John Calipari might be headed for the most scrutinized March in UK coaching history
In one sense, John Calipari might be the most fortunate coach working in 2024’s March Madness.
It seems likely that no one, including NCAA Tournament favorites Connecticut, Purdue and Houston, will enter the postseason with more weapons on its roster than the 11 viable players the Kentucky head coach has available to deploy.
Yet having a team stacked two-deep with high-level talent also figures to bring an extra layer of scrutiny on Calipari’s use of his team’s personnel. For Calipari, the “mix-and-match” challenge of having the right people on the floor at the right times under season-defining pressure might never have been more daunting than it will be this year.
Asked last Wednesday night on his weekly radio show what his main criteria is for making in-game personnel moves, Calipari said, “A lot of times, it’s my gut. But, you won’t believe this, I’m watching the games and watching the game tapes. So my ‘gut’ is (drawn) from that.”
As the games build in importance down the stretch for Kentucky (21-8, 11-5 SEC), Calipari will face the task of getting personnel calls right at every position on his team.
Who should play center for Kentucky?
After Ugonna Onyenso had eight points and 10 blocked shots against Ole Miss and then followed that up with seven points and 11 rebounds at Auburn, it seemed the 7-foot, 247-pound sophomore had used defense and rebounding to establish himself as UK’s key interior cog.
Then Zvonimir Ivisic dropped 18 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots on Alabama and soon followed that up with 12 points, nine rebounds and two blocks versus Arkansas. Suddenly, the offensive skill and ability to create floor spacing provided by the 7-2, 234-pound Croatia native seemed indispensable.
Yet just as it appeared that Onyenso/Ivisic might give Kentucky a defensive/offensive big man platoon, then 7-1, 226-pound freshman Aaron Bradshaw went for 15 points and five boards in 12 high-energy minutes against Arkansas on Saturday.
So for the season-defining contests to come, it looks like Calipari will have to work through his team’s three-headed big-man rotation on a game-by-game basis to see who is the best fit for each given matchup.
How should the backcourt minutes be distributed?
In his first five games after returning from an ankle injury, D.J. Wagner shot 4-for-26, including 0-for-12 on 3-point tries. Last week, however, Wagner “got his shot back,” hitting 9 of 12 field-goal attempts, including 6 of 10 treys, in two games.
If the freshman point guard is back on stride, Kentucky could enter the most crucial part of the season with four guards playing at a high level.
That would, obviously, make the Wildcats a keenly dangerous March Madness team. But it also puts pressure on Calipari in how to divvy up the backcourt minutes.
In Saturday’s 111-102 win against Arkansas, Calipari took Kentucky leading scorer Antonio Reeves out of the game with 7:50 left and UK down 86-79.
Reeves, at the time, had hit 8 of 10 shots and had 22 points.
With the all-freshman backcourt of Wagner, Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard on the floor, Kentucky caught fire and roasted the Razorbacks with a 32-16 rampage to end the game.
Reeves never got back in the contest.
Imagine going down the stretch of an NCAA Tournament contest and leaving your team’s All-America candidate on the bench as the outcome is being decided.
Those are the kind of decisions facing Calipari.
Can Tre Mitchell be reintegrated at power forward?
Over the first half of the season, the 6-9, 231-pound Mitchell was, arguably, Kentucky’s most valuable player.
The super-senior spaced the floor with outside shooting. He was such a skilled passer, UK initiated a lot of its half-court offense through Mitchell. He was also Kentucky’s best rebounder and only low-post scoring threat.
Mitchell is “probably our only guy comfortable with his back to the basket,” Calipari said last week.
However, successive back and shoulder injuries served to remove Mitchell from the Kentucky playing rotation for most of February.
Since Feb. 1, he’s appeared in only three games. Understandably, Mitchell looked rusty while going 0-for-5 from the field against Arkansas on Saturday in his first game appearance since Feb. 13.
So going into the regular season’s final two games — Senior Night against Vanderbilt on Wednesday at Rupp Arena and a road tilt at SEC leader Tennessee on Saturday — it will be fascinating to see if Kentucky pushes to return Mitchell to the primary role he was playing in the first half of the year.
If UK makes that choice, it will be interesting to see if there is enough time left in the season to get Mitchell fully back.
Just to make that scenario even more intriguing, how will Mitchell’s return impact the minutes available to sophomore Adou Thiero and freshman Justin Edwards. The former gives UK much needed physicality and toughness, while the latter has started to find his way late in the season as Calipari has begun to use him more as a “small-ball” four man.
Put it all together, and you see why John Calipari will likely enter March Madness both with more good options and more scrutiny on his in-game decision-making than any coach in the country.
Next game
Vanderbilt at No. 15 Kentucky
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Vanderbilt 8-21 (3-13 SEC), Kentucky 21-8 (11-5)
Series: Kentucky leads 156-49
Last meeting: Kentucky won 109-77 on Feb. 6 in Nashville, Tenn.
This story was originally published March 4, 2024 at 12:52 PM.
