Ellis: What we know about Kentucky four games in
Kentucky (4-0) was named the No. 1 team in the country in the latest Associated Press poll, and is approaching the compelling portion of its nonconference schedule in the coming weeks.
The Wildcats have home games against Cleveland State and Tennessee Martin squeezed between the Thanksgiving holiday, but travel to the Bahamas to face Arizona State on Nov. 28, then return home to host No. 14 UCLA on Dec. 3 and Alec Peters and Valparaiso on Dec. 7.
The team next heads to Brooklyn, N.Y. to take on Hofstra on Dec. 11, it flies out to Las Vegas for the CBS Sports Classic against No. 4 North Carolina six days later, and ends its nonconference slate with a road game at No. 1o Louisville four days before Christmas.
But despite his team’s perfect record, head coach John Calipari said Kentucky still has “got a ways to go” after dismantling Duquesne 93-59 on Sunday. Sure, the team we see now will be different than the team we see in February and March, but after four games here are five things we know about these young Wildcats:
This defense can be special. No opponent has scored over 70 points against Kentucky thus far, and are losing to the Wildcats by an average of 25.5 points. The even scarier thing is, Calipari said this team’s defensive discipline isn’t even close to where it needs to be.
“That’s the normal process you go through with young guys,” Calipari said. “They just don’t have the discipline to play every possession to be graded. In other words, you look at a possession, everything that was done right. Whether they score or not, it’s not that. Did we do the whole possession until they shot? Did we rebound, did we block out, all of it, did we finish the possession?”
The stingy Kentucky defense is only giving up .888 points per possession, ranked 3rd best according to KenPom. It has also forced opponents to shoot just 37.2 percent and has caused 84 total turnovers. Once they get disciplined, this group will be scary.
Three-point shooting still an issue. After four games, the Wildcats have shot just 23-of-81 from deep (28.4 percent). Freshman guard Malik Monk had a breakout shooting night in Madison Square Garden against Michigan State, but even he – prompted as Kentucky’s best shooter – has struggled from three (38.7 percent).
Mychal Mulder provided a spark off the bench in Sunday’s win over Duquesne, hitting three of the teams seven treys and could be a viable option if the drought continues. Derek Willis, another potential three-point threat, had a strong showing in the season opener, but has been relatively non-existent in the last three games, which brings us to our next point.
What will Kentucky get out of Derek Willis? When he’s hitting early and his confidence is up, Willis is a good player. His 15 points, five rebounds and three blocks against Stephen F. Austin proved that. But since then he’s been a bit of a no-show, to the point he lost his starting spot to Wenyen Gabriel against Duquesne. The senior has struggled with consistency basically his whole Kentucky career and could still be battling with it this year. But when Willis is playing at a high level, Kentucky becomes even more unstoppable.
Plus, it’s early, and players go through slumps. We’ll have a better understanding where Willis stands in his battle with consistency in the coming weeks.
Isaiah Briscoe is the team leader. Speaking of consistency, Briscoe seems to be the guy Kentucky can count on most on a night-in, night-out basis. His 18.0 points per game average leads the team, and has shown he’s as comfortable as anyone out on the floor. He has been one of the bright spots on defense, with Calipari going as far as to say Briscoe can be “the overall best defensive-guard rebounder in the country.”
The New Jersey native played only 17 minutes against Duquesne, hurting his back during a hard foul on a transition layup. Calipari said afterwards Briscoe should be fine and didn’t want to put him back in up so many points. Don’t expect him to miss any time with the brutal part of the non-conference schedule waiting right around the corner.
Frontcourt still a work-in-progress. Right now Bam Adebayo and Gabriel seem to be the two guys Calipari feels most comfortable with in the frontcourt. The problem with that, though, is that the two have a combined 22 fouls through four games. That’s 2.5-3 fouls per game for each player, and forces Calipari to play Willis, Isaac Humphries or Sacha Killeya-Jones – three guys who have all been underwhelming so far.
The scoring in the post hasn’t been great either. The Wildcats were able to get Adebayo going on Sunday, but outside of his 8.6 average, no frontcourt player scores more than 6.5 points per game. If the foul trouble improves, the production from this group should increase. But until Kentucky can steadily establish post presence on both ends of the floor, the Wildcats’ rebounding woes (only outrebounding opponents 156-148) and scoring woes will continue.
UP NEXT
No. 1 Kentucky v. Cleveland State
Wednesday, Nov. 23 1:00 p.m.
Lexington, Ky. | Rupp Arena
TV: SEC Network