undying love for Darius Miller either. I like Miller, and while a lot of people think he isn’t playing up to his potential only scoring two points in 17 minutes of play, I continue to tell them, this is Miller’s potential, the fact is Miller allows his teammates to score, but when he needs to knock down a three, he’ll do it. Lots of folks will have come out with articles and columns over the next couple of games if Miller doesn’t score 40, but I think his game is smooth and he scores and is aggressive when he wants to be.

What does Kidd-Gilchrist has to say? Well on Twitter he said “these questions about me and Darius need to stop” and then followed that up with “Darius pushes me each and every day. There is no competition between us, I learn a lot from him, he is a great leader.”

Let’s face it, Kidd-Gilchrist is not going to mind coming off the bench for Kentucky, if things start to slow down in the offense then he can be the same guy Doron Lamb was last year for Kentucky, and that’s to come off the bench and get buckets. Kidd-Gilchrist can do that in a number of ways for this team as he showed last night, I know he has a ton of energy and a ton of ways to score the basketball and he’s probably earned himself a starting role on this basketball team, which is well deserved.

When Kentucky comes out lagging like they did against Transy last night, then that’s when you need to get Gilchrist into the game, send him in, press the other squad, let him get some quick buckets and a constant threat.

We can always glance back at the box-score of last night’s game to prove his worth, even against a team like Transy, he did it all. 19 points, five assists, seven rebounds and a blocked shot to boot. This guy is a triple-double waiting to happen, but let him be the best bench player in nation. Coach Calipari calls this guy “vicious” which has earned him the recent nickname of Kidd-Vicious, but I can just picture Calipari keeping a chain on Kidd-Gilchrist until a few minutes into the game and then turning him loose, and then you see a man on fire.

But hey, I’m not a coach and I don’t get paid the big-bucks to make decisions like these, and let’s face. You’re not losing a lot either way because he’s going to play no matter what, but with him coming off of the bench, you see more passion, fire and flare. I guess I should also tell myself it’s not even the first game of the season yet, but that’s another story for another time.

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