Notes and takeaways from Monday's John Calipari Show

On Wednesday night, Kentucky men’s basketball will look to get back on track with a Quad 1 opportunity on the road against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs will bring a five-game winning streak into the contest as they look to help put an end to the Wildcats’ postseason chances. To preview the matchup in Starkville, Kentucky head coach John Calipari talked about what lies ahead during his weekly radio call-in show on Monday night.

Calipari got the ball rolling by talking about Sunday’s Super Bowl and how the players all watched it together. There’s been an added emphasis lately on finishing off the final four minutes of games and playing with a “nothing to lose” mentality. Former UK head coach Tubby Smith also called into the show near the end to talk about this weekend’s honoring of the ’96, ’97, and ’98 Kentucky teams that won two national titles and were runner-ups in the other.

What else did Calipari have to say on Monday night? Let’s dive right in.

Calipari compares his team to 2021-22 North Carolina

Calipari began the show by referring back to what happened last season with the North Carolina Tarheels, a team that was in a similar position to this year’s Kentucky squad before making a surprise run to the national championship. UNC fell to Kansas in the title but was 18-8 with five games to go (UK is 16-9 with six games left) in the 2021-22 regular season before rattling off five straight victories heading into the ACC Tournament.

Now, the Tarheels were dealing with the trials and tribulations of having a first-year head coach in Hubert Davis, but that group was still able to figure it out down the stretch and turn its season around. Could the same happen for Kentucky with a Hall of Famer leading the charge?

“North Carolina was in the same position we’re in with five games to go,” Calipari said. “North Carolina went on a little mini-run at the end. With five games to go they were done. We don’t have to win every game out. But we got to win a bunch of these.”

Kentucky has four more Quad 1 opportunities left on the schedule and one more Quad 2 game on the road — plenty of chances to beef up the resume.

Fredrick and Wheeler did not practice on Monday

The status of two key backcourt players, CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler, is still up in the air as we’re roughly 48 hours until tipoff. Fredrick, who just can’t seem to catch a break with his health, is dealing with a cracked rib that he suffered against Florida last weekend. He stayed in that game despite falling hard on a cameraman and then played through the injury in the loss to Arkansas last Tuesday.

However, Fredrick was ultimately ruled out ahead of Saturday’s loss to Georgia after clearly playing at less than 100 percent. As for Wheeler, the senior point guard has missed the last two games for Kentucky with a minor ankle injury that he initially suffered during practice over a week ago.

Calipari said that neither player practiced on Monday and that the team will wait until Tuesday’s practice before determining their final status for Wednesday in Starkville.

“They didn’t practice today. So you know we’ll see tomorrow,” Calipari said.

If those two aren’t able to go on Wednesday, that will once again put pressure on the likes of Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeeves, and even Adou Thiero to pick up the slack. Against Georgia, Reeves played all 40 minutes, which Calipari said was too much. Wallace settled on 28 minutes, but mostly due to foul injury and a brief flare-up with his nagging back spasms. Thiero’s 16 minutes were too much for him in that kind of road environment too, Calipari added.

So who gets the minutes at guard? Maybe none. Calipari pitched the idea of rolling with just one guard in the lineup while playing senior forward Jacob Toppin at the “3”, which would create a bigger-than-usual lineup for the ‘Cats and likely elicit more playing time for the frontcourt players usually sitting on the bench.

Which brings us to the next point…

More minutes for Lance, Ugonna, and Daimion?

We’ve heard it several times already this season, and Calipari brought it up once again: he wants to feed more minutes to the likes of Lance Ware, Daimion Collins, and Ugonna Onyenso. If Fredrick and Wheeler are unavailable for Wednesday, it’s likely a couple (or all) of those bigs get some more run. Calipari mentioned Ware and Onyenso by name as two he wants to get on the court more, pointing to Ware’s toughness and leadership as reasons why he could help the ‘Cats.

“We got to play Lance and I’ll tell you why. Lance will mix it up. He’ll mix it up,” Calipari said. “The other guy that I’ve got to put in the game is Ugonna. He’s the one guy that has not had the chance to be in there, and he’s the greatest kid.”

As for Collins, Calipari says the sophomore big man should play more moving forward, too, but mostly at the “5” where he can play center, run the floor with more space, and protect the rim. But Calipari also mentioned that someone will have to see their minutes shrink in order to make it happen. That player might just happen to be the reigning national player of the year, Oscar Tshiebwe, who has struggled over the last few weeks.

“So we could throw it at the basket and do some stuff. And that means play Oscar less minutes,” Calipari said.

Over the last seven games (in which Kentucky is 4-3), Tshiebwe has averaged 12.1 points and 12.3 rebounds but on 47.7 percent shooting from the field. In the 16 games prior, he averaged 17.3 points and 13.8 rebounds on 58.0 percent overall shooting.

Cal’s thoughts on Mississippi State

Calipari also gave his thoughts on what Mississippi State will bring to the hardwood when Kentucky comes to town. He’s high on what first-year head coach Chris Jans has done with the Bulldogs so far, highlighting the team’s current five-game winning streak. Mississippi State plays mostly man-to-man but will mix in some zone defense every now and then.

“They’re physical. They’re big. They are a team that will offensive rebound. They post it a ton. They’ll fly up and down the court if they have an opportunity and run into highball screens and stuff like that,” Calipari said. “But the stuff I watched today, 90 percent is man-to-man. They’ll play a little 2-3 (zone), they’ll mess around with a little bit of a press, but defensively they’re up on your guards. So they’ll space the court and you’ll have a spread floor. Yet they collapse if you try to drive.”

Another thing Calipari brought up — not related to Mississippi State — was opponent free-throw shooting as a whole. Opposing teams are shooting an unusually high clip against the ‘Cats at 76.6 percent for the entire season, which ranks 352 out of 363 in the entire country. That number has soared to 81.2 percent through 12 SEC games, which ranks dead-last in the conference.

In fact, over Kentucky’s last seven games, opponents have shot a combined 104-118 from the line, or an eye-popping 88.1 percent — an unsustainable trend that has to turn in the Wildcats’ favor eventually. Hopefully it does on Wednesday against a Mississippi State team shooting just 62.4 percent from the charity stripe, which ranks 357th in the country.