Kenny Walker (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky is allowing 77.3 points per game going into tonight’s game at Arkansas. That ranks 306th nationally — only 45 teams are giving up more points per game than UK.
“Kentucky is going to be facing a desperate Arkansas team,” former UK All-American Kenny Walker said on WPBK-Fm radio. “Arkansas needs a lot of wins. They were picked to be one of the better teams in the SEC and things have not gone the way they expected. They are a dangerous team.
“I know Kentucky will play hard. They just need to play smart. If they don’t win this game, they have got to hope Tennessee and Auburn slip up a little bit on the road, too. If they go down (to Arkansas) and get better defensively as a team that is a plus but to have any chance to win the SEC they have got to win this game.”
Walker said Kentucky has been “awful” all year defensively and he’s hoping sophomore Adou Thiero can play for the first time in SEC play.
“He was our second leading rebounder before he hurt his back and our most physical player. He might be our most physical inside player and we need some of that,” Walker said.
Walker is worried about the way certain teams have pushed Kentucky around.
“Normally Calipari’s teams are better than this defensively if he has big guys inside to protect the rim and athletic guards,” Walker said. “Guys like (Eric) Bledsoe, (Malik) Monk, (DeAaron) Fox, (Tyrese) Maxey didn’t get beat on straight line drives time after time.
“They can score with anybody but we all knew there would come a game where they weren’t going to shoot the ball well. We had one half like that against Georgetown in the 1984 Final Four when we went 3-for-33 and lost a national title.”
Walker can remember when the late coach Joe B. Hall would make his team run sprints or run the stairs in Rupp Arena to make sure they understood if they made a mistake to hurt the team there was a price to pay.
“This team has to focus and talk more. They have the ability to be better defensively but just don’t seem to have the same communication and desire on defense that they have on offense,” Walker said.
“They lose focus on defense. Texas A&M’s two guards killed us. One went right, one went left. The (TV) analyst said he went to practice and they worked on that but they didn’t stop it. The positioning is off. The help side defense is off. They have got to be talking and communicating. As a coaching staff they have to show (the players) on film how to do that and maybe they are but they are making the same mistakes each game time after time.”
While the season is not over, Walker said this is the time the best teams start “fine tuning” how to do things.
“Offensively they are great, defensively they are terrible. If they don’t get that fixed, they will still win games and might make a (tournament) run but if they want to win a championship they have got to fix the defense.”
7 Responses
Walker said Kentucky has been “awful” all year defensively
Well, that is what I have been saying for months about this team. The trend is toward even worse defense than this team played in November and early December.
To the critics, that is not due to increased opponent strength because the measure of defensive efficiency is normalized to account for opponent strength.
As I have also been saying for quite some time, this team’s defensive efficiency is the worst for any UK team since at least 1997, the earliest season that has sufficient statistical data to measure it.
Thank you Kenny Walker for speaking truth to power about this team’s defense.
These kids were scorers in high school. They didn’t have to play defense; they didn’t want to play defense, with Shepperd being the exception. You can’t become a good defender overnight. This Arkansas game is a must win as we have games against Florida and Tennessee coming up in Rupp. Word has it that the Hogs top scorer and top rebounder may not play today. If so, a loss to a depleted Razorback team would be an ominous sign for the rest of the season. Maybe Calipari will swallow his pride and play some zone today. Someone might want to tell Kenny that the Calipari lovers will kick him out of the club for speaking the truth like he did; but wait, the Calipari lovers are nowhere to be found.
Professor, you’ve been right about this team and Calipari all along. The Calipari lovers were crowing pretty loud and were viciously denouncing everyone who had anything critical to say…until now. These "rose colored glasses" fans are the ones who have allowed the fraud to remain here as long as he has. Can this season be saved…sure, but I don’t think they have to "want to" for that to occur. Going to a starting lineup of Shepperd, Reeves, Thiero, Mitchell, and Z gives them the best chance, but only if they start mixing zone defenses into the game plan. Doing so would most likely bring out the truth about promises made to others about being starters and getting starter’s minutes…and who knows what else.
Everybody acknowledges these Cats can’t even play Defense 101. This is on Cal and his recruiting, coaching staff. As I have been saying, what have these coaches done all year and weekly to remedy this? Think this whole staff should be deported!
I believe I am right about the fraud. I only recognized it after the 2015 loss to Wisconsin, but in hindsight, the fundamental issues that have become so visible now existed in 2010.
The problems all spring from his priorities. He makes decisions to support his NBA EXPRESS over the program whenever the decision poses a conflict between them. This is wrong and arrogant. However, it is also completely unneeded. UK players will move to the NBA when their play at UK is successful for UK. All players have an equal opportunity to be noticed and then drafted by the NBA.
Who other than Cal would be capable of screwing up a perfect season? I will give the man his due for his recruiting prowess over the years and being good ambassador for the University but his fraud cover is exposed more with each passing year. Who has been victimized more than MB?
I bet you guys got high blood pressure, just want to go a rant as usual.This season is long to be over plenty time to correct what needs to be done. Will that happen that remains to be seen.Go Cats!!
And I bet you have low blood pressure, low testosterone, and low ability to see anything about CAL or the team through anything but rose-colored glasses. And I’m sure there’s a low ability to see life and reality as anything but sunshine and rainbows as well……the sunshine pumpers and snowflakers always know all, they always know what’s best for everybody else, and how dare anybody attack "UNTOUCHABLE CAL". This is a msg board, which means ppl r free to express their opinions, whichever it may be, about the team, the coach, the game, the style of play, the system, whatever it may be–but the snowflakes always have to go on the attack against somebody else when said person brings criticism against someone or something that they don’t agree with–and with UK, it usually involves CAL. anybody who brings criticism against CAL IS JUST WRONG!!! According to them, he has no faults or accountabilities–hes perfect, and dosnt have to answer for anything. And that’s truly the case with him–the man has total complete reign over all of it–he can pursue any agenda he wishes and knows Barnhart ain’t gonna be in his way. Truly UNTOUCHABLE. We used to have an UNTOUCHABLE team way back when–now we have an UNTOUCHABLE coach. Just remember, when the time comes that the UNTOUCHABLE is no longer here, go out and get some of that "fresh air" u have been telling ppl to get, cuz u will need it. And don’t worry about our high blood pressure–i for one am not about to let an untouchable narcissitic maniac affect my BP one bit, cuz he ain’t worth that, nor is my livelihood worth it for him. I’m just somebody who doesn’t mind calling things out like I see them, even tho I know snowflakes everywhere will start coming after me after I exercise my right to do so. But that’s what makes it fun for me to do so, because I know that in reality, it’s the snowflakes who have the high blood pressure! But maybe some of that fresh air will help with that–good luck!!! 🥰