Green, Gilgeous-Alexander Thriving in Shared Backcourt
The point-guard question was inevitable in the preseason. Will Quade Green or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander be the one to step up for Kentucky?
Well, March is here and the question seems to have an answer.
They both have.
What might have seemed like an either/or situation has become more of a both/and one, with Gilgeous-Alexander and Green playing together often as the Wildcats play their best basketball of the season. As No. 23/25 UK (21-9, 10-7 Southeastern Conference) closed its home season with a 96-78 win over Ole Miss on Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander and Green combined for 35 points and 14 assists in 67 minutes.
There was a while it didn’t seem likely that would happen. After Gilgeous-Alexander burst on the scene in a win over Louisville and Green suffered a back injury, Green took a backseat. He has come off the bench ever since and only scored in double figures twice after returning.
But now, after John Calipari defined roles for every player on the team, Green is thriving as Gilgeous-Alexander continues to do his thing.
“Quade again away from the ball, one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three,” Calipari said. “When he’s got it and they’ve got their defense synced in, he’s not that guy. But away from the ball, killer. Absolute killer. And makes basket, he’s a scorer. He makes great decisions. He was great today.”
Moving off the ball, Green has scored in double figures in every game of UK’s four-game winning streak and hit multiple 3-pointers in each. On Wednesday, he had 18 points to go with four assists. Calipari has found a way to play to Green’s strengths and away from his weaknesses.
“His size, it’s an open, more open court for him, he can see more,” Calipari said. “They have five guys back in there, it’s a little tougher for him to see the court.”
Green might be a point guard by trade, accustomed to having the ball in his hands, but he has not hesitated to embrace his new role. It’s also not completely foreign to him.
“I like it a lot,” Green said of his new role. “I’ve been playing off the ball in high school too, so I was real used to it. I’m real familiar with it, so nothing changed for me.”
All season long, Coach Cal has called Green UK’s best pure scorer. It only makes sense to have that kind of player in position to do what he’s best at.
“I’m a scoring threat,” Green said. “I can score in all three ways. It doesn’t matter. If they help, I’m right there to shoot the ball, make shots. If they know I can shoot, they help my team get to the lane because they try to deny me.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is certainly benefiting from Green’s presence. Capitalizing on the extra room afforded him, the 6-foot-6 freshman flirted with a triple-double in finishing with 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
“He’s a really, really good shooter and shot-maker all over the floor,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Green. “He can make a shot from anywhere and I think that’s when he excels most. He’s a little bit smaller, so when he gets guys on the weak side in a two-on-two situation or three-on-three or one-on-one, he’s really hard to stop. He’s shown that the past couple games.”
What Green is doing is by no means early, but he makes it look and sound that way.
“Just being aggressive, really,” Green said. “When I get the ball off the ball, just be aggressive, make the right play, score when I have to score, shoot when I have to shoot, pass when I have to pass. That’s all.”
With Green flanking Gilgeous-Alexander, UK now heads to Florida for a stiff challenge to close the regular season.
“Now we got a tough one,” Calipari said. “We got to go to Florida, senior night, they’re waiting in the weeds, blue out, orange out, whatever it’s going to be. It’s going to be a hard, hard game for us. But we’re in the position we want to be in to see if we can go do something special. But it will be hard.”
