John Calipari hopes Adou Thiero will be available vs. Kansas

About an hour before tipoff, Kentucky announced that Adou Thiero would not play vs. Texas A&M-Commerce due to concussion protocol. With about 12 minutes to go in the season-opener vs. New Mexico State, the sophomore guard checked himself out of the game after taking a hard fall to the court. After tonight’s 81-61 win over the Lions, John Calipari said he hoped Thiero would be available for Tuesday night’s game vs. Kansas in the Champions Classic.

“I’m hoping,” Calipari told Tom Leach on his postgame radio show. “I’m hoping. So we’ll see.”

Kentucky is already without its three seven-footers, Zvonimir Ivisic (eligibility), Aaron Bradshaw (foot), and Ugonna Onyenso (foot). That leaves Tre Mitchell as the tallest player on the roster at 6’9″, but without Thiero (6’8″), Kentucky’s frontcourt is even thinner. Tonight, Justin Edwards (6’8″) started in Thiero’s place at the four, with Mitchell taking his spot in the middle and Jordan Burks coming off the bench for relief. Will that be enough against No. 1 Kansas, with 7’2″ Hunter Dickinson in the middle?

“They’re good,” Calipari said of the Jayhawks in his postgame presser. “We could be short-handed. Should we play the game anyway? Yeah, let’s play it. I mean, you’re short-handed. You’re short-handed. Like, do you think anybody’s feeling sorry for us? Oh, no. They’re happy. They hope two more guys get hurt.”

With only seven players available right now, Cal said the team will take it easy leading into Tuesday night’s game.

“We’re having a practice — I played seven guys — we’re having a practice tomorrow but it’s not going to be physical. It’s going to be cerebral. We’re going to do we’re going to do a walkthrough.”

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“We’re a little disadvantaged here”

Caliapri echoed those comments on the radio, telling fans he knows Kansas will have the edge on Tuesday night (the Jayhawks are a 5.5-point favorite on FanDuel).

“They’re number one in the country. And we’re not. So, we’re a little disadvantaged here.”

Hopefully, the underdog role will give the Cats a chip on their shoulder. For what it’s worth, Calipari believes his makeshift frontcourt is better than it looked tonight vs. Texas A&M-Commerce.

“Jordan [Burks] wasn’t bad today. It’s just that I think Tre [Mitchell] is better than he played. Like he kind of just played. Well, wait a minute. And Tre may be better with a bigger guy on him that he can stretch the court and make that guy go out and play him. I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”

We’ll find out soon enough. Get well, Adou.

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