Can Kentucky reach its potential by playing a low post oriented offense

Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word coach is: “one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs team strategy.”  Its definition of player is: “a person who plays a game.” Notice the difference between the two. The coach “instructs” and “directs” while the player “plays.”  So many times in the John Calipari era it appears these roles have been reversed. Those that dared to watch the entire UK game Saturday night against Notre Dame saw it again. There appeared to be very little execution of a reasonable team strategy during the game for most of the players.

The lone exception was Oscar Tshiewbe’s improvement in post moves around the basket, which interestingly enough he credited to the additional coaching from UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua outside of normal practice.

As for the rest of the team, the players continue to use poor shot selection that is somewhat created by Calipari’s offensive strategy and is somewhat created by the desperation of the players being put in the position of coaching themselves.

When the offensive strategy doesn’t work (and remember Webster says that is the responsibility of the coach), meaning it doesn’t create open shots for players, then each player decides as his own coach to go one-on-one and throw up contested shots before the shot clock expires. As the players miss more of those shots, and the offensive strategy is not adjusted, the players begin to lose confidence in the team’s ability to score.

That means each player becomes tighter as they shoot the ball and they begin to feel like they personally must hit every shot they are taking to try to stay in the ballgame. Any observer of UK Basketball games can see this occurring with the Cat’s perimeter players on a regular basis.

Take Kellan Grady for example. In the first two games of the season, he was 7 of 13 on 3-pointers for 54 percent. In the last seven games, he is 11 for 32 on 3-point shots hitting 34 percent and the trend is downward. Against Notre Dame, he was only 2 for 7 on 3-point shots hitting 29 percent.

The same thing is happening with other 3-point shooters on the team. Davion Mintz was a 35 percent career 3-point shooter at Creighton. So far this season at UK he is hitting 30 percent of his 3-point attempts. In his last four games, he is 2 for 15 hitting 13 percent. Last season at UK he hit 38 percent of his 3-point shots.

So what is happening to turn good or very good 3-point shooters into average or very poor shooters? My opinion is early in the season Tshiewbe had not developed into an inside post threat so the offense was more spread out, no one tried to feed the post so teams did not sag down on Oscar and clog up the driving lanes to the basket. That allowed Savhir Wheeler or TyTy Washington to beat their defenders off the dribble and then kick the ball back outside for an open 3-point shot or an alley-oop dunk to Tshiebwe among others if they could not score at the rim.

Now teams are sagging off Wheeler, Keion Brooks, Jacob Toppin or Bryce Hopkins because they know they cannot hit open 3-point shots consistently. That allows teams to clog the lane, stop any dribble penetration, and requires UK’s players to force the ball inside to Tshiewbe or take contested outside shots.

To me it’s very doubtful that UK can win many games utilizing that offensive strategy. They couldn’t  beat a very average Notre Dame team using it.

So what should be happening? In my opinion Calipari has a lot of offensive pieces that don’t fit together very well yet and may never. He has some good outside shooters that can’t create their own shots. That means they need to be in an offensive set that has all five players moving and screening to create open shooting opportunities for each other, either to drive to the basket or put up an open 3-point shot.

When one player dribbles the ball looking for an open lane to feed the post and doesn’t get it, he throws up a contested jump shot and that is not an offense that will beat Power Five conference teams. So far UK has proven that by losing to the two Power Five conference teams they have played — Duke and Notre Dame.

It seems that if Calipari is going to run a low post offense he needs to play four guards that can shoot along with Tshiewbe. That would allow Oscar the opportunity to kick the ball outside if teams try to double team him in the post which would create open 3-point shots for guys that can hit them. It would also eliminate some of the ill-advised 3-point shots from players like Keion Brooks, Savhir Wheeler, and Bryce Hopkins who are shooting a total of five 3-point shots per game and hitting an anemic percentage in the low 20’s.

Calipari often says “if you are open and don’t take the shot you are coming out.” He may need to rethink that strategy with Brooks, Wheeler, and Hopkins.

So here’s the bottom line. Kentucky has lost two games, to Duke by 8 points and to Notre Dame by 4 points. Is the sky falling? No. Is it time for the coach to “coach” and the players to “play.” Yes.

I realize that Calipari likes to refer to Kentucky’s basketball program as a “players’ first” program but in my opinion “players first” means teaching players how to win games by utilizing whatever strategy is necessary based on the skill sets of the players on the roster.

If it means playing a “four out-one in” offensive set to win the most games then do it. If it means running two big men in the post and only shooting shots in the paint, do it.

What it doesn’t mean is rolling the ball out utilizing a two-man pick and roll set all the time every season and saying “figure it out for yourselves” so that none of the players appear to be playing the role best suited for their skill set except maybe Tshiewbe.

Good coaches make seasonal adjustments and in-game adjustments to improve overall team play and win games. Hopefully, Calipari will do just that.

After nine games it looks like he has adjusted to a low post offense with one capable low post player and a team full of set shooters. We’ll see if that adjustment works. So far against Power Five teams it hasn’t but he has plenty more opportunities to get it right. Past history says he will but right now the eye test says it sure isn’t fun to watch.