Dontaie Allen had two blocks Friday and Kentucky's interior defense improved. However, the Cats let Miles College go 15 of 30 from 3-point range. (UK Athletics Photo)
Knowing Kentucky opens the regular season Tuesday in New York against Duke, how worrisome was the way UK struggled to beat Miles College 80-71 Friday night in its final exhibition game. Kentucky trailed 46-39 at halftime and no one could have predicted the Cats — even with their defensive struggles in the first exhibition win over Kentucky Wesleyan — would give up that many points.
Duke certainly did not see a lot to fear even if UK did dramatically pick up its defensive intensity the second half when it gave up only four points the first 12 minutes. However, maybe that won’t be a bad thing for UK.
It figures even with the experience on this team that it will take time for the Cats to blend together. Jacob Toppin and Dontaie Allen made their case for more playing time Friday. Toppin had 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting, four rebounds and one assist in 16 minutes after not playing in the first exhibition. Allen got the same 10 minutes he did the first exhibition but had nine points because he went 3-for-5 from 3 along with three rebounds and two blocked shots.
Senior guard Davion Mintz got just 11 minutes of playing time and made his only shot. However, transfer Kellan Grady was 5-for-8 from the field and had 13 points in 22 minutes — the main reason Grady played less.
“I thought Jacob Toppin gave us energy. We got to get guys knowing if you play well, you play more and someone else plays less,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “You have got to deal with that. Kellan played well. Dontaie played well and shot well in the second half.”
Miles shot well, too. It went 15-for-30 from 3-point range but Kentucky was even better — 11-for-19. Still, the problem for Calipari was that the first exhibition it was post defense where UK struggled and this time it was perimeter defense.
Calipari said when the defense broke down, players were not fighting through obstacles. He had “guys holding, bumping” even in the second half when the defense was better.
“This is difficult for us,” Calipari said. “We are just trying to figure this out. We are playing to win but we have got a ways to go.”
Problem is Kentucky plays Duke Tuesday night in the national spotlight. Win or lose, way too much emphasis is put on an opening game. No one understands that better than Calipari.
“If we play like this, it ain’t going to be fun,” Calipari said about the Duke game.
No, it won’t be. Yet even if that happens, don’t write off this season because if Calipari can fit the pieces together the right way and improve the defense, this could still work out rather well this season.
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They are just exhibition games. They don’t count. They don’t matter.
Come Tuesday night, the Cats will be ready to handle Duke. Afterall, the experts see this as a Duke win, albeit by 1 point, but what do they know since neither team has really played, and we all know Calipari has fixed all the problems that led to the 9-16 last year, which by the way, was mostly due to COVID.
Bubble bursting time is getting near. It is actually about 3 days away.
The way Calipari’s teams have handled their two exhibition games has been a good indicator of how that team actually handles its regular season schedule. Here are three observations about the exhibition history:
1. UK plays the two exhibition games at a faster pace than it plays the season against D1 opponents. The difference has ranged between 4 to 10 possessions per game every season prior to this one.
2. UK’s offensive efficiency is higher than its regular season efficiency, and UK’s defensive efficiency is lower than its regular season efficiency. In otherwords, UK finds it scores more easily and stops scoring by the opponent more easily than it does against an array of D1 opponents.
3. UK’s performance in the second exhibition is stronger than its performance in the first exhibition. This indicates a team learning to play and climbing that old learning curve.
This team played these games at a pace of 72 possessions, which is well under the average pace of the last 20 exhibition games.
This team’s offensive efficiency in these two games was the second lowest of the Calipari Era in the exhibition games, edging out the 2019 group.
This team’s defensive efficiency was the highest ever recorded in these exhibitions, at 1.001 ppp, and the next worst was 2020 at 0.92 ppp. To put this into context, the defensive efficiencies have been 0.58 in 2010, 0.71 in 2011, 0.63 in 2012, 0.64 in 2013, 0.81 in 2014, 0.74 in 2015, and 0.71 in 2016
This team’s net efficiency was the poorest of the Calipari Era under 0.2 ppp. The lowest net efficiency prior to this year had been 2019 at 0.33 ppp. Other teams posted net efficiencies of 0.63, 0.58, 0.83, 0.56, 0.39, 0.71, 0.67, and 0.51 until the 2019, 2020 and 2022 teams which have been slipping to 0.37, 0.33, and now 0.19.
I realize that all these numbers cause many eyes to glaze over, but I offer then as evidence of the situation.
Calipari can sell ice to eskimos. This fall he has been selling the idea about how fast this team will play. Well, pace measures that, and this team is playing slower than previous Calipari teams.
Calipari has been selling the idea that this team is different from his other OAD products because he brought in a bunch of new faces this year who had played college ball elsewhere. Well, they will still be OAD players here!! Nothing has changed other than the age. The problem with needing a year to adjust and learn to play here is no different. Look at the track record for other recent players who came here for their final season in college basketball.
Finally, Calipari is selling the idea that this hot shot kid from Canada who is in the 2022 high school class is going to enroll here, work out with this team, use the UK training facilities, so he can be a better player for UK in 2022-23. Well, Diallo did that, remember, and the BBN sweated bullets the entire off season about whether he would leave for the NBA and never play a minute as a wildcat. Well, Diallo came back because he would not have been drafted in the first round.
This kid is almost assured a high first round draft pick, and we all know Calipari’s position on this is if a kid can be drafted, no one should prevent the kid from moving on and realizing his dream.
I have nothing against anyone living their dream. However, not at the expense of the UKAA and the BBN.
Final Four or bust this year, since Calipari has not already left us. If he were to resign this evening, that would be too late.
It is time for him to go!!!!!
Wow! First game is Duke and Coach K’s last season. I have no idea of what to expect. TyTy has looked good, Grady looked better last game. It was concerning how we gave up so many 3’s and let a D-2 school make 50% from the arc for the game. Keion looked out of sorts, so did Mintz. It sure would be nice to start Coach K’s last season with a "L". Go Cats!