John Calipari and UK’s starters speak at their press conference on Friday. (Chet White, UK Athletics)
INDIANAPOLIS – In theory, there’s an easy solution for Kentucky when it comes to facing Frank Kaminsky.Just get him in foul trouble.In reality, there’s a problem.He almost never fouls.”Well, he plays with his feet more so than a lot of other 7-footers I’ve seen,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “He doesn’t reach in. He doesn’t try to block every shot.”The Wildcats (38-0) can throw all the bodies they want at Kaminsky in Saturday’s national semifinal. They can try the bruising Dakari Johnson, the springy Willie Cauley-Stein or possible No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, but history suggests Kaminsky won’t take the bait and fall victim to foul trouble.”I think Arizona was the first game I think I’ve ever had four fouls here in my career at Wisconsin,” said Kaminsky, who was named AP National Player of the Year on Friday.That’s not quite true, but last weekend’s Elite Eight win was the first time Kaminsky has picked up four fouls this season. In his first two seasons, he picked up four fouls 11 times and fouled out only once. All told, he went more than a year between games with four fouls.Kaminsky is no exception on this Wisconsin team either. He’s merely the best example of Ryan’s approach.”In the 30 years or whatever that I’ve been a head coach, I would guarantee you that my teams have had the fewest number of blocked shots than any other team in the country, if you take Platteville, Milwaukee and Wisconsin,” Ryan said. “We try to keep our feet on the ground, we try to chest up with our hands straight up.”The numbers prove it.Wisconsin is first in the country in defensive free-throw rate, allowing just 0.221 free-throw trips per field-goal try for its opponent, and is 224th in defensive block rate in spite of being the nation’s second-tallest team, according to kenpom.com. Teams are hard-pressed to even get into the bonus against the Badgers. Wisconsin has committed 15 or fewer fouls in all but five games this season.”He knows what refs look for, he knows what tendencies of refs to call are and he shows us every single film session,” Kaminsky said. “He’ll even show us our fouls that we got away with so we can learn from that too. So it’s a process. He has a system. He doesn’t foul, doesn’t want to give the other team free points. Just doing whatever we can to stay out of foul trouble in this game is going to be big.”The Arizona game was the first time all season the Badgers have committed more than 18 fouls and the first time they have allowed more than 20 free-throw attempts. Arizona is a team with length and athleticism similar to Kentucky, suggesting UK could stress Wisconsin in the same way.Aaron Harrison said Wisconsin’s ability to avoid fouling has been a consistent topic in UK’s preparation, saying John Calipari is directing his team to attack the basket as usual. Nonetheless, they aren’t counting on Wisconsin becoming foul happy overnight.Odds are the Badgers will avoid foul trouble and make the Cats earn their points on tough 2s and 3s. If they do, UK – 25th nationally in free-throw rate – will have to adjust to having a big part of its offensive limited.”If they don’t foul, they don’t foul,” Harrison said. “I’m not really sure what to do to draw fouls. We’ve just gotta get in close to the basket and if they foul you, you have to make it.”Odds are Kaminsky will stay on the floor for something close to the 33.4 minutes he’s averaging this season. If he does, the Cats will have to contain him.”He’s going to hit you from a lot of different spots and you’re not going to stop him,” Cauley-Stein said. “He’s the type of player you just have to limit. You’re not going to stop him from scoring. You just can’t let him score 30 on you and that’s the way we have to approach it.”Cauley-Stein, with a 7-foot, 242-pound frame identical to Kaminsky, projects as the likely primary defender on his fellow All-American, but it isn’t likely to be so simple. UK threw multiple defenders at Kaminsky in one-on-one situations in last year’s Final Four, from Dakari Johnson to Marcus Lee to Julius Randle to Alex Poythress. Even though Cauley-Stein – the presumptive national defensive player of the year winner – will be on the floor this time around, expect UK to use the same strategy used to limit Kaminsky to eight points on seven shots.”I think with the guys that we have, we’re going to do a lot of switching anyway,” Cauley-Stein said. “Not one person is going to be on that set player during the whole game. You know, everybody in practice has been guarding guards and bigs. We’re just kind of ready for everything.”