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How ironic is it that Kentucky’s defense is being shredded by most Southeastern Conference foes and point guard Lamont Butler was one of 15 players named this week to the Naismith Men’s Defensive Player of the Year Watch List
Butler is averaging 1.8 steals per game to lead the Cats much like Mark Pope hoped when he recruited the two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year when he decided to leave San Diego State.
Butler was also named to the United States Basketball Writers Association’s Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List and was a Sporting News Midseason Second Team All-America pick.
However, Butler can only sit and watch now as teams like Arkansas and Ole Miss almost score at will. He has missed the last three games with a shoulder injury and Pope has no idea when he will be cleared to play again.
Butler is averaging 12.9 points, 4.8 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. He is also shooting career bests from the field (.513) and 3-point range (.400).
“He’s one of the best point guards in college basketball. He’s one of the best players in the SEC,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said Tuesday after his team smacked Kentucky.
Without Butler’s defensive pressure, Ole Miss committed just one turnover against Kentucky. Pope blamed himself for that.
My guys are playing hard. I’m doing a poor job with our team defensively right now. I’ve got to figure out how to help our team have more of a presence,” Pope said after Tuesday’s loss before revealing on his radio show Wednesday night that Butler was making progress and would be a non-contact participant in Thursday’s practice.
The solution is obvious — find a way to get Butler healthy. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done — Pope said Thursday he was still not sure when Butler might return — and with Butler out UK will probably have trouble against South Carolina on Saturday even though the Gamecocks are the SEC’s worst team.
“The game is so hard when you cannot guard the ball and Kentucky just cannot guard the ball. Ole Miss is getting whatever it wants,” ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes said. “I cannot overemphasize the loss of Butler. He sets the defense and they just don’t have it without him. Kentucky just gets overmatched on defense.”
Butler’s injury has almost impacted UK’s offense with Jaxson Robinson, one of 10 players named to the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year watch list, now forced to play point guard.
“Losing Butler impacts your offense because it moves every guy up a spot,” ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg said. “It’s like moving your wide receiver to quarterback and suddenly everything looks different. That’s what Kentucky is dealing with now.”
9 Responses
I guess we will have to wait and see if the Preacher Pope is able to get the players to respond this week. He has been talking about stretching and navigating the last couple of weeks and that hasn’t produced any positives. I don’t think that Pope and the word Defense have ever been that congruent in his coaching resume. Not sure I have ever seen a UK team be that steamrolled in a half like against Ole Miss and to go the whole game with getting only 1 turnover just doesn’t happen either.
I am gettin old and been following the Cats over 50 years. Unfortunately, I have seen over the years the cats get whipped. Will never forget the NCAA game against Western Ky. All Rupp could do was watch, nothing went right. The coaches will hopefully figure this out but with the level of talent we have available at the moment it is going to be a challenge. All and all this team has exceeded my expectations. There are still a few weeks left in the season. Let’s hope we can get everyone healthy and go on a run.
The way to fix our defense is to get our mind right to start the game. We need to play like the other team just spit on our mothers and go out there and kick some ass! We need to become the "bad asses" of college basketball. We don’t take the floor to play a game of chess like Ivy League gentlemen, we take the floor as pissed off gladiators with the intent of being the last team standing…literally!
Other than Oweh and Williams we seem to show more fragility than toughness and their real "want to" is still suspect.
That’s a great analogy, and great comparison……the issue is u r going to have to RECRUIT guys who are pissed-off gladiators and bad-asses who want to play like they are the last team standing, and want to play as if somebody spit on their mothers—the two biggest issues plaguing us right now are lack of talent & athleticism, and lack of those DOG-type guys, or just the DOG mentality in general. Its little things showing up right now that scream what the real issues are–for instance, a ball gets tipped or fumbled or whatever, and starts heading out of bounds, and a KY player starts running over to the sideline to try to get it, then they see an opposing player pop up on the opposite side trying to go after the same loose ball, and there is an inevitable collision that is going to commence, and upon seeing and recognizing that fact, the KY player retreats, holds back, holds up, pauses, shies away from the impending contact with opposing player because they don’t want to fight through the contact. They are honestly afraid of the physicality, they are afraid of the fight, and that is just so un-typical of KY BBALL teams. Hell, even CAL’s knuckleheads weren’t afraid to scrap and mix it up–there were some exceptions to that the last 5 yrs–esp the 9-16 team–CAL had some softees too during that last stretch of his era. But overall, there were more guys who weren’t afraid to just go out there and deal with what u were gonna get, guys weren’t afraid to drive the ball to the basket and try to get fouled–i used to get so sick of seeing that with CAL’s teams instead of shooters–but what I wouldn’t give now to see somebody on this team DRIVE THE BALL TO THE BASKET!!! Honestly, I have never seen anything quite like this bunch. Its like u really don’t even know what anybody does well, except SHOOT. Did Pope really build a team that was just live and die by the 3-pt line? U have to learn how to win other ways if your shots aren’t falling. But what do these guys do well? Amari has really come on since Butler has been out, he has been fantastic with his rebounding and his passing. But aside from him, what else is there? Brea, if he isn’t hitting, forget about it. And it seems there is no happy medium with him–hes either 1-6 or 8-9. But if he isn’t hitting, he does nothing. Alot of times the same can be said for Robinson–all or nothing. He is by far the most disappointing player on this team, for me personally. Oweh and Butler are the only two who have the capability of driving the ball to the basket. And I don’t consider Oweh a shooter. I’m thinking did Pope actually see Oweh as a shooter, did he recruit him as a shooter, was that supposed to be a primary role for him? Granted, he has been a consistent scorer, and he is one of the few who has the ability to drive the ball inside, and at least open up the passing lanes to kick out to shooters. Carr is soft–and I’m not trying to come down on the kid–but the back issues, I mean that’s a clear indicator that his body cannot handle the physicality in the SEC. He just isn’t strong enough physically. Its as if he has the back of an 80-yr old. It also shows the difference between playing at a program like Wake Forest and playing at KY, plus the differences between ACC and SEC. That leaves Garrison and Almonor. They are just not KY-caliber. I know Ainsley can knock down some 3s but its like he has to be spotted up. And u see the other night at Ole Miss–how can anybody play 15-20 mins and register all zeroes across the board? NOT EVEN ONE FOUL! That’s when u know somebody is not involved and has just been completely taken out of their game. Honestly, I think in alot of these SEC games some of our guys are just completely in over their heads and out of their league. And after this 5-game stretch, I begin to wonder the same about our coach. If this time next year we are sitting in a similar place or still going through these same issues, it will be time to start having that conversation.
All very good points. Garrison is my most significant underachiever. He can take 1 step forward and then 2 back. Brea is also a 1 on or nothing as you said. It appears that we were very lucky to win the signature games that we did and have been exposed since. It is still very mysterious that Carr’s back problems are suddenly in the rear view mirrow, and he is talented, quite soft and a little shy on Dog. We were lulled into thinking that this team would be a well meshed team. If Pope would toughen up on the personal accountability and a little less with the psycho babble, we could possibly return to earlier season success.
Butler is listed as questionable for tomorrow, but so is Robinson. WTF is wrong with him?
I read where it could be a hami. He was showing some issues with it couple games ago.
Then Noah and Almonor get more minutes. Make the most of them guys!