March Madness: Kentucky Basketball’s 5 Keys to success

Kentucky Basketball’s sixth man, Derek Willis is known for his sweet shot. This season, the senior from Mt. Washington, Kentucky hasn’t seen the ball go through the rim enough.

John Calipari’s starting lineup includes four freshman and sophomore. This trend isn’t anything new with the teams that Calipari has managed to put together. Kentucky teams usually find themselves ranked near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to overall team experience. One thing is for certain, Kentucky’s bench is filled with experience, but hasn’t been able to contribute much when called upon.

Derek Willis is a guy that came on strong last season. The six foot nine forward had an improved shot and was automatic from beyond the arc for most of the 2015/2016 season. This season the Senior has watched his production fall.

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Bam Adebayo is the force down low playing the five spot. Unfortunately he tends to get into foul trouble way too often. Isaac Humphries is the first off of the bench for Bam. The young seven footer from Australia has yet to show us anything in terms of contributions to the point column. Humphries needs to step up and put the ball in the basket more often in relief  of Adebayo or the Cats will have some problems.

Sacha Killeya-Jones was highly rated coming out of high school but the young freshman hasn’t seen much playing time. If these Cats are going to make any noise in the post-season, someone else from the bench is going to have to stand up and help the team.

Michael Mulder and Dominique Hawkins have given valuable minutes in the guard spots in relief of Briscoe, Fox and Monk. Mulder is a threat to put it in from anywhere being the arc, but limited minutes leads fans to believe he is a liability on defense. Hawkins puts in great time on the floor, but again the same old story. The Richmond, Kentucky native doesn’t make a difference on the scoreboard consistently.