Kentucky's defense could make it hard for a lot of teams to score this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
John Calipari’s best teams have been terrific defensively and it sure looks like this team could be elite defensively as well.
The Cats might have a lockdown perimeter defender in freshman Cason Wallace, a relentless rebounder in Oscar Tshiebwe and at least two rim protectors in Daimion Collins and Ugonna Onyenso.
Kentucky certainly made a believer out of Howard coach Kenneth Blakeney, who said his team was “just as athletic” at Kentucky but gave up 20 points off turnovers, 23 fast break points, 10 steals and five blocked shots to the Cats.
“I thought that Kentucky certainly played an outstanding game. They were ready to play from the jump and really executed their game plan to a tee. We got knocked back on our heels and we never responded to being knocked back on our heels. All the credit to Kentucky and coach Calipari and the staff,” Blakeney said.
The Howard coach said some things his team did offensively complicated what happened.
“We didn’t execute our offense, we struggled to get into our offense, we struggled through our plays. All credit to Kentucky and their defense they did an outstanding job of taking us out of our plays,” the Howard coach said.
Blakeney did acknowledge that Kentucky’s length and athleticism made it hard on his team to execute any offense.
“They certainly did a good job of switching. They have great guys and great athleticism, and they really move their feet well,” the Howard coach said. “They move as a unit, and I feel that we just did not work hard enough and compete hard enough on the offensive end.”
“I really did not think our offense would struggle tonight.”
However, I think a lot of offenses are going to struggle against Kentucky this year.
