TyTy Washington reinsured his ankle at Tennessee and John Calipari said on his weekly radio show he might be more cautious than normal with injuries the next few weeks. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Some Kentucky basketball fans tend to think that ESPN analyst Jay Bilas does not always fairly analyze the Cats or give UK enough credit. Myself, I always appreciate his analysis/perspective and whether I agree or not with his points, I don’t think he is biased for or against Kentucky.
However, I think Kentucky fans want Bilas to be right with his most recent version of his “The Bilas Index” when he picks his top college basketball teams.
Despite UK’s loss at Tennessee, Bilas has not lost his enthusiasm for Kentucky basketball.
“When healthy, Kentucky is as good as anyone. Even after a loss to Tennessee, this holds up as one of the best and most balanced offensive teams in the country, and a formidable defensive team that effectively guards the 3-point line,” Bilas said on The Bilas Index.
“But, Kentucky does not win without Oscar Tshiebwe. He has been the national player of the year to this point. Tshiebwe leads the Wildcats in scoring, blocked shots, steals, field goal percentage, and he leads the nation in rebounding and offensive rebounding.
“The rebounding is simply astounding. The easy thing to say, and it is almost cliche, is that Tshiebwe gives greater effort than anyone else. That short-changes him. He does give great effort, and he has unusual talent and aptitude for rebounding, but he is the nation’s best rebounder largely because he is incredibly intelligent in his positioning.
“Some of that comes from Bob Huggins, but Tshiebwe has an uncommon understanding and study of where the ball is likely to come off of the rim. As long as Tshiebwe is healthy and plays, Kentucky is legit.”
Healthy is the keyword here because obviously freshman guard TyTy Washington was not healthy at Tennessee. He also was not 100 percent in losses at Auburn and LSU. Guard Sahvir Wheeler was also not healthy for the Auburn and LSU games.
No wonder Calipari said on his weekly radio show that “being healthy” was his biggest worry about his team.
“If we’re not healthy, we got some holes. So we got to get healthy,” Calipari said.
Kentucky transfer C.J. Fredrick has not played all season. But even taking Fredrik out of the equation, Kentucky has been at full strength for just under half of its games.
Calipari said getting healthy might mean not playing a player if he’s not 100 percent — a mistake he made at Tennessee with Washington.
“That may mean some guys have to step back. And listen, don’t panic, we could lose a couple games because of that. We’re established. Everybody knows who we are. They know when we’re healthy what we look like. They saw what happened at Kansas. They saw the Tennessee game at home,” Calipari said.
“If we gotta get back to being healthy and that means I’m saying to a couple guys, sit it out and get 100 percent, whatever happens, we’re going to try to hold the fort down without you. Let’s see how it goes.”
6 Responses
Well it was proven after today’s beating Alabama without 2 main guard’s. This team has the tools regardless. Go Cats!
Wheeler should realize that this team does not need for him to be a scorer and the more he looks for his own shot, the more he hold this team from being its best version. Washington should realize that he doesn’t have to lead the team in scoring. I liked Toppin and Brooks on the floor together. I also liked Mintz and Grady alternating at the 1 and 2 spots. Coach may want to run with this lineup and not rush Sahvir or Ty back into the mix until they are healthy. It gives Collins and Hopkins more PT which could be needed in both tourneys. I don’t understand why he puts Allen in for a minute and then jerks him back out. As good a job as Calipari has done with this team, he has ruined Allen and that is a shame.
I still believe in this team.
If I could be the Basketball god for a day, I would make UK a 1 seed, and I believe the only team that has been playing better basketball than this team over the last 17 games has been Gonzaga, and I am still not convinced that the quality of their play is NOT inflated by their weak conference schedule again this year.
Calipari needs to do whatever he can to get this team healthy for this March.
I believe he should "rest" Washington and Wheeler again against LSU, and have the full team ready to rock when it goes to Arkansas next Saturday. He can rest anyone he wants against Ole Miss, but he needs this team ready to do battle again when it closes the season at Florida, as a tune up for the SEC tournament.
So would I Professor
A clutch win against the "Tide" without some key players said volumes about how dangerous this UK team is come March. I don’t see Coach playing Ty Ty and Sahvir until they are 100%. UK must press on and play with the talent that is available now. They proved they can do that Saturday against a good Alabama team. I would like to see a UK vs Auburn rematch come SEC tournament time. If that happens, UK needs all their weapons.
stay the course, and over the next 3 weeks, UK will avenge its losses to LSU (Wednesday), Tennessee in the SEC T semi-final, and Auburn in the SEC T championship game.
If they finish this way, 29-5, going into the tournament, I cannot imagine the NCAA depriving them a #1 seed, and if these fools continue to elevate Kansas over the Cats in their seeding, then we will finally have all the proof ever needed of the anti UK bias that permeates the NCAA.