Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns battle for a loose ball at Monday’s Blue-White Scrimmage. (Chet White, UK Athletics)
John Calipari moved to the opposite of the court for most of Monday’s Blue-White Scrimmage, taking a seat next to his wife and leaving his assistants to do the work on the bench.He couldn’t help but interject on occasion, but he spent most of his time watching his two platoons go head to head.It was in those moments as an observer that he realized just how unique a coaching challenge he’s created for himself. The thing is, he’s created the same challenge for his peers.”The issues I’m going to have, the other coach is going to have, too,” Calipari said.Given the opportunity, any opposing coaches who happened to tune in to UK’s annual preseason scrimmage surely would trade places with Coach Cal.Kentucky’s unmatched depth was on display, with seven players scoring in double figures. Devin Booker led the way with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting, while Andrew Harrison had 19 for the Blue team, which came away with a 94-66 victory.Though the final score wasn’t close, this edition of the Blue-White Scrimmage was a departure from years past. “I think we all could see that we were all really competing hard at each other and acting like it was a Louisville-Kentucky game, but it was against each other,” said Karl-Anthony Towns, who impressed with 18 points and nine rebounds. “We really went hard at each other, but we had a lot of fun. I definitely had fun. I really enjoyed today and I just can’t wait to play with the other team on our team.””The other team on our team.” That serves to illustrate what the Cats will try to do when they’re all wearing the same color uniform.For the better part of three months now, Coach Cal has been preparing his team to play the two-platoon system. Nonetheless, he can’t be sure from games on UK’s Big Blue Bahamas tour, practices or the scrimmage exactly what it’s going to be like to coach the system when he doesn’t have free rein to reset the score with 11:30 remaining as he did on Monday.”I don’t know,” Calipari said. “We’re going to find out. We haven’t done it yet. Today we just played a bunch of guys.”Slightly more thought went into it than that.The Blue team — before Cal switched up the squads — was comprised of Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Willie Cauley-Stein and Towns. White’s starters were Tyler Ulis, Booker, Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee and Dakari Johnson. Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins split time between the two teams.”You want to have a point guard on each group,” Calipari said. “You want to have some size on each group. And how do they fit together?”Experience is also a consideration.”I’ll probably try some different combos,” Calipari said. “I kind of like two freshmen on a team, three vets on a team. It gives it some balance.”With all the thought Calipari is putting into the composition of the two platoons, the players are steering clear of concerning themselves with who belongs on which team. They’re just playing.”The combinations we don’t worry about,” Towns said. “We just worry about going out there and doing everything we need to do to get a W. That’s not our job. Our job is to go out there and execute the plan Coach Calipari gives us.”The plan is clear, though the particulars are still a work in progress. There’s no manual for what UK is about to try.”We’re just going to see what happens,” Calipari said. “I mean, I’m committed to it. It’s the best thing for these players. Now we got to make it the best thing for our team.”