John Calipari says Kentucky has the personnel to space the floor

Through two mid-summer exhibition games, Kentucky looks like a team ready to go all-in on modern basketball. Shot charts from the Wildcats’ first two contests at the GLOBL Jam Tournament in Toronto, Canada highlight an offense that is keeping up with the times: more layups and three-pointers with fewer mid-range jump shots.

Kentucky has attempted a combined 57 shots from deep during this international trip, connecting on 20 of them for a solid percentage of 35.1. They’ve also made over 51 percent on all two-pointers. Only 11 out of UK’s 146 shots so far have been taken from outside the paint but in between the three-point line — a significantly low figure.

Compared to the last two seasons, this is a clear change in approach for head coach John Calipari. That’s not to say Kentucky hasn’t been efficient on offense the last two seasons — the numbers say they most certainly were — but there is no denying that those teams were not adept at playing a more modern style of basketball. Oscar Tshiebwe, surrounded by multiple non-shooters, was the offensive hub.

But with this year’s group of Wildcats, Calipari has crafted a roster that is built to spread the floor. He’s tapping into the schemes he ran with for most of his coaching career but just didn’t have the personnel for lately. Only this team is shooting a ton of triples.

The results have been positive. Kentucky is 2-0 so far up north and routed a solid Canadian team in game two on Thursday.

“The thing that we have, we have really good basketball players. They’re basketball players,” Calipari said following Thursday’s victory. “And so we’ve got five guys on the floor at all times that can pass and shoot and drive and make decisions. It’s my old way of playing, which is give them space and space the court and fly. Which is probably most of my career, 90 percent of my career. Coaching that way. But you’ve got to have a bunch of guys that can play basketball.”

I’ve been talking a lot about shot charts the last two days. Here are shot charts from Kentucky’s losses to Michigan State, UCLA, and Georgia last season. The last one is a shot chart from yesterday’s win vs. Germany. pic.twitter.com/LyBtIUeeID

— Shawn Smith (@gbbcountry) July 14, 2023

Calipari undoubtedly does have “basketball players” on his team this year. It’s no shot at what Kentucky has trotted out the last couple of years, more so an acknowledgment that this squad can do a little bit of everything at a high level. Every player that has stepped on the court this week can be relied upon to make an outside shot, particularly the non-guards.

“We had 30 (three-point attempts) today, we made 11, which is about 33, 34 percent,” Calipari said. “You coach your team to who they are. If you’ve got a bunch of really good three-point shooters then you shoot more threes. If you don’t — you don’t like to go three for 30, because you cannot win. So it depends on your team.

“This team, a little bit inconsistent, but I’ve seen them all make threes. Including Tre (Mitchell). Even Adou (Thiero) has missed some, but he can make threes in the flow. Jordan (Burks) can make threes and so can all those other guys. So yeah this may be a team we shoot more threes. It all depends on your team.“

For many fans, that response will be a breath of fresh air. Calipari is getting back to the methods that helped him bring so much success in the first decade of his career at UK, but is adding the layer of more outside shots. Part of that reasoning is having so many capable guards that can pull it off.

“The best teams I’ve coached have had three and four ‘point guards’,” Calipari added. “Adou played point guard in high school, but he was 6-2, 6-1. Then he grew to 6-5 and then he’s now 6-7. His dad is 6-9, probably still growing. But now that means you could have Reed (Sheppard), DJ (Wagner), Robert (Dillingham), and Adou — you’ve got four point guards. Well, what happens? You get 27 assists and you get nine turnovers. When you have guys that aren’t skilled that way and you’re playing, it’s a different game. You’ve got to try to create shots and all that. You don’t have to on this kind of team.”

It’s important to keep in mind that Kentucky is also without its two seven-footers, Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso, who are currently sidelined with injuries. Bradshaw showed the ability to step beyond the arc in high school, but it’s yet to be seen how effective he can at this level. Onyenso is a rim protector and rim-runner, not a stretch big man.

Calipari has said in the past he would like to play both seven-footers at the same time this season. That would obviously mess with the spacing that comes with having three or four guards on the floor plus a big man who can shoot, much like Tre Mitchell has shown in Canada. But that was long before new assistant John Welch was brought into the fold, who comes from an NBA background and is known for being an Xs and Os coach.

If Calipari actually intends on shooting upwards of 25 three-pointers per game this coming season, he has the personnel on his bench to make that happen.

Watch the latest John Calipari press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.