Kentucky wins, but exhibition raises a question: ‘Who are the dogs?’
Kentucky Wesleyan preceded Kentucky in the postgame news conferences Friday night.
When UK Coach John Calipari took a seat, he noticed Kentucky Wesleyan forward Jomel Boyd leaving the area.
Calipari could not resist a pointed compliment.
“You had 29 on us today?” Calipari called out to Boyd. “It felt like 59.”
That was the UK coach’s way of saying a 95-72 victory in the exhibition game was not flawless. Yes, there were encouraging signs — Keion Brooks shooting well; 20 assists against nine turnovers — suggesting a revamped roster played cohesively.
But Calipari returned again and again to interior defense as an area of focus going forward. Led by Boyd, Kentucky Wesleyan scored 28 points in the paint. That was especially noticeable in a second half that saw UK outscore the Panthers only 47-42.
Oscar Tshiebwe is nursing a hip injury and only played 17-plus minutes. Other UK players must play “big,” so to speak.
“Their big guy literally did not turn it over and got shots up every time,” Calipari said. “This team needs an interior defender other than just Oscar. Who is it? I don’t know. Jacob (Toppin) raised his hand. OK, it can be you.
“I need dogs. Who are the dogs? C’mon. Show me who you are. ‘I don’t play that way.’ OK, you just moved back a little bit.”
Brooks, who along with freshman TyTy Washington led UK’s scorers with 18 points each, defined “dogs.”
“Someone who plays hard, who competes every possession,” Brooks said. “He just goes out there and does what other guys don’t want to do.
“We’re going to figure that out. I think we’ve got a team full of dogs. We’ve got to bring it out of people.”
With the offense clicking, Kentucky never trailed. UK made 53.5 percent of its shots. That included making 11 of 29 three-point shots.
Kentucky Wesleyan Coach Drew Cooper was impressed.
“Every offensive possession for them, every shot that went up, it was really the right shot,” he said. “It was in rhythm. It was off-ball reversals. It was off of one more pass. It was at the rim. I didn’t detect anybody on UK’s roster that was out there with an agenda other than getting the best shot. And that was very frustrating to us.”
Point guard Sahvir Wheeler exceeded his stated objective of having a four-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio this season. He had six assists and only one turnover in 23-plus minutes.
“As long as we share the ball, making one more pass, being unselfish, good things are going to happen,” Wheeler said.
Good things happened repeatedly against Kentucky Wesleyan. Again and again, passes drew appreciative oohs from the crowd. Repeatedly one UK player drew the defense on a drive and passed to a teammate for an open shot.
But Calipari reminded reporters that winning by outscoring the opposition is risky.
“If we’re what we can be defensively, we can be good,” the UK coach said. “If you’re not able to have interior defense, it’s hard to win unless you can score 95 (points) and hope they score 93.”
Wheeler suggested that insufficient interior defense can be more problematic against future opponents.
“That goes back to us having dogs,” he said. “At the end of the day, we played a really good team (in Kentucky Wesleyan). That’s not an SEC team. That’s not a Final Four team.
“That is the goal we have.”
But Calipari suggested that Kentucky Wesleyan was good enough to serve a useful purpose. Rather than an inconsequential blowout, the game exposed a weakness that can be addressed.
“There are glaring issues we’ve got to deal with,” the UK coach said. “If we didn’t play a team that would battle us, we would never know.”
Calipari linked better interior defense to what figures to be a precious commodity this Kentucky season: Playing time.
“I told them after the game, if you can play interior defense, you’re going to play for us,” the UK coach said. “If you want to play, play interior defense.”
Calipari conceded that he has not “zeroed in” on defense in practices. That figures to change.
“I’m a college professor,” Calipari said, “and I’m giving you the answer to the test. … You’ve got to fight. You cannot give up on plays. That’s not acceptable here.”
Next game
Miles at No. 10 Kentucky
What: Exhibition game
When: 7 p.m. Friday
TV: SEC Network
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 8:58 PM.
