This Kentucky basketball team has a problem. Here are three potential ways to fix it.
Kentucky’s latest loss over the weekend — 97-92 in overtime at Texas A&M — highlighted an issue that has been there pretty much all season for the Wildcats.
Their defense needs some work.
The Aggies went into Saturday’s matchup having tallied 55 and 53 points in their two most recent games — losses to Auburn and LSU, respectively — and they also entered as the worst field-goal and 3-point shooting team in the SEC.
Against Kentucky, they put up 89 points in regulation — tying their high for the season — and managed 1.23 points per possession, their best number so far against a high-major opponent in their ninth game against such competition.
SEC preseason player of the year Wade Taylor IV went for 31 points, veteran teammate Tyrece Radford scored 28, and the Aggies seemingly got to the basket at will against the Wildcats’ often-porous perimeter defense.
This game was no outlier for Kentucky, which — while certainly one of America’s top offensive teams — has struggled mightily at times on the defensive end all season long. Saturday’s loss marked the 10th time in 15 games so far that UK has given up at least one point per possession to the opponent. And the Wildcats start this week at No. 54 nationally in the KenPom defensive efficiency ratings.
John Calipari didn’t seem overly concerned about defense following Saturday’s game. He noted that UK was around the 50 mark in those efficiency ratings. “It isn’t like we’re that bad,” he said.
But there were several moments throughout the loss at Texas A&M in which Calipari showed his frustration with his team’s defense through his body language. And while it’s true that 54th nationally isn’t that bad, as Calipari put it, it’s still bad for one of his Kentucky teams. In 15 seasons in charge of the program, only two of his teams have finished with a lower rating in that stat: last season’s defensively challenged squad, which lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a 6 seed; and the 2012-13 group, which didn’t even make March Madness following the injury to defensive star Nerlens Noel.
Perhaps Calipari isn’t voicing much public concern because he knows this group can improve.
“There’s stuff that we can do and get better,” he said after the loss.
Here’s a look at three areas that could lead to such improvement.
The bigs get better
It’s worth a reminder that 7-footers Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso have been back on the court for just about a month each following extended absences for both due to injury. Bradshaw hurt his foot in late March and didn’t make his UK debut until Dec. 2, not getting serious minutes until the following week. Onyenso injured his foot in July and didn’t play in his first game of the 2023-24 season until Dec. 16. Neither player had more than a few days of full-contact practice before jumping straight to games. Both missed out on months of developmental time.
That’s all to say that both are likely still getting acclimated.
Onyenso said as much after Saturday’s game, when he had seven points, tied a career high with 10 rebounds and set a new career mark with five blocked shots. “I wasn’t in sync with the team in the first half,” he said. “A lot of mistakes on my side.”
In the second half, he had seven rebounds and all five of those blocks.
Onyenso played so much in the Texas A&M game — a career-high 31 minutes — because Bradshaw played so little. The freshman picked up two fouls in the first 2:38 of the game. He picked up his third foul just 28 seconds into the second half. He picked up his fourth foul less than a minute after checking back into the game after that.
“It wasn’t his game,” Calipari said. “It’s what happens sometimes.”
Bradshaw is still learning, and Kentucky will be better as he continues to progress on the court. He’s already flashed that potential at both ends of the court, but he and Onyenso are especially game-changing for this team as rim-protectors, something the Cats had very little of before their debuts. Not only can they block shots, but their mere presence will, at times, be enough to make penetrators think twice before trying to finish at the basket. As they continue to get acclimated and hone their positioning in the paint, those two should be able to mask some of the team’s defensive flaws on the perimeter by cleaning things up once opponents get closer to the basket.
But that, like most everything with a young team, will be a season-long process.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s still a chance fellow 7-footer Zvonimir Ivisic could join the mix at any time. The NCAA still hasn’t issued final word on his eligibility, but Ivisic is practicing with the team, and the Croatian freshman’s shot-blocking ability is one of the first things that teammates and UK coaches talk about when discussing his game.
Kentucky’s communication
Getting buckets clearly comes natural to many of these young Kentucky players.
Stopping the other team from getting them? Not so much.
While several Wildcats have shown an ability to beat defenders off the dribble or create space for themselves that leads to open jump shots, the lack of connectivity on the defensive end has been glaring.
