Kentucky Wants More Aggression From Adebayo
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Kentucky has been clipping along well throughout the season. Its No. 4 ranking, 17-2 overall record and 7-0 Southeastern Conference mark are proof of that.
But if the Wildcats want to reach their best, there’s one position and one player who could be the key to it all.
Kentucky at Tennessee | ||
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Tue., Jan. 24 – 9 p.m. ET |
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Coverage | ||
TV: ESPN |
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UK | 2016-17 Team Stats | UT |
17-2 | Record | 10-9 |
7-0 | Conference Record | 3-4 |
92.9 | PPG | 77.8 |
72.1 | Opp PPG | 74.1 |
.499 | FG% | .442 |
.414 | Opp FG% | .438 |
40.9 | RPG | 37.4 |
.359 | 3PT FG% | .331 |
.304 | Opp 3PT FG% | .359 |
.686 | FT% | .732 |
18.0 | APG | 14.3 |
6.5 | SPG | 6.2 |
6.1 | BPG | 4.9 |
UK’s backcourt has been a sight to behold all season long. The power forward position struggled early in the year, but over the last three games has been one of the Wildcats’ most productive and lethal weapons with freshman Wenyen Gabriel and senior Derek Willis clicking simultaneously.
Freshman Bam Adebayo has done a good job manning the paint, putting up rock-solid, consistent numbers from the beginning of the year until present day.
But associate head coach Kenny Payne wants more out of Adebayo. It’s not that the 6-foot-10 big man isn’t producing when he gets the ball. It’s that he’s not getting the ball enough.
“I think that is the finished product of what we are trying to do as a team,” Payne said. “If we get Bam to be more aggressive without a play being called — meaning he sprints the floor, the ball is on the left side of the floor, he sprints the right side, he sprints over to the post, demands the ball. It’s not a play. We don’t have to force feed you, when you can get it within the flow. If he figures that part out, I mean it changes the whole dynamic of what we are.”
Adebayo is fifth in the league in rebounding, pulling down 6.9 rebounds per contest. He’s fourth on the team in scoring with 13.1 points per game and is shooting a team-best 61.0 percent.
The problem is that Adebayo’s field-goal percentage doesn’t register on the official national or SEC leaderboards because he hasn’t made enough shots per game to do so. If he did pass the five made shots per game minimum, Adebayo would lead the conference and be tied for 15th nationally in shooting percentage, and third among all freshmen.
“I told Bam after the game, you’re too nice,” head coach John Calipari said after UK’s win over South Carolina in which Adebayo had 18 points on 5-of-6 shooting. “I said I would strangle a couple of these guys that aren’t throwing you the ball. If I was you, I would. You’re so nice, you don’t say anything. And we’re throwing him the ball, but it’s like it’s forced. It shouldn’t be forced. He’s that good.”
In 19 games, all starts, Adebayo has attempted 10 or more shots only five times. He’s attempted more than a dozen shots once, and in that game he scored a season-high 25 points on 12-of-19 shooting at Ole Miss. Over the last six games, Adebayo has never taken more than six shots in a game, and has also never missed more than two.
“I think he is too nice and too unselfish. I really do,” Payne said. “I think that if he had a little bit of DeMarcus Cousins’ mentality, he changes the dynamics of this team. Every game I’m telling him, ‘Take over the game for us. Dominate the game for us. Don’t sit back and let the game — and five, six minutes, you don’t touch the ball. Say a word. That’s not who you are. That’s not how good you are. You’re a special basketball player. Go and dominate the game.’ ”
It’s not that the other players are being selfish with the ball.
Kentucky’s guard play has been as good as any team’s in the country. In fact, on Monday freshman guards De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk were both named to the midseason watch lists for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s national player of the year and freshman of the year awards. Monk leads the SEC and is second nationally among all freshmen in scoring at 21.7 points per game. Fox is filling up the stat sheet every game, ranking second on the team in points, third in rebounds and first in assists. Then there’s Isaiah Briscoe, UK’s vastly improved sophomore leader.
Fellow forward Isaac Humphries said the issue with Adebayo not getting more shots may be due to the unselfish nature of the team as a whole. With so many highly ranked players on one team, Calipari demands selfless play. It’s that attitude that allows everyone on the team to eat, and for the team and each of them, individually, to prosper.
“I mean, (Bam) obviously wants the ball, and we all want the ball, but we’re taught to be so unselfish and it’s a team thing here,” Humphries said. “It’s not about, ‘What am I doing for myself?’ That’s what we’ve been instilled with from day one.”
UK’s opponent Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET is Tennessee (10-9, 3-4). On paper, the opponent and opportunity should be one that Adebayo is salivating over. The Volunteers have just three players on their roster standing at 6-7 or taller, and none of those three Vols average more than 16.0 minutes per contest.
Tennessee’s tallest player, 6-10 sophomore Kyle Alexander, is averaging 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game. Alexander, who played high school ball with former Wildcat star guard Jamal Murray, tied a single-game program record earlier this year with six blocked shots against TCU.
At the same time, this is a similar Tennessee team to the one that defeated Kentucky last year at Thompson-Boling Arena, the same site as Tuesday’s game. In that game, the Volunteers, which had just three players taller than 6-4, outrebounded the Wildcats and rallied back from a 21-point deficit to win by seven in regulation.
