Wildcat Blue Nation
Fansided

Calipari Era: Small Forward #3

By Austin Sutcliffe

facebooktwitterreddit

There has not been much movement when it comes to the small forward position under John Calipari. Some years, the lack of the position has forced players who would typically play the four or two to play small or big just to play the three.

More from Opinion

Last week, I revealed the fourth best small forward who has had vary between the three and four when his natural postion is actually the three. With one more year to dunk on the entire NCAA, he could still move up, but for now Alex Poythress was the right fit at number four.

"Going into his fourth season as a Kentucky Wildcat, Poythress has faced more adversity than any player under John Calipari. In his first season, he played with a discombobulated team who would eventually find themselves in the N.I.T. In year two, there was plenty of hype that surrounded the team, but until a magical March run, almost found themselves out of the tournament as well. For the Icing on the cake,Poythress tore his ACL in year three missing out on what could have been an undefeated season with his defensive help."

Coming in at number three this week is the glue guy. This player could make your team thrive with a 15 foot jumper to stretch the floor, or make them worry by “missing” the airplane. I am talking of course about Trey Lyles.

A natural power forward at 6 foot 10, Lyles was forced to develop his outside game a little more this season to play the 3 for Coach Calipari. From watching his highlights from high school, Trey was a a polished post player who scored most of his points then off of a spin or drop step.

This season would have seemed to be a challenge for him, but he proved to be up for the challenge. Where Lyles thrived the most was from about 15 feet out. When the second unit came in, sometimes the offense could become stale unless Devin Booker was feeling it from deep, you could always depend on the mid range game from number 41. His .536 percent from two point range proves his offensive worth.

It was not only his offensive game that made that Bluegrass fans love lyles, he could make you smile with his off the court antics as well. He started a trend when he photo bombed a John Calipari after a regular season win making everyone hit reverse on their dvr’s to see if that really just happened.

Who could forget traveling down to LSU for a huge game and the twitter phenomenon that struck of “where is Trey?” The tweet stirred up many false reports when all along Lyles was on the back of the plane.

Lyles made a great impact on the court and the fans in his one season and could have even persuaded some to become Utah Jazz fans. Until he suits up for the first time, enjoy these highlights against Mississippi State where he scored 18 points with 6 rebounds. See you next week for the revealing of the second best Calipari small forward.

More from Wildcat Blue Nation

Home/Opinion