Former Mr. Basketball Dontaie Allen makes his first start for Kentucky
Two and a half weeks after his breakout performance at Mississippi State, freshman guard Dontaie Allen is in Kentucky’s starting lineup for the first time.
Allen, who made seven three-pointers and scored 23 points in Starkville on Jan. 2 — leading UK to a victory in its league opener and ending the Wildcats’ six-game losing skid — was listed among Kentucky’s starters for Wednesday night’s game at Georgia as the Cats look to end a two-game skid.
A former Kentucky Mr. Basketball playing his first season in college, Allen was mostly relegated to the bench for the Cats’ first seven games as the team got off to a 1-6 start. He then played 32 minutes in each of UK’s first two Southeastern Conference games, scoring 23 and 14 points in victories over Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, respectively.
Allen then scored six points in 22 minutes in a win over Florida, eight points in 24 minutes in a blowout loss to Alabama, and eight points in 23 minutes in a loss at Auburn over the weekend. He’s made 20 of 43 three-pointers (46.5 percent) in the five SEC games.
UK fans weren’t shy about their wish for Allen to get more playing time earlier in the season, especially with the Cats shooting so poorly as a team from three-point range. Fans were once again upset following the Auburn game, when Allen — despite being the team’s leading scorer in the first half — sat on the bench for the first several minutes of the second half and played just eight minutes total after halftime.
Kentucky lost that game, 66-59 — outscored 45-34 in the second half — and Allen had a plus-minus score of plus-11 (meaning UK outscored Auburn by 11 points while he was on the court). That was, by far, the best plus-minus number of any of Kentucky’s players Saturday. Lance Ware was the only other Wildcat with a positive number.
After the game, John Calipari said that UK was running plays for Allen, but he was passing up shot opportunities, and that’s why he sat more in the second half. Those comments, among others, didn’t sit well with an already agitated fan base.
Calipari softened his tone during Monday’s weekly call-in show and a Tuesday press conference. He hinted that changes could be coming to Kentucky’s starting lineup, beginning with Wednesday night’s game at Georgia.
Those changes did indeed come.
Calipari said on the pregame radio show that Allen would make his first start in a Kentucky uniform, getting the nod in place of Brandon Boston, who has started all 12 games this season but has struggled mightily — relative to preseason expectations — in his freshman year for the Wildcats.
Boston, who was projected as a top-five pick in the 2021 NBA Draft before the start of the season, is UK’s leading scorer with 11.5 points per game, but he’s also taken the most shots on the team by a wide margin, and he’s shooting just 34.7 percent from the field and 17.5 percent from three-point range. Boston has finished with five points in each of Kentucky’s last two losses.
Ware will also return to the starting lineup for UK’s game at Georgia, beginning the game in the “4” spot, which had been occupied by Isaiah Jackson and Keion Brooks in recent starting fives. Devin Askew, Davion Mintz and Olivier Sarr will be UK’s other starters.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 6:34 PM.
