CHICAGO – John Calipari walked toward the bus that would take him and his Kentucky Wildcats from their first defeat of the 2017-18 season. It will not be the last, and he knows it. He has done more long, slow dances with perfection than any college basketball coach since John Wooden, but this isn’t that sort of team.
Before he exited the United Center, I had time for one question:
Are you encouraged?
“I really am,” he said.
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There were many reasons, even after a 65-61 defeat to the Kansas Jayhawks at the United Center. This was Kentucky’s third game, and none has been easy. But the Wildcats were explicitly enthused about their performance this time, despite the result.
Calipari understands this team is unlike any he has coached, perhaps unlike any in the long history of NCAA Division I basketball. Kentucky entered this season with a single “veteran” player who had averaged 18 minutes per game as a freshman, and it seems instructive that Wenyen Gabriel played exactly 18 minutes in this defeat.
The other 182 minutes against KU were consumed by guys who either were in high school last season or were superglued to the Kentucky bench. So everything is new to everyone: roles, responsibilities, consequences. And when the Wildcats took the floor against a team expected to contend for another Big 12 championship, they addressed several of the concerns such a vacuum would create.
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1. Kevin Knox balled. In games against Utah Valley State and Vermont, Knox shot 6-of-23 from the field. This was disconcerting because it followed directly along with how he performed when trying out for the United States U-19 national team. He looked beautiful with the basketball in his hands, but when it was time to shoot things didn’t go so well.
Against Kansas, he was 8-of-13 from the field, including 3-of-6 on 3-pointers. He finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and only a single turnover in 37 minutes.
For Kentucky to be an elite team, it needs some players capable of elite play. It’s great if all five guys have the ability to score, but if all five are equal then they better all be exceptional – like Florida in 2007.
Most teams need a primary option so that defenses will be forced to cope with that. Knox is the most qualified candidate, but only if he is finishing plays like he did against KU.
“I know that my first two games, I kind of struggled shooting the ball,” Knox told Sporting News. “But I know I’ve got to keep shooting. I kept shooting tonight, and tonight they were falling. Hopefully I can get more consistent, but tonight my jumpshot was falling. I was getting to the basket and my floater was falling. I’ve got to keep shooting and not let my misses affect me.”
2. UK stopped the ball. It was mostly freshman Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who did the defensive work that led KU All-America candidate Devonte’ Graham to finish with five turnovers and 3-of-14 shooting. Gilgeous-Alexander’s height (6-6) and length (6-10½ wingspan) bothered Graham throughout the night.
Gilgeous-Alexander was so effective that when he and 6-0 Quade Green played together, Calipari insisted on Green defending 6-4 Malik Newman. That allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to continue his containment of the basketball.
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In those first two games, penetration by opposing ballhandlers was such an issue that Calipari strongly considered employing a zone defense for much of the evening. “Naturally, I didn’t play one down of it,” he said.
Partly, it was because it wasn’t necessary.
“I thought we did a much better job of staying in front of people,” Calipari said. “There was a conscious effort to say: We can’t let this happen.
“When you have a young team like that, a bunch of freshmen, it’s much easier to play zone than to teach them man-to-man principles, all that stuff.”
3. Kentucky competed. In the first half, Kansas outrebounded UK by 11. The Wildcats got only a single offensive rebound and yielded 15. It was amazing they were down by just a point at halftime, and equally impressive that they were able to turn that disadvantage on the boards into a draw – 39-all – by the end of the game.
There still were moments in the stretch when they let difference-making rebounds slip away, most notably the offensive rebound by KU’s Lagerald Vick that the Jayhawks turned into a 3-pointer from Newman for a 61-57 lead with 2:10 left. When Gilgeous-Alexander missed a shot to tie it with 1:06 left, UK allowed Newman to sneak in and grab it.
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Calipari implores his players to pursue rebounds with both hands, something they ignored for the most part in the first 20 minutes.
“Coach Cal got on us at halftime about that,” Knox said. “We kind of got better in the second half with rebounds. If we had done that in the first half, it probably would have been a difference.”
Kentucky showed again in the Kansas game it is younger than ever and probably less purely talented than in any season under Calipari save 2012-13. That year, however, the Wildcats had a game-changing player in Nerlens Noel – until they didn’t because of his knee injury, falling to the NIT as a result.
The Wildcats also showed -- with eight players making contributions and a ninth, freshman Jarred Vanderbilt, recovering from injury – they have probably more depth than most of Calipari’s Kentucky teams.
There are as many questions as answers, still, but UK covered some of the biggest even in defeat.
