Kentucky has versatility in the backcourt and frontcourt now

As Saturday’s win at Alabama showed us, one of Kentucky’s strengths is its ability to win in a variety of ways. That starts in the backcourt. Between Sahvir Wheeler, TyTy Washington, and Davion Mintz, the Cats have three very different guards that can all run point, which allows the team to switch things up as needed. This morning, Jai Lucas said having that kind of versatility in the backcourt is a blessing.

“They can all play together. I think that’s the best luxury, that they complement each other. Davion, the way he’s been shooting the ball the last couple of games. TyTy, his ability to score, and Sahvir being able to find people. It’s a great luxury. If you look at teams that have won big the last couple of years, they’ve played multiple point guards. That’s kind of where the game is and where basketball is going lately.

“They all do something different so it guys us different packages we can run depending on who’s at point guard. It’s something that we’re happy about, that we have, and that we can go to.”

“Now we have different ways we can utilize our big men”

In Tuscaloosa, Kentucky showed off a part of its offense we haven’t seen much this season: the lob. Sensing a weakness in the Crimson Tide, John Calipari called upon his guards to throw it up to 6’9″ freshman pogo stick Daimion Collins, which they did to much success. Collins finished with 10 points in the 66-55 win, by far his best game as a Cat.

“That’s something Coach has always taught and that’s something that he’s generally had with the big guys he’s been with before,” Lucas said of the lob. “It’s something that he teaches from Day 1. He’s a big advocate of the lob pass so we’ve been working on that since June and July. This was the first game, where [we used it]. The good thing about us is we have the ability to go to a bunch of different things. We’ve never really shown the lob threat or had to do it but because of the way we played, Coach talked about it at shootaround, that he was going to play Daimion because of this. And it happened to work out that way.”

Following Collins’ breakthrough performance, Kentucky’s guards are enjoying having three versatile options in the frontcourt between him, Oscar Tshiebwe, and Lance Ware.

“If Oscar’s not having a really good night like we all know he can, we can go to Lance or Daimion now,” TyTy Washington said Saturday. “With Lance, he’s going to be physical. He’s very smart with the ball in his hands so he can find and create shots for anybody. With Daimion, stick him by the rim. Worst case, just throw it as high as you can and he’s either going to catch it, get fouled, dunk it, or come down and lay it up.

“So now we have different ways we can utilize our big men. We’ve got one dominant force. We’ve got a smart one with the IQ. And then we’ve got a tall, lanky kid who can jump, so you really don’t know how to guard all three of those.”

Versatility in the frontcourt and the backcourt. I like my team.