John Welch calls Tyler Ulis an "unbelievable resource" for Kentucky's point guards

As a point guard, who better to teach you the game of basketball than someone who did it at a higher level than almost every single one of his peers?

That’s the situation Kentucky’s floor generals currently find themselves in. The Wildcats’ trio of freshmen point guards — DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham, and Reed Sheppard — have looked like anything but newbies halfway through their first run in college basketball. While it hasn’t always looked beautiful, the early returns from all three have been generally positive. Wagner and Sheppard have both won SEC Freshmen of the Week twice already this season.

They have Tyler Ulis to thank for that.

Now in his second season at Kentucky as a student assistant coach, Ulis, who played two seasons at UK from 2014-16 and was named SEC Player of the Year as a sophomore, provides a wealth of basketball knowledge for the current batch of point guards. Although undersized at 5-foot-9, Ulis impacted the game on both ends of the floor in ways that feel nearly impossible for someone of his stature to execute.

Now, he’s sharing his past experiences with the next generation. The results speak for themselves.

“Basketball intellect,” Kentucky assistant coach John Welch said on Monday about what Ulis brings to the table. “I think he just sees the game and you can see how Coach (John) Calipari values his opinion. As a point guard, he’s played at the highest level, he’s played at Kentucky. What a huge resource, especially for a point guard.

“In practice, he focuses and works with the point guards and talks to them a lot during practice on what they should be seeing and feeling when they’re running the offense. Just an unbelievable resource, especially — a lot of times for the smaller guards, he knows exactly what they’re feeling. For Reed, DJ, Rob, I just think it’s a great resource for them.”

Welch, who has over 30 years of coaching experience at the college or NBA level, also has a deep history of working with point guards. Combine his background expertise with Ulis, and Calipari couldn’t ask for a better coaching duo to teach his lead guards the game of basketball.

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