John Calipari says Kentucky 'needs' CJ Fredrick to win

C.J. Fredrick hadn’t hit a shot for two games before Wednesday’s victory over Florida A&M. The Kentucky sharpshooter nailed four three-pointers in what has hopefully kick-started a hot streak for the Iowa transfer.

“We need CJ to win. We really do,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said after the win. “I’m going to tell you, he’s the one that made the pass to Oscar [Tshiebwe] to get the two free throws. There were other passes that we’re throwing that you’re like, dude, you threw to the inside. That almost got stolen. Those are things that he’s not going to make those kind of errors.

“I told him, like I believe in you, kid. Making shots and making plays and he fights on defense, we switched, he fronted. The reason I had those guys in at the end, they’re veterans, playing to win.”

Before Wednesday, Frederick had been held to three points or less during five of the last six games. That was a far cry from the volume shooting we saw from him at Iowa, and even what he looked like during the first two weeks of the season.

Fredrick kicked off his UK career by scoring six three-pointers in the first two games of the season. He has shaky night in Kentucky’s loss to Michigan State, but bounced back accordingly with a 17-point performance against South Carolina State. After that, Fredrick’s slump came all at once.

Those three performances came during the first four games of the season and saw Fredrick go 10-for-25 (40%) from beyond the arc. Since – excluding the Florida A&M game – Fredrick’s three-point percentage had dropped to 29.4 percent (5-17).

Even more importantly, Fredrick’s worst games have come when Kentucky loses. He’s scored a combined eight points during the three games UK has dropped this season, shooting a combined 3-16 from the floor.

Calipari will hope Fredrick’s performance against Florida A&M will do him good once Kentucky kicks off SEC play against Missouri next week.