John Calipari praises progress of Adou Thiero, Ugonna Onyenso: "Both of them are way better"

Only three rotational players from last season’s Kentucky men’s basketball roster are back for another year with the Wildcats. One of them is veteran sharpshooting guard Antonio Reeves — a critical returning piece for head coach John Calipari who will provide the ‘Cats with much-needed experience and high-level scoring.

The other two players coming back to Lexington, however, saw very limited roles as freshmen in 2022-23. Rising sophomores Adou Thiero and Ugonna Onyenso appeared in just 20 and 16 games, respectively, last season. Neither averaged more than 10 minutes per contest, either. Thiero, a tweener guard, averaged 2.3 points and 1.9 rebounds on 34.5 percent shooting while Onyenso, a seven-foot shot-blocking center, averaged 2.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks on 52.9 percent shooting.

But looking ahead to ’23-24, next season’s roster is going to be loaded with new faces — seven freshmen and one graduate transfer.

Granted, five of those freshmen come to Kentucky as lauded five- and four-star high school recruits while the lone transfer, Tre Mitchell, figures to plug right into the starting lineup from day one. However, Thiero and Onyenso flashed enough potential in small spurts to warrant some hype from fans surrounding their second year of college basketball. But that hype can only come to fruition if they put in the work behind the scenes.

So far this offseason, both ‘Cats are apparently improving at a significant rate.

“Both of them are way better,” Calipari said during Friday’s press conference. “They (ESPN) have Ugonna projected in the first round (of the 2024 NBA Draft). I didn’t project him in the first round but he’s projected in the first round. I said who was watching us practice? Because he’s gotten better.

“You have Adou, who’s looking more and more physically like his dad (Almamy Thiero), who I coached. He’s probably near 6-7 now and he can play multiple positions — probably a 3 and a 4. But he’s way more confident, so yes he’s better. He’s living in the gym. He learned from a year ago you have to spend time at this. Doesn’t just happen, it’s not just games, it’s about the preparation. So he’s been great.”

In particular, talk of Thiero’s offseason development has already been well-documented over the last few weeks. He’s pushing a 46-inch vertical and has been starting his workouts early in the morning. As Calipari mentioned, he says that Thiero, who hasn’t stopped growing since arriving on campus last summer at 6-foot-4, is now closer to 6-foot-7. He’s clearly been taking the weight room more seriously, as well.

May 2022-June 2023 , you are almost cut like Daddy 😂 @Adou_Thiero pic.twitter.com/YXlfjHQ5t0

— Almamy Thiero (@ThieroAlmamy) June 30, 2023

With so many new faces on the roster and Kentucky set to play real basketball games in less than two weeks, breakouts from Thiero and Onyenso would be welcome sights for the overall depth and talent of this season’s squad.