Kellan Grady played in every game and played more minutes than any other player but that may have led to his injury that impacted postseason play. (Photo by UK Athletics)
Remember no matter how many times he was asked if he was tired from playing so many minutes that guard Kellan Grady always said he was fine and was used to playing a lot of minutes at Davidson, his previous school.
Grady played a team-high 1,120 minutes and did not miss a game. He averaged 32.9 minutes per game (Oscar Tshiebwe was second at 31.8 minutes per game).
From Jan. 22 against Auburn to Feb. 23 against LSU, Grady played at least 36 minutes per game. Against Auburn, Mississippi State and LSU he played 40 or more minutes and he averaged almost 39 minutes per game in a five-game stretch against South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and LSU from Feb. 8 to Feb. 23.
Grady went 2-for-17 from the field in losses to Tennessee and Saint Peter’s in postseason play and was 1-for-12 from 3-point range. However, last week on ESPN radio in Louisville, Kentucky coach John Calipari admitted Grady was not close to 100 percent.
“I don’t publicly talk about kids’ injuries. I’m not worried about gambling. I’m not talking about that stuff. He went on and had plantar fasciitis that he was able to deal with,” Calipari said.
“You know when it really kicked in? When we had the injury, he had to play 40 minutes a game for three games and he never really recovered from it. We had that kind of stuff.”
Grady did admit he had plantar fasciitis after the season but said the pain did not impact his play. Calipari certainly made it sound a bit different and that could have explained Grady’s ineffectiveness in postseason play.
11 Responses
While Hopkins and Allen sat on the bench!!! If Cal knew this, he is basically saying that Grady’s health and ability to perform were of no concern to him. At least not enough to give some other players a few minutes.
Amen OldFan. This simply shows that Calipari plays his pets to the detriment of the pet and the team. This is something you would expect to see from a hack coach of a losing Division 3 team. How much longer will BBN have to be embarrassed by Calipari?
It was quoted somewhere that Cal didnt know – he depended on underlings to inform him. He said he asked about it once and Grady said he was fine.
If that’s true (who knows), It could be one of the reasons we are looking for a new strength and conditioning coach!?
I do agree Feb was the time to be developing bench players and maybe taking a loss, instead of playing so many players so many minutes, whether he knew Grady was hurt or not- it would have been the strategy of most good coaches I watch.
I am not a coach, but I watch good ones on TV!!
Duh! Even this “basketball beanie” knew that he was playing too many minutes and Cal should have been the adult and sat him and developed the talent on the bench. A loss or 2 in February would not be a devastating as a loss to Saint Peter’s! 😡
I know looking back is easy but Grady played way too much too many games in a rew
Protecting Sharpe was Cal’s main goal once he arrived on campus in January!
My cat is a better coach. My cat plays zone when I chase him, Cal never does.
I have been referring to our men’s bb “coach” as Can’t Coach Cal. He also needs to be known as “Mr Hindsight.”
After most games, you will hear variations of the following. – I should have played a player either more or less, did not have the team prepared to play, this is tough, we are young and not robots, blah blah blah
Conversely, he tells any reporter that he has been doing this (coaching) for a long time and he knows his team.
So if you have been doing this a long time you should have experienced all these situations before, yet you continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Agree with Michael, your cat is definitely more intuitive and smarter. Cats make mistakes and learn from them. CCC does not learn from his mistakes and, in addition, verbalizes his mistakes to the BBN ad nauseum after the games and at press conferences. He is not a very intelligent guy.
Cal has trust issues with his players. Like not trusting them.
That is funny (and seemingly true)
Calipari is a fraud.
This program continues its slide that has spanned too many seasons.