Tre Mitchell had four assists Friday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
No one really thought Stonehill could stay with Kentucky much less beat the Wildcats Friday night.
The only real drama was how would Kentucky respond to its loss to No. 1 Kansas Tuesday when it had a chance to win. However, coach John Calipari’s team more than took care of business in its 101-67 victory.
However, the most impressive aspect was not the margin of victory but how Kentucky got to that margin.
— Kentucky made 17 of 32 on 3-pointers, the most 3-pointers made in the Calipari era and the most since making 20 threes (in 35 attempts) on March 4, 1995, against LSU. when Rick Pitino was the UK coach.
— Kentucky shot 63.9 percent (39 of 61), the eighth-highest single-game mark of the Calipari era.
— Kentucky had assists on two-thirds of its baskets, 26 assists on 39 field goals made. The 26 assists are sixth-most in one game in the Calipari era.
Why so many 3-pointers?
“Probably because we’ve got a good shooting team. When I haven’t had good shooting teams, we haven’t shot many 3’s,” Calipari said.
Kentucky had four players hit three or more 3’s led by seven from freshman sensation Reed Sheppard. But what I love is that Calipari is keeping his preseason pledge to let his teams run and shoot 3’s and not panicking if shots don’t fall.
Stonehill basically dared UK to shoot from 3. The only realistic chance Stonehill had was to play a zone defense and hope UK could not make shots. That didn’t happen.
“I love playing against zone as a coach because you have to pass the ball. They passed to each other. Twenty-six assists, making 3’s, Tre (Mitchell) in the middle. And they stuck with it,” Calipari said.
The versatile Mitchell hit the only 3-point shot he tried but was 7-for-9 overall from the field and had 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in 30 minutes. He continues to enable UK to stretch the floor and continues to prove just how valuable he will be this season.
“I love the zone, I love getting in the middle of there and being able to operate it because I think I see the floor well, make pretty good decisions except for my turnovers today. I think I had two, my second one was off a rebound so I’m not sure if that actually counts. The first one was against the zone, but I mean I love it,” Mitchell said. “I’ve seen the zone so many times.”
Mitchell said making the “easy plays” is a key to playing well like UK did in this game.
“We have dudes that don’t always try to make that hero pass. We turned it over a little more than we have, but I mean everywhere I’ve been in college basketball, our goal is 10 or less turnovers. We are looking at around six maybe a game and that is impressive,” Mitchell said.
“Especially with a young group, credit to them again and their ability to play the game and make the right plays.”
