Despite the loss, Adou Thiero shined with first career double-double
Adou Thiero had his hands full against the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks, but the sophomore wing gave it everything he had in Kentucky’s 89-84 loss on Tuesday night. Thiero posted his first career double-double (and the first by any UK player so far this season) in the Champions Classic, finishing with 16 points and 13 rebounds — also career-highs — on 5-10 shooting. He was flushing home putback dunks and flinging his entire 6-foot-8 frame into the air for rebounds.
“I thought Adou was terrific because he just played with great energy,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said during his postgame radio session, adding that Thiero is still basically a freshman at 19 years old with such limited playing time under his belt.
It wasn’t a perfect outing by any means by Thiero, but one that proves you don’t have to be a five-star recruit to make an impact at Kentucky. He signed with the Wildcats late as a three-star prospect in 2022 with the thought process being he could blossom into something special later in his career. After averaging just 9.5 minutes per game as a freshman, it only took a couple of games as a sophomore for that breakout to happen.
Remember that Thiero’s status against Kansas was still uncertain heading into Tuesday night after he entered concussion protocol following Kentucky’s season-opener. The sense was he’d give it a go despite missing the Wildcats’ last game against Texas A&M-Commerce, but how much of an impact would he be able to make? Turns out, a critical one. Kentucky likely doesn’t have a chance to win down the stretch if not for Thiero’s constant effort. But he was also smart with how he exerted that energy.
“He fought. He played hard,” Calipari said of Thiero. “He subbed himself. I had one guy that refused to sub himself and missed three shots and turned the ball over. You’re exhausted, come out, it’s not high school. (Thiero) subbed himself. He subbed himself three or four times. To play the way we’re trying to play, to play fast and random, you have to be in great shape and the second thing is you’ve got to sub yourself when you feel winded.
“But he played. Played above the rim, went and got balls, was physical. It was good.”
Thiero closed his career night with another personal best: 31 minutes played. He even shot 5-6 from the charity stripe, which set a career-high for made free throws in a game and tied his number of attempts. Six of his 13 rebounds came on the offensive glass. He put pressure on the Kansas defense with confident drives to the rim and fought for every loose ball. Kentucky came into this matchup undersized, but Thiero’s activity on both ends of the floor helped make up for that, even if the end result wasn’t what he wanted.
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“It feels good to have this type of performance but when you don’t walk away with the ‘W’, it doesn’t really feel the same,” Theiro said.
If there was one knock on Thiero’s game, it would be a single number in the box score: a team-worst -26 in the individual plus/minus department. But Calipari isn’t reading too much into that, explaining afterward that although he was shocked by that number too, it was a result of Kentucky’s poor overall start and another poor stretch in the second half, not necessarily anything Thiero did or didn’t do.
One thing is for sure though, Kentucky has a “dog” in Thiero. He battled until the very end in a tough situation. He even made a three-pointer in the first half, aided by some help from a friendly bounce on the rim. Kansas dared him to shoot and he still found ways to get himself in favorable scoring positions.
If Kentucky can get that Adou Thiero on a regular basis this season, opposing teams will have a hard time matching his energy and effort for a full game.
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