Four-Guard Lineup Gives Kentucky a New Look

Kentucky head coach John Calipari had hinted at going to a four-guard lineup throughout much of the nonconference portion of the schedule, but he rarely deployed it.

In the first half Saturday against Arkansas, Calipari’s hands were tied. Just 11 seconds after Wenyen Gabriel picked up his third foul of the first half, Derek Willis was charged with his second. So, with 8:04 left in the half, it was De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Isaiah Briscoe, Mychal Mulder and Bam Adebayo on the floor.

“I loved the fact that (Mychal) fought and didn’t give an inch,” Calipari said. “He battled. Like, he wasn’t afraid. And he makes us different. But you gotta fight and you gotta battle and he was able to do it.”

The four-guard lineup stayed in the game for nearly seven straight minutes, turning a four-point UK deficit into a four-point advantage with 1:09 remaining in the half. The personnel varied during that time – Dominique Hawkins came in for Monk, who was called for his second foul of the game with 7:03 to play, and Isaac Humphries spelled Adebayo – but the Wildcats had established a new wrinkle to their offense and defense.

At 6-foot-4, Mulder is undersized to play at the four, but his quickness and athleticism, which includes a 44-inch vertical, allow him to make up for the height discrepancy of guarding an opposing team’s forward. And his 3-point shooting prowess (he’s second on the team with 22 3-pointers on a team-high 43.1-percent clip), gives the Wildcat offense another weapon.

“As a guard trying to guard a big like that, especially that guy, he was a pretty big guy, I was just trying to keep the ball away from him,” Mulder said. “Try to front him as much as I can, fight for rebounds, fight for position. As long as you’re fighting I think you’ll be fine.”

As Calipari has so often said throughout his time at Kentucky, effort plays are what earn playing time in his book, and Mulder’s fight in the post was readily apparent against the Razorbacks.

Without practice time restrictions during Camp Cal, Calipari and the Cats were able to try out the four-guard look more than normal. It also helped that it wasn’t Mulder’s first time playing the position.

“I played the two-three in junior college, primarily, but in my second year I played the four a little bit,” said Mulder, referring to his time at Vincennes University. “We didn’t really have a huge team that year, so I had the opportunity to play the four a little bit and see what I can do down there.

Kentucky’s next game is on the road Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET against a Vanderbilt team that is strong on the perimeter and could lend itself to more four-guard opportunities. Matthew Fisher-Davis (6-5), Jeff Roberson (6-6) and Riley LaChance (6-2) are each playing more than 30 minutes per game and have each attempted more than 50 3-pointers this season. Then there’s the 7-1 Luke Kornet, who’s also attempted 52 3-pointers this season and is logging 29.1 minutes per game.

“I’ve watched enough tape, I’ll be going to sleep seeing 3 balls being thrown all over the place,” Calipari said.

Vanderbilt is shooting 40.3 percent from distance this season, the 13th-best clip in the country, per Ken Pomeroy, and play a deliberate style of offense that ranks 299th in average possession length.

Coach Cal initially thought he wouldn’t have to watch too much tape from last year’s game against Vanderbilt, a 74-62 win by the Commodores at Memorial Gymnasium, because Vanderbilt has a new head coach in Bryce Drew. Instead, with so many veteran players on his roster, Drew has kept Vanderbilt’s style of play similar to last year.

“So now I had to go back and I had to start watching our game tapes last year with them,” Calipari said. “But they’re – you know it’s smart. They’re a terrific offensive team, they have 3-point shooters and that’s how they play and they’re running almost all the stuff with a couple little adjustments, but it’s mostly the stuff they ran a year ago.”

Though the four-guard lineup was successful against Arkansas, that doesn’t necessarily mean Coach Cal will run with it on a regular basis. After all, Willis has shown continual signs of improvement on the defensive end, and broke out of a shooting slump against the Razorbacks by scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and knocked down 3-of-5 3-pointers.

But Calipari’s still happy to have that card up his sleeve.

“If Derek’s playing the way he is and Wenyen’s playing well there’s no reason to do it,” Calipari said, “but there was foul trouble and that’s why we did it. It’s nice to know that you have one more option.”