Adou Thiero Continues to Show He Can Fit Into Random Style of Play

Vicky Graff Photo

Adou Thiero continues to show why he’s going to be a much more valuable player for Kentucky this season than he was last year when he played sparingly most of the season. The 6-8 sophomore had 13 points in Thursday’s 99-53 exhibition win over Kentucky State. He played only 20  minutes but went 3-for-4 from the field overall and 7-for-10 at the foul line. He got to the line more than any other UK player.

He also helped compensate for UK’s lack of size inside by grabbing eight rebounds. While he didn’t have an assist, he also had just one turnover.

Even though he missed his only 3-point shot, There’s shooting range is better this year.

“I have just been working on my shot a lot over the summer and I think I shot pretty well tonight. I feel I should have made a couple more foul shots,” the sophomore said.  “I have been working on it a lot with coach John Welch by getting shots up before practice.”  

Thiero seems to fit well into the “random” style of basketball Calipari wants to use with this team.  

“I take that as he trusts us a lot,” Thiero said about the randomness of the UK offense. “He knows what good basketball players do, so it means a lot that he trusts us.”  

Thiero also thought his freshman teammates were calmer than they were in UK’s first exhibition game last week.

“They are always great, and they make us compete, so it was good to see them all have fun,” Thiero said. “I don’t know if they were nervous or anxious in the first game to play in front of everybody or on the court, but it could have been that.”