Kentucky basketball: 5 rushed reactions vs South Carolina

3. Going big, real big

These are ‘rushed reactions’, so there isn’t a benefit of using notes, box-scores or looking at previous research. With that said, maybe someone can comment on the article and let me know if this is wrong: Calipari played both Nick Richards and Sacha Killeya-Jones at the same time. Has he done that before previously?

Typically, the Kentucky basketball team is much more efficient when using smaller lineups, usually with Richards and SKJ on the bench. Calipari played them together at the same time during the first half. I don’t have a problem with Cal doing this, even though I like the smaller lineups. I am a little curious as to why Calipari decided to play man-to-man with them together in the lineup.

With that size and shot-blocking ability, I expected to see them together in the 2-3 zone. Neither SKJ or Richards guard the perimeter or ball-screen situations very well. BBN won’t see Killeya-Jones and Richards on the floor together very often, but when they are I would expect to see zone in the future.