Jordan Burks and Adou Thiero play big roles for Kentucky

A limited roster has Kentucky Basketball playing small until its three seven-footers are available to participate. Associate head coach Orlando Antigua called them Kentucky’s “21 feet” during Tuesday’s press conference, referring to injured centers Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso and newcomer Zvonimir Ivisic, who awaits clearance from the NCAA.

In the meantime, Tre Mitchell is the only Wildcat taller than six feet, eight inches on the roster, so the stretch-forward transfer from West Virginia is the closest thing to a big man. At 6-9, Mitchell plays more of a face-up game with the ability to extend the defense rather than doing his work through and over opposing size and length inside.

Still, Mitchell was outstanding in the preseason exhibition against Georgetown, going 9-for-12 from the field for 22 points and nine rebounds. Both were game-highs for either team last Friday night, leading Coach O to rave about Mitchell on Tuesday.

Antigua said, “”He’s got so many layers to his game. You guys are just getting a chance to see a little of that.”

READ MORE: “He’s a Connector”: How Tre Mitchell is filling Kentucky’s 21-foot void

Jordan Burks and Adou Thiero playing big

When Mitchell needs a rest or finds himself in foul trouble, Kentucky will first turn to freshman Jordan Burks at the five. Listed as a guard on Kentucky’s official roster, Burks is the emergency backup center at six feet, eight inches tall.

Against Georgetown College in the team’s first preseason exhibition game, Burks was asked to play bigger while the Wildcats lack size in the interior. He responded with six rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, and three of the six were offensive rebounds that led to second-chance shots.

On Tuesday, Antigua said of Kentucky’s versatile freshman, “We’re absolutely loving everything that Jordan has given us. He’s doing yeoman’s work and learning a position that he hadn’t really played a lot of, and it’s just adding value to him and what he does for us.

“His energy, his motor, his length. He’s another guy that can go out and block shots, chase down rebounds, chase down shots. So all those things are a plus for us, and he gives us a certain spark when he’s on the court.”

When Burks plays big without Mitchell, it likely moves fellow 6-foot-8 guard Adou Theiro to the four. Or, in some cases, even freshman Justin Edwards, the 200-pound freshman wing.

“Now you become really fast and really dangerous,” Antigua said of the small-ball lineups.

However, there is the emergency to the emergency scenario in which Kentucky has neither Mitchell nor Burks for short periods. In that case, Antigua says Kentucky would turn to Thiero to anchor its defense and the five-out offense.

“Even if Adou had to play some five,” he said. “Now, OK, it becomes a different kind of game for people to have to deal with it.”

Adou at the 5?!

Adou Thiero’s offseason transformation was a popular topic around Kentucky’s trip to Canada back in the summer. At the time, Thiero had grown three inches and added over 35 pounds since his freshman orientiation, plus an increase of nearly five inches to his vertical.

“Adou is still growing, man,” Antigua said on Tuesday. “It’s scary to think that he’s still growing. He’s still shaping his body into, you know, he’s been blessed with some genetic genes that none of us had anything to do with. He just has to work it and he’s been doing it.

“We’re going to be asking a lot of him as someone now that has to step up and play multiple positions, a guy that can play, honestly, one through five if you needed him to.”