Lance Ware's time in the (boxing) gym is paying off in year two

How about Lance? has become another classic Cal-ism in a long line of the Kentucky head coach’s cliche go-to phrases. Only this one has become universally adored by the Big Blue Nation.

Kentucky’s 6-foot-9 sophomore forward, Lance Ware, has quickly become a fan-favorite on a Wildcat roster loaded with them. But he’s not grabbing 28 rebounds in a single game, or dishing out 17 assists, or regularly scoring in double-figures. He’s the replacement for Oscar Tshiebwe off the bench and averaging just 2.1 points in 7.1 minutes per game. His role is one that has to be bought into.

Ware is making his impact felt as the team’s “enforcer” — someone who is more than willing to do the dirty work, sacrificing individual numbers for the betterment of the team. So far, he’s played that role perfectly.

“Every roster needs a player that comes in and plays his role and plays it very well,” Kentucky’s associate to the head coach Bruiser Flint said during Monday’s pre-Tennessee press conference. “If you’re going to be a really good team, everybody needs that and (Ware) does that. The thing about Lance is he’s been working extremely hard and he’s gotten better. He’s playing with a lot more confidence, he’s finishing plays, he’s catching balls. Those are the types of things he’s struggled with at times, even last year.

“But even this year I think his time in the gym has really paid off, his confidence in terms of stepping on the floor. One thing about him, he’s one of our smarter players. He has an understanding of what we’re doing and what we’re looking for. I think the biggest thing for him is he’s put his time in and it’s starting to pay off for him. But every team needs a guy like that who’s gonna come in and play his role, especially if you wanna be really good.”

Part of that role is playing as the unspoken enforcer. Ware did just that in Kentucky’s most recent game against Florida as he had to be separated by UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua during a minor kerfuffle with a Gator player right in front of the Wildcat bench. Ware joked it off, though, letting “cooler heads prevail”, as Coach Flint said.

“Stuff happens, but the main goal is to play basketball,” Ware said on Monday of the second-half incident against UF. “If we wanted to be boxers then we’d go box and MMA and all that stuff, which I did work on in the offseason, I did take a few boxing classes just in case.”

Just in case of what, you might ask?

“Just in case anything happens and I have to be prepared. Proper preparation.”

Ultimately, nothing did happen on the sidelines, but Ware would have been prepared had things escalated. Not to say he would have instigated the issue further, but that he would be ready to have his teammates back no matter what happens next. He knows when is the right time and when it’s not.

“Lance was dialed in, he was ready to go,” Coach Flint said. “He wasn’t gonna let this affect him or, to the point, he wasn’t gonna let it escalate. He wasn’t gonna jump back in the guy’s face so somebody comes off the bench and gets suspended or something like that. Cooler heads prevail. The kid bumped him, the coaches jumped up, it was right in front of our bench so guys jumped up and broke it up and that’s what he did, he just walked away.”

Lance Ware took up boxing over the summer, doing 8-9 classes. "My left jab is pretty decent…I've got a pretty good guard. I know how to move a little bit."

— Tyler Thompson (@MrsTylerKSR) February 14, 2022

Ware is still limited on offense as a non-shooter, but as Coach Flint said, he’s been able to combat that with improved finishing this season. Defense and rebounding are where he makes the most significant impact. He credits his improvement in those areas to the eight or nine boxing classes he took over the summer.

Not through physicality, but through agility.

Ware says the exhaustion he felt from boxing classes was something he’s never felt before. Muscles he’s never worked were sorer than they’ve ever been the next morning. Boxing was a way to prevent himself from getting burnt out on basketball workouts. But most importantly, what boxing did do was force him to work on his foot speed, which has clearly paid off on the hardwood this season.

“That was definitely one of the main reasons why I took some of those classes,” Ware said. “Boxing is great for your foot speed, you do movements that you haven’t used playing basketball. You’re using muscles that you haven’t used. It’s just an all-around great workout. When you play basketball long enough that you have something else to do workout-wise, something different to change up your routine and something fun while still getting better. So foot speed, agility, stuff like that, definitely helped. I think the first three times I went to the class, the next morning I was super super sore like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”

The improvements he’s seen from boxing are translating to basketball. Ware is incredibly adept at defending the pick-and-roll along with using his feet to establish better rebounding position. Boxing has helped instill a warrior-like mindset in him, as well. Ware wants to fight, he wants to battle, he wants to muck up the action and break up the other team’s rhythm. It’s a mentality he brings to every practice and even more so to the games.

“I’ll be honest with you he plays the same way in practice as he does in the game,” Coach Flint said of Ware. “He does the same thing in practice. He’s a hard-nosed, hard-playing kid, that’s the bottom line. I don’t think it’s much difference in practice. He’s a great kid off the floor and we have a lot of fun because we’re from the same area so we’ll talk about a lot of the same thing. But he battles in practice. He brings that same toughness to practice and plays the same way in practice. It’s no different when he gets out there in the game.”

Kentucky needs Ware to help boost its ceiling heading into March. His stats don’t even remotely tell the story of his overall impact. When Oscar Tshiebwe has to sit for whatever reason, UK feels comfortable knowing that Ware can come in for 5-10 minutes and bring a level of production that keeps his team in a groove. That is what makes a championship-level unit.

How about Lance? indeed.