Freshman guard Rob Dillingham noted how difficult it was to defend Taylor and Radford on Saturday, attributing a lack of communication on screens as one of the issues. He said as personnel changed on the court throughout the game, some players didn’t know where they were supposed to be, relative to their teammates, in certain situations. Onyenso put blame on himself, saying he was out of position multiple times, especially in the first half.
“Really just communication,” Dillingham said. “All of us knowing each other.”
Dillingham also pointed out that this team has been together for only 15 games, and — counting all of the injuries and shuffling of the rotation that has come as a result — it’s probably to be expected for a bunch of young players to struggle with communication under the circumstances. A look at the film from Saturday’s game showed a lack of help defense in certain situations, and that, too, has been an issue all season long.
With Bradshaw, Onyenso, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner all missing games due to injury, Kentucky’s dominant win over Louisville on Dec. 21 remains the only instance in which all of the Wildcats’ key players were actually available (and Thiero was dealing with injury issues in that game, too.)
It’s logical to assume that, as these players get better acquainted with each other and play through scenarios multiple times, the communication will improve. And with the team’s two most vocal leaders — Wagner and Tre Mitchell — both being first-year UK players, more game action could lead to more effective ways of talking.
“It just takes us playing games to get better,” Dillingham said. “We all got a group of guys that want to win and want to learn. So we’ll get better, because we want to win.”
Adou Thiero’s return
As Calipari was talking about how he wasn’t that worried about the defense following Saturday’s loss, the first thing he mentioned was the absence of sophomore guard Adou Thiero.
“We’ll get guys back,” he said. “Adou is still out… Physical toughness and some different things and, you know, I think we’ll get better.”
Thiero, a still-growing, 6-8 guard with all kinds of athleticism, does indeed bring physical toughness to a team that has a tendency to get pushed around by bigger, stronger opponents. He’s a spark of energy on both ends of the court, but especially defensively, where he’s shown an ability to block shots out of nowhere, recover or help by covering ground quickly and go body-to-body with bigger opponents.
Even while undersized, Thiero led UK in rebounding early in the season, grabbing boards at a time when Mitchell — now the fourth-leading rebounder in the SEC — had to be more concerned with keeping the other team’s biggest players off of the glass rather than hunting his own rebounds. With the 7-footers back, Mitchell’s rebounding numbers have exploded. Adding Thiero back into the mix should only help spread that work around and lift Kentucky’s overall production on the glass.
Texas A&M came into Saturday’s game as the nation’s top offensive rebounding team, and it looked the part once the game began. The Aggies beat UK 54-46 on the glass and pulled down 25 offensive rebounds. They also managed 21 second-chance points — notably, only one more than Kentucky, despite getting seven more offensive boards — and it’s certainly possible Thiero’s presence could have turned around some of those possessions.
The 19-year-old has missed four consecutive games, but this isn’t an injury that is expected to keep him out for a prolonged period, hence the “day-to-day” label UK has put on him. The program is also saying he’s out with “general soreness” — an ambiguous designation that has only led to more questions — but Calipari stated clearly last week that it’s Thiero’s back that’s keeping him sidelined.
“And this was the best course of action,” he said.
The eyeballs back that up. Thiero, who has experienced soreness as he continues to grow physically, first started showing signs of back issues during the game against North Carolina on Dec. 16. He left the bench early in that one to retrieve a back brace from the locker room. And then early in the second half, trainers were stretching his back out near the tunnel when Bradshaw picked up his third foul. Calipari turned to put Thiero in the game, but he wasn’t on the bench, and Bradshaw got foul No. 4 before he could check in.
He played just one more game — a season-low 13 minutes against Louisville five days later — before being shut down for the next four (and counting). Presumably, the Cats are giving Thiero some time off now so the issue doesn’t flare up when the games matter most, in March. He’s been traveling with the team and has proven an encouraging presence in the locker room and on the bench during games. Barring a surprise, he’s expected to be back soon.
His return won’t be a magic pill that turns the Cats into defensive world-beaters, but it should help. Just like continued reps should get the big men in a better place and improve the team’s overall chemistry and communication.
And for as good as these Cats can be offensively, any steps forward on the other end will make them all the more dangerous.
Next game
Mississippi State at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
TV: ESPN2
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Kentucky 12-3 (2-1 SEC), Mississippi State 12-3 (1-1)
Series: Kentucky leads 101-21
Last meeting: Kentucky won 71-68 on Feb. 15, 2023, in Starkville, Miss.
