One poor game does not have to ruin TyTy Washington’s season

TyTy Washington struggled in his UK debut but still has plenty of time to be the player Kentucky coaches believe he can be. (Vicky Graff Photo)

TyTy Washington was the talk of Kentucky’s preseason practice. He impressed teammates and coaches. He impressed fans in UK’s exhibition play.

Name, image, and likeness deals came his way, including one where he got a Porsche to drive.

He is expected to be UK’s best player and probably the leading scorer. However, his Kentucky debut against Duke didn’t go well. He was just 3-for-14 from the field and had nine points, three assists, one steal, and one rebound in 28 minutes.

He was outplayed by Duke freshman guard Trevor Keels — 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting — and now some UK fans are questioning if Washington can be the elite player they envisioned.

My advice — be patient.

Maybe it’s the hangover from last season when UK’s highly ranked freshmen fizzled. But that went on all season. Don’t write off Washington over one game.

After the Duke game, Kentucky coach John Calipari admitted Washington did not play well. What else could he say?

“TyTy played the way he did because we kind of wanted him to. Like, this kid is, we’re playing exhibition games, he’s shooting nine and 10 shots (per game). You’re supposed to be a guy that can go get baskets,” Calipari said.

“So I will take responsibility for some of the plays that he made. I just said to him, ‘You know, kid, you don’t have to make every shot. You just can’t miss ’em all. You got to make one or two.’ He just was missing a bunch of shots, and if you watched him play, that’s not him.

Calipari encouraged Washington to “got at these dudes” and maybe that took him out of his normal game which everyone has always said is to go with the flow and make game-winning plays in a variety of ways. He’s normally not a high-volume shooter like Calipari now seems to want.

Chris Dortch, Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook editor, says a freshman’s first game at UK is “scary” and then if it is in Madison Square Garden it can be “super scary” for a collegiate debut.

“Then Cal asked him to be really aggressive to score. Even the most talented freshmen in the country have to learn when to seek their own shot and when to look for shots for teammates,” Dortch said. “I think maybe Cal just asked him to be more aggressive and he took it to heart and tried to make too many plays.”

Any chance maybe Washington just got over-excited without any prodding from the UK coach?

“Maybe Cal was covering for him and that is commendable,” Dortch said. “But I think he just took it to heart about getting aggressive offensively and maybe that just disrupted his normal game.”

Obviously, Calipari believes in Washington. He was not going to destroy his confidence by leaving him on the bench too long in his first collegiate game.

Washington and the Cats have a stretch of games coming up where he can play and learn from mistakes. Kentucky won’t play another team like Duke for a while. Calipari will have time to sort out what to expect from Washington but don’t let what happened in one game against a really good opponent change everything you thought about Washington before that game.