Kentucky basketball: 5 rushed reactions vs Alabama in SEC Tournament

4. Defending Kevin Knox

John Calipari is doing a really good job trying to script scoring opportunities for Kevin Knox. For most of the game against Alabama, Knox was running off screen after screen. Knox’s defender was forced to chase him all over the floor. The part of this I like the most is that Knox has started reading his defender more and more.

Instead of cutting to the wing after his screen, Knox is starting to curl and flare the screens more and more. Curling off the screen allows him to either get to the hoop, or shoot a shorter mid-range jumper. If his defender tries to cheat the screen for the curl or wing, then Knox flares the screen towards the baseline for an open jumper.

To make this even more difficult to defend, Knox’s screener was actually open for easy paint buckets against Alabama. When PJ Washington and SKJ set some of these screens, their defender tried to help and bump Knox off his route. When that happened, PJ and Killeya-Jones slipped to the basket and were open for easy shots.