Tre Mitchell expresses motivation to play Oakland after Grizzlies fire shot at Kentucky

Oakland basketball coach Greg Kampe may be good friends with John Calipari, but he hasn’t held back with his confidence heading into the matchup with Kentucky Thursday evening.

Kampe made comments in the days leading up to the game about Kentucky’s inside presence, noting that “they don’t score in the post” and believes UK’s lack of dominant post play could be a key to Oakland winning the game.

“So, since they don’t score in the post, our ability to maybe guard the three and to keep the game slow, we have a chance,” said Kampe. However, Kentucky forward Tre Mitchell is having none of those comments and was a little bit perturbed by them when speaking to media himself.

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“You know, coaches can say what they want to say. I’m not going to speak too much on it now, but it is what it is. You can have your opinions, you can have your viewpoints, but let the game do the talking at the end of the day,” Mitchell told KSR. 

“It’s one thing to speak how you feel, but there’s another level to it when a little bit of disrespect comes to play. It’s not just me, it was basically like we have no inside presence whatsoever.”

Sure, Kentucky hasn’t had a front-line that can manhandle SEC teams, but with three seven-footers, a skilled big in Mitchell, plus a bouncy four-man in Adou Thiero, Kentucky has plenty of firepower to control the paint against a smaller team like Oakland.

“We have some unbelievable talent on our team. Our 7-footers, me, Adou, we have some unbelievable players,” added Mitchell. “I feel like it should have been at least acknowledged. At the end of the day, you’re gonna have your opinions. Our game will speak.”

Based on Mitchell’s comments, it sounds like Oakland will come to understand just how good the UK front-court is Thursday evening. For all the talk about the Wildcats’ lack of enforcement down low, they are still the No. 2 team in the nation in blocked shot rate. Mitchell and the other bigs certainly plan to let the Golden Grizzlies know about that stat.

Plus, Oakland doesn’t really have much size themselves. In fact, the heaviest player on their roster is Michael Rodgers at 228 pounds, and he’s only six feet tall. Tre Mitchell is a mere nine inches taller and 12 pounds heavier than him, also out-weighing all of Oakland’s true big men by at least 20 pounds each — and Mitchell is only the fourth-tallest guy on the team.

Perhaps Kampe’s comments serve as the motivation this Kentucky front-court needed heading into the NCAA Tournament.