On Saturday, John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats will kick off the “cupcake portion” of their schedule with home games against Chattanooga, Samford, Loyola, and LaMar. You can consider this a “dress rehearsal” for the rest of the season as it all gets real on December 31 when the Louisville Cardinals come to Lexington.
I’m not going to place too much emphasis on Kentucky’s loss to Indiana. As we have stated many times, a one point December loss to a ranked team is not going to drag down Kentucky’s season, but it did expose the “three headed” monster that has plagued Kentucky basketball during the Indiana game and last season. Although the next four games will not put Kentucky on “upset alert”, it is a good chance to work on the following problems.
FREE THROW SHOOTING
It seems that this is on the list with any Calipari coached team, but this years version is hitting just 67.8%, down from last seasons 71% clip. This has become a bigger hot button topic as Kentucky missed two crucial free throws against Indiana, including one by Doron Lamb, the teams best FT shooter at 82.1%.
Anthony Davis also missed a key FT and he is at the bottom of the regular players, shooting 52.6%. Unfortunately, big men and their FT shooting has been a constant problem and this exposes the potential for a “Hack-a-Davis” strategy in close games. There really is no explanation why Marquis Teague has struggled so mightily, as he is hitting just 58.3%. I think if Teague can get his number up closer to 70%, by February or so, we won’t hear as much about the FT shooting. Darius Miller and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are pretty good at the line, but you can’t have two of your key players below 60% entering the Louisville or tournament play.
TURNOVERS
Turnovers are going to happen playing the style of play Kentucky does and with such a young team. Coach Cal has said before the season, he wanted to keep the number of turnovers at 10-12 a game and for the season, Kentucky is averaging 13 a game. Kentucky is still a bit inconsistent as we have seen then play games where they look inept handling the ball for 10 minutes and then play pretty good the remaining thirty of a game.
Marquis Teague takes a lot of the blame, and he was shaky early, but he has seemed to turn the tide on turning the ball over lately. Plus, Kentucky has other players that can pass, most notably Doron Lamb and Darius Miller. Keep in mind Twany Beckham makes his debut on Saturday and he is a solid point guard that can spell Teague. I like the fact that Beckham has four games to initiate himself into the Kentucky offense before the Louisville game.
THREE POINT DEFENSE
This has been another hot topic and rightfully so. The last several games, Kentucky has been getting peppered by a barrage of three point FG’s. Portland hit 11-23. North Carolina 11-18. And Indiana 9-15. You can argue that Kentucky is so solid on the interior defensively that the only shot teams can get off is from long range. No one wants to drive and get the ball blocked so more teams are settling for the three pointers.
Chattanooga will actually be a pretty good team to watch on Saturday. Through 10 games, the Mocs have put up 24.5 three point attempts a game. As Chattanooga is a small team and should be dominated inside, I would not be surprised to see 30-35 treys launched on Saturday.
We could go ahead and make this a four head monster and put ROAD GAMES as a topic, but to be honest, I think this will be a better team on the road than last years. Kentucky has three players that I consider clutch in key moments right now in Miller, Lamb, and Kidd-Gilchrist. Looks for these three to have the ball if things get nasty on the road. Plus Kentucky has seven games before another true road test, which is plenty of time to get the “three headed monster” under control.
Throw in the fact that the initial road schedule is not that daunting. Kentucky will have road games against Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, and South Carolina. These are arguably the five weakest teams in the SEC. UK should be 5-0 on the road before having tough road challenges at Vandy, Mississippi State, and Florida to close out the season.