The UK basketball world turned upside down: A major weakness becomes a strength
You cannot blame Kentucky Wildcats fans for feeling disoriented.
The world Cats backers have known since John Calipari became UK head men’s basketball coach in 2009 is off its axis.
Over the past decade, it is hard to imagine that any team has suffered more haunting NCAA Tournament losses due to deficiencies in one area than Kentucky has endured because of errant foul shooting.
Yet, through nine games of the 2019-20 season, Calipari’s current Cats are not only good at making free throws; if form holds until season’s end, this year’s Wildcats would be the best at hitting foul shots in all of Kentucky’s recorded basketball history.
So far this year, UK as a team has made 79.8 percent of its free throws, good for sixth-best in NCAA Division I men’s hoops through Sunday’s games. That would shatter the UK single-season record of 77.6 set by Kyle Macy and Co. for Joe B. Hall’s 1978-79 Cats.
Driving Kentucky’s dramatic uptick in foul-shooting accuracy in 2019-20 is UK’s three-headed backcourt.
Immanuel Quickley (93.5 percent on 29-for-31) is 10th in the country in free-throw percentage. Tyrese Maxey (88.9 percent on 32-for-36) is 46th. Point guard Ashton Hagans (87.8 percent on 43-for-49) is pushing for the top 50.
Injured graduate transfer forward Nate Sestina (89.5 percent on 17-for-19) and freshman swingman Johnny Juzang (100 percent on 6-for-6) have also helped lift the UK team free-throw percentage toward the sky.
To understand why UK’s dead-eye foul shooting makes for such a world-turned-upside-down feeling, one need only examine Kentucky’s recent NCAA tourney past.
As is seared into the psyche of all UK fans, the Cats have lost six gut-wrenching March Madness games in the past 10 years in which errant foul shooting essentially took Kentucky down:
▪ 2010: John Wall and No. 1 seed Kentucky were upset 73-66 by West Virginia in an Elite Eight game in which the Cats missed 13 free throws (they were 16-for-29).
▪ 2011: In UK’s first Final Four appearance since 1998, the Cats fell to Connecticut 56-55 in a game in which the Cats missed eight foul shots (4-for-12).
▪ 2014: Kentucky lost to UConn in the national championship game by six, 60-54, after missing 11 free throws (13-for-24).
▪ 2017: Luke Maye’s buzzer-beater gave North Carolina a 75-73, Elite Eight victory over UK in a contest in which the Wildcats misfired seven times (12-for-19) from the charity stripe.
▪ 2018: The Wildcats missed 14 foul shots (23-for-37) in a three-point, 61-58, loss to Kansas State in the Sweet 16. (The basketball fates were especially cruel to UK freshman forward PJ Washington, who went 8-for-20 from the line that night).
▪ 2019: Auburn’s 77-71 overtime victory in the Elite Eight denied UK its first Final Four trip since 2015, because, among other reasons, the Cats missed nine free throws (12-for-21).
When the Big Blue Nation is in the mood for self-torment, it can ponder this question:
If prior Calipari-coached teams had made foul shots at the rate the current Cats have through nine games, then how many more NCAA titles might Kentucky realistically have?
Two? Three? Four?
Moving forward, Kentucky’s ability this year to extend its free throw success as a team likely will owe to whether an early-season trend continues.
To this point in the year, UK’s good foul shooters are making it to the line with regularity, while the less proficient players at free-throw making are not getting as many chances.
Heading into Wednesday’s game against Utah in Las Vegas, Quickley, Maxey and Hagans have combined to attempt 116 of the 213 total foul shots Kentucky has taken.
That trio have made 89.7 percent of their free throws (104-for-116). Quickley’s 93.5 percent accuracy, if maintained for the entire season, would tie the UK single-season, free-throw accuracy record set last season by Tyler Herro (87-for-93).
Meanwhile, Wildcats’ front-court players are not spending as much time at the charity stripe — which is good for UK’s free-throw bottom line. Overall, the UK players other than the three lead guards have attempted only 91 fouls shots, hitting 66 for a percentage of 72.5.
Kentucky center Nick Richards has shot free throws well for a 6-foot-11 player, making 22 of 31 for 71 percent.
However, sophomore power forward EJ Montgomery (44.4 percent on 4-for-9) and freshmen swingmen Keion Brooks (53.3 percent on 8-for-15) and Kahlil Whitney (52.9 percent on 9-for-17) are all under 55 percent.
As for those searching for a big-picture theory that can explain Kentucky’s uncommonly accurate foul shooting so far in 2019-20, Calipari last week suggested it is nature, not nurture.
“I’m not doing anything different than I’ve done in the past,” the UK coach said. “Probably recruiting better free-throw shooters, I guess.”
