Bruiser Flint says Justin Edwards is Kentucky's "Swiss Army knife"

It’s not a hot take to say that Justin Edwards has experienced an up-and-down freshman season at Kentucky. In fact, if you took a poll amongst the Big Blue Nation, they’d likely tell you it’s been more down than up.

Edwards hasn’t been “bad” by any means, but when you’re a five-star recruit heralded as a possible No. 1 NBA Draft pick, expectations are going to be slightly higher compared to the rest of your teammates. The 6-foot-7 wing is averaging 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game on 46.6 percent shooting through nine contests (all starts) for Kentucky this season. Again, not bad numbers, just not quite what fans were hoping for.

But Kentucky associate to the head coach, Bruiser Flint, someone who watches Edwards every single day in practice, has a different view of the freshman’s play so far.

“I think you guys look at Justin different than we do,” Flint said during Thursday’s press conference. “Especially me, this is from myself. I always tell him you’re a Swiss Army knife. You can do a little bit of everything. That doesn’t mean you have to score 20 (points). Your play is great and (so is) your versatility.

“We got on him about his defense, that was one of the things that we thought he was lacking. You should be a better defensive player, and he played better at Penn. Now he fouled, so he didn’t play as much. But I don’t look at Justin and say well he should be this type of scorer. When I look at Justin, I look at him go rebound, I look at him defend, he makes good passes, get out in transition. I look at his total box score and not just his points. I want to see him get rebounds, I want to see him get assists, I want to see him play good against the other team’s forward that we put him on, or guard that we put him on. It’s not necessarily his total points, I look at his box score in general.”

Edwards’ season-high is only 16 points, but he’s finished with double-figures in six of his nine games. He’s grabbed at least four rebounds in five games and at least two steals in three. His defense is steadily improving. In Kentucky’s win against Penn over the weekend, foul trouble limited him to a season-low 14 minutes, but he still found ways to make an impact on both ends of the floor.

There’s one play from the Penn game that stands out. After Aaron Bradshaw swatted a shot off the backboard, Edwards sprinted after the ball in the corner and slung it behind his back to Tre Mitchell, who quickly pushed the ball to DJ Wagner for a fastbreak. A few seconds later, Antonio Reeves drilled a wide-open three-pointer.

Aaron Bradshaw block leads to a transition three by Antonio Reeves. #BBN pic.twitter.com/a4ernxEOkV

— Chris Beasmore (@CBeasmoreSports) December 9, 2023

Should Edwards have been that risky with his pass in the first place? Probably not, but in this situation, it paid off. Coaches can teach a player about the timing of that kind of pass. It’s much harder to teach the effort that goes into making it happen.

“That’s what he’s good at,” Flint added. “Like I said, his versatility is what makes him good. Not necessarily how many points he scores or does he shoot the three or anything like that. I think when you look at his box score, he’s getting 10-12 points, 5-6 rebounds, 3-4 assists, and you see him play makes like diving on the floor, that’s what makes Justin who he is, and not just necessarily total points.”

We’ll have to slightly push back on Flint, considering Edwards hasn’t finished a game yet this season with more than two assists. He actually has more turnovers (9) than assists (8) on the year, but the rest remains true. Edwards has all the tools necessary to be an impactful player in every area. Fans would just like to see it on a more consistent basis.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.