Gabriel Shows Potential in Win Over Auburn

No. 6/6 Kentucky has gotten incredible production from each of its three starting guards this season. Freshman forward Bam Adebayo has been a beast in the paint. The uncertainty has been at the four, where it’s often times been hit or miss for the Wildcats.

Saturday’s performance against Auburn can be deemed a home run for freshman forward Wenyen Gabriel.

“Woo,” UK head coach John Calipari said to open his postgame press conference when asked about Gabriel. “Wow.”

The two three-letter words aren’t the most descriptive in the English language, but they certainly do the trick in this instance.

After scoring no more than five points in each of the past nine games, Gabriel hit two 3-pointers – he entered the game with just four 3-pointers to his name all season – in the opening five minutes. He had grabbed no more than eight rebounds in each of the past 11 games and had a season high of 10. Against Auburn he pulled down 16 boards, including five offensive rebounds.

“Wenyen is a great player, and he just had a massive game today,” said Adebayo, who had a big game himself with 15 point and eight rebounds. “He had 16 rebounds and the balls were going his way. We applaud him for it and hope he can keep doing this going forward.”

Gabriel, who has now started 12 of UK’s first 17 games, hit a 3-poitner on UK’s first offensive possession, blocked a shot on UK’s second defensive possession, corralled three offensive rebounds in one possession in the first half and took charges on back-to-back possessions within the first four minutes of the second half.

It all adds up to a career-high 29 minutes and one happy head coach following a 92-72 win over Auburn.

“I think in the case of Derek (Willis) and Wenyen, it’s who is playing better,” Calipari said. “And if you watched, Derek made some shots, but struggled guarding. And Wenyen was getting every rebound. You know, that’s the great thing about what I do. It’s not brain surgery.”

Gabriel wouldn’t score again after connecting on his first two 3-point attempts five minutes into the game, but that was more than enough to send shock waves through his waning confidence.

“I’ve had confidence issues lately, but I’ve been coming back and those two 3s showed it and the rebounds tonight,” Gabriel said.

“I’ve been starting to make a lot of progress. I think I’m about to start making big strides now. Been building my confidence. Defensively, I’ve been kind of focusing on defensive rebounding lately.”

Gabriel wasn’t the only Wildcat to find success from beyond the arc. One game after having its worst 3-point shooting performance of the year by going 1 for 9 at Vanderbilt, Kentucky (15-2, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) knocked down 11-of-19 3-pointers against Auburn, which equates to a new season-high 57.9 3-point field goal percentage.

Oddly enough, arguably UK’s best 3-point shooting performance came at the same time as its worst free-throw shooting performance. The Wildcats hit just 17-of-32 foul shots (.531) against the Tigers (11-6, 1-4 SEC).

“It’s contagious,” Calipari said. “We were in there arguing who missed the first couple. … But what happens is you see a guy miss, and now you’re going to the line saying, ‘Geez, I can’t miss.’ Anybody a golfer? OK, you stand over the ball, ‘I’m not going to slice, I’m not going to slice.’ You’re slicing, oh, yeah. That ball is sliiiiccing. Basketball is that way.”

Kentucky had a 12-point halftime lead and built it up to 14 points with 15:49 to play, but a 12-2 run by Auburn cut it down to four points with 12:32 remaining on the clock. It was yet another sign of undisciplined basketball from a team that starts four freshmen.

“We, at times, play with unbelievable discipline, and all of a sudden we just do our own thing,” Coach Cal said. “Shoot a ball with 22 seconds left in the shot clock, with two guys on us and I’ll fade kick it. What? Why would you do that? I mean, drive the ball. Try to get fouled. ‘Well, I thought’ – no. Just undisciplined.

“Those are the things that we have to work on and I think it’s going to take time. I still think we’re a month away to being what we need this thing to be if we’re going to be one of those teams at the end, because we’re not there right now.”

Kentucky would respond though.

Leading by eight with less than seven minutes to play, freshman guard Malik Monk – who scored a game-high 24 points on 8-of-14 shooting – sparked a season-high Rupp Arena crowd of 24,372 with a gorgeous behind-the-back dribble and assist behind his head in transition to a trailing Dominique Hawkins.

The play prompted an 11-3 run by the Wildcats and turned a once uneasy situation into another blowout victory for the Wildcats, which have now won four of their five SEC games by 20-plus points.

“We absolutely have a ton of upside,” UK senior Mychal Mulder said. “I feel like we do have a lot of room for growth. We’re really excited to see how much more work we can put in, in this small amount of time to get to be the best that we can be and just get ready for March.”