John Calipari praised Wenyen Gabriel's effort after Kentucky's 92-72 win over Auburn, but he knows the team has a lot of work to do.
Foul trouble plagued Kentucky's backcourt for the second straight game and Calipari again points to a lack of consistent discipline.
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Gabriel steps up in UK's win over Auburn
Gabriel brings energy on the glass
Wenyen Gabriel has been one of Kentucky's leading rebounders for the season and in most games, but he took his work on the glass to another level against Auburn. The five-star turned freshman pulled down a season-high 16 boards, including five on the offensive end, pacing the Cats on the glass and helping UK to a 12-rebound advantage against the Tigers.
It's not surprising that the effort came against Auburn. While Kentucky is one of the nation's better offensive rebounding teams, Auburn has been outrebounded by three boards per game on average. It has been a major weakness for Bruce Pearl's squad.
Nonetheless, it wasn't just Auburn's weakness showing up on the road. Gabriel's energy was evident right from the opening tip. It's why Derek Willis only played nine minutes.
"I think in the case of Derek and Wenyen, it's who is playing better," Calipari said after the game. "And if you watched, Derek made some shots, but struggled guarding. And Wenyen was getting every rebound. You know, that's the great thing about what I do. It's not brain surgery."
Gabriel has been respectable from the free throw line in limited opportunities this year, but he was 0-4 from the charity stripe.
"I told him, I said, you're a double-double if you make a free throw. Just make some free throws and you're a double-double," Calipari said.
Backcourt foul trouble again
Early in the season it seemed like foul trouble might be an issue for Bam Adebayo, but more recently it has been Kentucky's backcourt that has struggled to stay on the court. Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox both picked up two quick first half fouls against Vanderbilt in Nashville, and the problem arose again on Saturday.
De'Aaron Fox fouled out with just under eight minutes to play in the game, on a call that he didn't take kindly to.
Calipari said he hasn't perfectly identified the root cause of the recent issue, but he suspects a lot of it has to do with not defending well on the perimeter.
"I have to look at it. I just think we get, again, a guy drives it, you've got to give ground," Calipari said. "We work every day on giving ground and staying wide so you can stay in front of people so you don't just open the gate. We had some guys that just, they do, and they open the gate and the guy drives right to the rim, straight line drive."
Kentucky has an enviable luxury with the duo of Fox and Isaiah Briscoe, as both are capable of bringing the ball up, running the offense and playing the lead guard role. Calipari can go with the hot hand, as he recently said.
But fouls have been such an issue recently, including in Saturday's game, that Kentucky was almost in a crisis mode. Fox fouled out and Briscoe found himself in foul trouble as well. That led to Dominique Hawkins and Mychal Mulder logging key minutes in a game that was closer than many expected, at least for most of the game.
"Well, I had to take Isaiah out, because what my fear was: Okay, he gets one, and there's five and a half minutes to go in the game and they just start pressing all over the place. Now I don't have any guards," Calipari said.
Hawkins played the point role for a spell, and in 34 combined minutes he and Mulder turned the ball over just twice. Mulder scored 12 points on 3 of 5 shooting, and their contributions, along with Malik Monk's offensive outburst, helped give the Cats separation as the clock ran out.
"But I thought Dom played well at point. I thought Mychal played well. That's as good as Mychal has played and it's good, because we need that, like in this kind of game," Calipari said.
Mulder said he was happy with how he played and noted that foul trouble is going to happen, so it was important for him to respond the way he did. After the game Adebayo pointed out that the team knew they had to pick up their energy and intensity when Fox went out.
It goes without saying that Calipari would take that quality of play from Hawkins and Mulder every game, but it's also safe to assume that Kentucky will need to resolve those recent foul issues that have plagued the starting backcourt in the last two games.
"You can't end the game without guards," Calipari said. "So, you just, if you want to foul and be undisciplined with the kind of fouls you're making where you're pushing up and body-checking guys, you can't be in the game."
Defense must improve
Kentucky places well in most defensive categories in the SEC and nationally, but Calipari knows the Cats' defense has to get better.
Part of the problem on Saturday was that Auburn's T.J. Dunan's did whatever he wanted, putting the ball on the floor and making shots from a variety of spots on the court. He finished with 23 points (10 of 20 FGs) and Kentucky often didn't have an answer for him.
"They have got to get better," Calipari said. "Understand, every team is doing the same thing to us. This is not hard. If you can't move your feet and stay in front of everybody, either I have to play a zone or you can't play. It's, you know, that's why I want Mychal, we went small lineup. Let Mychal try to stay in front then.
"At the end of the day, if we're going to be anything, it will be because we're a terrific defensive team. We're not there yet. We're just not," he said.
Auburn shot 46.8-percent for the game and knocked down 9 of their 16 three-point attempts.
The Tigers had just eight assists on 29 made baskets, but that's because of the way Auburn had to play, according to Bruce Pearl.
“The only way we could score was to bring their bigs underneath the basket, set ball screens, and drive it down the hill. That wasn’t very pretty, and it doesn’t require a lot of passing," Pearl said.
Other notes
- Both teams were dreadful from the free throw line on Saturday. Auburn committed 31 fouls but Kentucky didn't convert that to nearly as many points from the line as they could have. The Cats finished just 17 of 32 from the free throw line. Mychal Mulder and Malik Monk were a combined 9 of 9 and Adebayo was 7 of 11. Everyone else: 1 for 12. Auburn was even worse: 33-percent (5 of 15).
- Kentucky survived foul trouble, defensive lapses and free throw woes because they were able to knock down shots from deep. The Cats finished 11 of 19 from three. Going into the game Auburn knew they had to force Kentucky to shoot well from outside if they were to have any chance at pulling the upset. “That was the game plan," T.J. Dunans said after the loss. "We knew they were better at twos then threes. So, we were just trying to make them shoot and they were just hitting shots.”
