Kentucky’s recent three-point shooting defies basketball logic
Takeaways from interviews previewing Kentucky’s game at LSU on Tuesday night:
▪ Assistant coach Tony Barbee, Keion Brooks and Nate Sestina shrugged at the recent trend that has seen Kentucky shoot much better from three-point range in road games than in Rupp Arena since December. In that span, UK has made 43.9 percent of its three-pointers on the road as compared to only 24.4 percent at home. They wrote it off as coincidence.
▪ Might the less-than-idea shooting background in Rupp Arena be a factor in UK’s recent misses (including 2-for-22 shooting against Ole Miss on Saturday)? The baskets are out in the open with no nearby background to provide perspective. “That’s the argument of a non-shooter,” Barbee said.
▪ Barbee saluted UK’s veterans for helping the team win almost all of the nip-and-tuck games that have marked this season. Of UK’s first 25 games, 19 had margins of seven points or fewer inside the final seven minutes. “They’ve been carrying us,” he said of the veterans.
▪ Ashton Hagans’ 30 turnovers over the last eight games has not shook UK’s faith. “We wouldn’t trade Ashton for another point guard in the country,” Barbee said.
▪ After the game at Vanderbilt, UK Coach John Calipari used an analogy involving Keith Van Horn and Karl Malone to show how he wants Sestina to deal with getting beat on defense. As he told Van Horn (who had to guard Malone), take solace in scoring on Malone rather than be solely concerned with getting beat. Sestina said his approach is to work to improve on defense.