“Tennessee can beat us,” Payne said. “Regardless of what their record is, we’re playing them at Tennessee and they’re going to be hungry and aggressive against us. We’ve got to go out and play well to beat them. It is what it is. They’re a good team. They’re a tough, scrappy team. We’ve got to defend and rebound and play Kentucky basketball and be efficient.”
That’s where a ball-hungry Bam could come in handy.
Short-Handed Cats Overcome South Carolina Thanks to Monk, Key Minutes from Bench
Kentucky’s latest claim to Southeastern Conference supremacy involved overcoming an injury to its catalyst and uneven stretches that absence created. The fifth-ranked Wildcats steadily put the pieces together against No. 24 South Carolina because Malik Monk shot also began falling again.
Monk scored 27 points — the most by a freshman in school history against a ranked SEC opponent — and Bam Adebayo added 18 as Kentucky overcame a sprained ankle to starting point guard De’Aaron Fox to beat South Carolina 85-69 on Saturday and take over first place in the SEC.
The showdown of the SEC’s lone unbeaten teams in league play featured a subplot of injuries to key players on both squads. Fox, Kentucky’s No. 2 scorer and leading assist man, turned his right ankle midway through the first half. His injury followed the pregame scratch of Gamecocks guard and No. 2 scorer P.J. Dozier with back spasms. UK was also without senior reserve guard Mychal Mulder, who missed the game with an illness.
The Wildcats (17-2, 7-0 SEC) regrouped without Fox and earned the hard-fought victory thanks to Monk, who made 9 of 14 from the field and 5 of 6 free throws after shooting just 5 of 14 at Mississippi State. Adebayo added a series of dunks, and Kentucky native seniors Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins provided huge lifts off the bench. Willis recorded 12 points and a game-high seven rebounds in 29 minutes while Hawkins provided 28 minutes in place of Fox, scoring five points to go along with seven assists and three rebounds.
Kentucky led throughout. The Wildcats led by as many as 17 points in the first half but South Carolina roared back midway through the stanza while UK tried to figure out how to replace Fox. Eventually the Wildcats settled down, found relief in Willis and Hawkins, an inside presence in Adebayo, and Monk’s reliable shot.
Sindarius Thornwell scored a career-high 34 points for South Carolina (15-4, 5-1 SEC), which had won five straight. UK shot a season-high 58.3 percent from the field, the highest shooting clip vs. a ranked opponent since March 1, 2006, at Tennessee (60.4 percent). It also extended the Wildcats’ streak of seven straight games shooting 50 percent or better to seven consecutive games, the longest streak since the 1983-84 team made 50 percent or better in eight straight.
Additional notes:
• Kentucky has scored at least 85 points in seven consecutive SEC games for the first time since the 1976-77 team did it eight straight times
• It was Monk’s 11th 20-point game of the season and his fifth 25-point game. Only Jamal Murray has more 25-point games (six) under John Calipari at UK
• Adebayo has made 14 of 17 field-goal attempts (.824) over the last four games
• Freshman forward Wenyen Gabriel tallied 11 points, making three 3-pointers for the second game in a row. He’s made eight over his last three
• Sophomore forward Isaac Humphries pitched in with six points and four rebounds
Taking Care of the Ball
Through 19 games of the season, it’s obvious this Kentucky team can score with the best of them and is likely doing it quickly. With an average possession of 14.4 seconds and scoring 92.9 points per game, one would think ball security would be an issue. Theoretically, the more possessions you have, the more turnovers a team will commit, but not with this bunch.
This team yields a turnover on just 14.8 percent of its possessions. That’s the 10th-best mark in the country (through games on Jan. 21). UK averages just 11.4 turnovers per game, which is 28th in the country.
During John Calipari’s tenure, UK’s best seasons in those categories came in 2011 when the team averaged a turnover on just 16.1 percent of its possessions, ranked 10th in the country. The 2015 team averaged just 10.5 turnovers per outing. For comparison’s sake, UK’s previous fastest team in 2010 averaged a turnover on 20.3 percent of its possessions and 14.4 turnovers a game.
Keep It 100
For all the offensive weapons John Calipari’s teams have featured during his eight seasons at Kentucky, this squad might have the most firepower, as told by the Wildcats’ 92.9 scoring average, ranked third in the country (as of games through Jan. 21). That number is better than the 1995-96 team’s final scoring average of 91.4, the best school mark in the shot-clock era, and just behind the school-record average of 95.4 from the 1970-71 season.
UK surpassed the Cal era record for most 100-point games in a season when it dropped 100 on Texas A&M in the SEC home opener. The previous mark was four games during the 2009-10 team. It’s the most 100-point games for any UK team since the 1995-96 season when that squad posted nine games of 100 or more.
Three of this season’s games came consecutively. UK logged a 101-70 win over Cleveland State on Nov. 23, followed it up with 111 points vs. UT Martin in a 111-76 victory and then dropped 115 on Arizona State in a 115-69 win. It marked the first time the Wildcats had scored 100 or more points in three straight outings since Dec. 16-23, 1977.
UK’s 115 points vs. Arizona State are the most of the John Calipari era and the most since the Wildcats netted 115 vs. East Tennessee State on Dec. 30, 2002.
The Wildcats are on a current seven-game streak of scoring at least 85 points a game. That’s the most consecutive games of 85 points or more in Southeastern Conference play since doing it eight straight times during the 1976-77 season.