Anonymous Coaches Weigh In On the Kentucky Defense

The defense has been bad. That is abundantly clear and universally agreed upon. The question is how did it get this bad for the Kentucky defense, and can they do anything to change it?

Kentucky took a step in the right direction in the win over Ole Miss. Only three opponents scored fewer points against the Cats this season as the Rebels made just 37.5% of their field goal attempts. Ugonna Onyenso broke David Robinson’s Rupp Arena record with 10 blocked shots. Kentucky rose 20 points in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings, yet still is outside of the top 100 at No. 104.

Tuesday night was better, but there are still major flaws. The Athletic’s Kyle Tucker explored those by speaking with anonymous coaches who have played against Kentucky. One blamed most of the problems on the Wildcats’ youth.

“People think it’s kind of a mystery, but it’s not,” said one assistant coach whose team has already torched UK (take a guess which team that could be). “Young guys don’t know how to guard. In high school, they don’t have to guard. In grassroots, they don’t have to guard. The biggest thing is age, because obviously it’s not length and athleticism. It’s the fact that you got guys who are predominantly score-first and you don’t have the pieces to kind of offset that.”

You’re probably saying to yourself, “I don’t buy that.” After all, defense was the calling card for all of his great, freshman-laden teams in the past. Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Isaiah Briscoe, and Tyler Ulis are just a few of elite defenders who were underclassmen. It’s doable. This anonymous assistant blames it on “the kids these days.”

“He had tough guys that had a defensive identity, first of all. Like, this is a different era,” said the opposing assistant. “The top 10, top 15 guys in the country now … they play a lot of meaningless basketball where guys aren’t super competitive. They got a freshman class now full of guys that you never saw them guard. All you saw those dudes do is score, so you can’t expect them to do both all of a sudden at the snap of a finger.” 

The thorough article dove into the details, using specific plays to highlights mistakes, particularly on ball screen defense. Kentucky struggles to communicate, which the anonymous coach again blames on youth. However, there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

“In our game, I saw them compounding mistakes,” the second opposing assistant said. “What I saw the other night against Ole Miss was they still made some mistakes, but they played really, really hard and settled into more of a rotation, went with the guys who know it better, have more rhythm together, feed off each other better.

“Chemistry helps on defense, and I saw a group that played really hard and looked like they settled on Onyenso as the main center, which means now you can send guys to him and he’ll alter or block shots, and that’s going to help their defense too.”

Is Kentucky turning a corner on defense? Their ability to overcome mistakes will be tested against Auburn, who ranks ninth in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 16 points per game (83.1). Tip-off is set for Saturday evening at 6 pm EST on ESPN.

The Athletic: Can Kentucky basketball find any answers for its lackluster defense?