Hagans is ‘the least of our worries,’ Calipari says. But should he be?
The best news that emerged from Kentucky’s 78-64 come-from-behind win at Vanderbilt on Tuesday night was indisputable.
After a stretch of games where UK point guard Ashton Hagans had struggled statistically, the Cartersville, Ga., product bounced back in a big way. In Nashville, Hagans went for 11 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists while turning the ball over only one time.
As the NCAA men’s college basketball season draws closer and closer to March Madness, it was an encouraging performance by UK’s likable floor general.
Alas, what happened Saturday in Rupp Arena brought questions about the Wildcats’ point guard play back to the fore.
No. 12 Kentucky (20-5, 10-2 SEC) survived a horrid outside shooting performance (2-for-22 on three-point tries) and a gritty effort from visiting Mississippi (13-12, 4-8 SEC) to score a hard-earned 67-62 victory over Coach Kermit Davis Jr.’s Rebels before a boisterous, near-capacity Rupp Arena crowd of 20,417.
Down 47-40 with 10:45 left in the game, UK rallied behind clutch scoring from Immanuel Quickley (17 points), Nick Richards (16) and Tyrese Maxey (14), as well as some crucial, late-game “effort plays” from EJ Mongtomery and Keion Brooks.
What Kentucky did not get was a second straight strong showing from Hagans.
The 6-foot-3, 198-pound sophomore fouled out after making only three of 11 shots, going 0-for-5 on treys, and committing four turnovers.
“He was better last game,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. “He struggled a little bit this game. He got beat up a little bit, but he’s fine. He’s the least of our worries.”
Should point guard play be the least of UK’s concerns? The Vanderbilt game not withstanding, the trends are growing a bit worrisome.
Over UK’s last 10 games, eight of them wins, Hagans has now had four or more turnovers in six contests.
Counting Saturday, Hagans has made less than 50 percent of his shots in five straight games and nine of the past 10.
Hagans is 3-of-17 on three-point tries in the past 10 games.
“Ashton is my point guard. I’m with him,” Calipari said when asked if “something was wrong” with Hagans. “The one thing I do know, he’ll fight to win a game. He wasn’t great at the end of this game, but very rarely does he make mistakes at the end.”
Saddled with four fouls and with UK clinging to a 62-61 lead inside the game’s final 1:30 Saturday, Hagans was tasked with stopping Mississippi star Breein Tyree. The SEC’s hottest scorer was averaging 24.5 points per game in league games prior to Saturday (he finished with 19 vs. Kentucky).
With Ole Miss trying to set a screen on Hagans to free its star near midcourt, the UK guard fouled Tyree — with the Mississippi standout way, way out of shooting range — while trying to fight through the pick.
Surprisingly, Tyree — a 78.6 percent foul shooter on the season — bailed Kentucky out of a bad play by missing the front end of the bonus.
“Usually, (Hagans) will come up with the ball, the steal, the rebound to win the game,” Calipari said. “He didn’t today. He wasn’t playing well, and when he fouled out, we won without him, basically.”
In a season when the NCAA Tournament is perceived to be as wide-open as any in recent memory, Kentucky has a chance to do serious damage. Obviously, what level of point guard play the Cats get will play a big role in determining how far UK goes.
Kentucky saw a season ago how difficult reaching a Final Four can be when its point guard is not at the top of his game.
As a true freshman in the 2019 NCAA tourney Midwest Region, Hagans had four points and four turnovers in a narrow Sweet 16 victory over Houston, then had seven turnovers in Kentucky’s overtime loss to Auburn in the Elite Eight.
The attributes Hagans contributes are considerable — and obvious. He is often a disruptive perimeter defender. Offensively, he can be a jet in the open court. To college basketball’s version of the quarterback position, Hagans brings leadership qualities and toughness.
Perhaps it comes from the zeal Hagans has for winning, but some of the turnovers issues seem to come when he tries to do a little too much.
For the Kentucky point guard, less could be more.
“He’s fine,” Calipari said afterward of Hagans. “I will say this about him: He’s not a robot. He’ll have bad games. I don’t know of anybody that, every once in a while, is not going to cop to a bad game. It happens.”
It does.
With the NCAA tourney drawing ever nearer, however, UK’s point guard play would be the least of the Wildcats’ worries if Hagans can turn in a stretch of games closer to what he did at Vanderbilt last Tuesday.
This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 6:24 PM.
