Watch the Tape: Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers

The Kentucky Wildcats, led by another dominate performance by Oscar Tshiebwe, came away with a second straight blowout victory over a lesser opponent. There was a clear lack of concentration early in the game, which was confirmed when you watch the tape, but the end result was still an 80-55 win over Mount St. Mary’s.

The ‘Cats will face a step up in competition on Friday night against Ohio. These last two games of The Kentucky Classic were important building blocks to gain some confidence, but we will learn how much improvement has been made Friday evening. The Wildcats cannot take a step backwards against the Bobcats.

There are some questions surrounding the lack of three-point attempts and inability to get to the foul line consistently. Those issues will be addressed in this edition of watch the tape. However, there are plenty of positives to highlight as well. Kentucky is running beautiful offense and taking what the defense gives them. Sahvir Wheeler and Oscar Tshiebwe are special. This team is also displaying a high ceiling defensively. Let’s watch the tape and breakdown Tuesday’s big win over Mount St. Mary’s.

Breaking Down the Offense

Kentucky is shooting 45.1% from three-point range and 81.5% from the free throw line. However, 17 attempts per game from beyond the arc and 9 attempts from the charity stripe per game aren’t enough. What is happening on the offensive end to keep the ‘Cats from getting more threes and free throws? That is why we watch the tape.

Mount St. Mary’s clearly made the decision to make Sahvir Wheeler and Oscar Tshiebwe beat them as opposed to allowing three-point attempts. That certainly is an understandable strategy, but those two are so good in the pick-and-roll that it didn’t work at all for the Mountaineers.

In the clip you can see that Kellan Grady’s defender gives zero help as Wheeler drives it left. Grady’s defender is even on the high side so he is ready to follow him out to the three-point line. Defensive strategies generally dictate shot attempts. Right now, opponents are taking away three-pointers and “allowing” drives to the basket. Luckily, Wheeler and company are good enough to simply take advantage of what is given to them.

Just like the first clip, you can see here how the Mountaineers simply are not leaving anyone on the perimeter. Neither guy guarding Kellan Grady or TyTy Washington are even looking at the ballscreen happening or helping at all. They are just sticking to their man. That is part of why you only get 10 three-point attempts up. However, it also leads to some easy pick-and-roll baskets for Wheeler and Tshiebwe.

To address some of the “issues,” this is what Kentucky needs to see more of. If opponents are going to take the Wildcats away from three, then they have to be able to drive and get to the foul line. You can’t get taken away from deep and not get to the foul line. Mount St. Mary’s doesn’t give any help to Brooks’ drive until Tshiebwe’s man right at the rim. He is the perfect candidate to step up and really take advantage of how opponents are guarding, but he must forgo the 15-foot face up jumpers for strong drives to the rim.

Transition Without Sahvir Wheeler

There are very few players in college basketball as electric in transition as Sahvir Wheeler. However, Kentucky needs to find ways to still be effective when Wheeler either isn’t in the game or doesn’t have the ball. There are enough skilled players on this team that sharing the ball should be a strength. Right now though, things aren’t looking that good in transition when anyone besides Wheeler has the ball.

This is a bad habit that Kentucky’s guards not named Sahvir Wheeler have developed so far this season. They are throwing the ball to the corner for no reason. When you hit the corner in transition the player receiving the pass either needs to be shooting a three or driving for a layup. Washington gets to the wing and kicks to Davion Mintz with no prospects of anything happening. It ends up stopping the ball and getting the offense out of their flow.

What Washington should have done here was slice the floor as he crossed half court to come to the left side and try to get Kellan Grady a three. Also, if he doesn’t do that, he would be better off just taking a retreat dribble at the wing and calling for Tshiebwe to run into a ballscreen. The pass to the corner is no good.

It isn’t fun having to get on Dontaie Allen even when he makes shots, but sometimes it just seems like he can’t get out of his own way. First off, this is an incredibly dangerous cross court pass by Bryce Hopkins. He needs to dribble that way to shorten the pass. However, it worked out in this scenario. The bigger issue though is that Allen isn’t running wide enough to the corner. When he is on the court he should constantly be thinking about shooting threes. So, as soon as the ball starts to come in transition he should be sprinting to the corner and hoping he gets the ball to let it fly. This is a great shot, especially after just air-balling one, but Allen simply has to get behind the arc and get three points.

Not to pick on Allen, but the same thing as the last clip happens here. TyTy Washington ends up turning it over, but it is still a learning opportunity to see when you watch the tape. Allen’s feet are never beyond the three-point arc here. If Washington hadn’t turned it over he would have had a perfect drift pass to Allen in the corner. As good of a shooter as Dontaie Allen is, Kentucky needs him to get more three-point attempts. Allen improving his routes in transition could easily get him one extra three-pointer per game.

To bring the last couple of clips full circle and show that it isn’t just nit-picking, here is what happens when players simply run to the correct spots. First of all, this is a big boy rebound by Keion Brooks. He was a beast on the defensive glass on Tuesday night. However, he also showed off how effective he can be as a driver. As Brooks gets the ball into the paint both Bryce Hopkins and Davion Mintz have their feet beyond the three-point line in their respective corners. That is a big reason as to why Brooks was able to get all the way to the rim.

High Defensive Ceiling

Under Coach Calipari, Kentucky hasn’t finished in the top 200 via KenPom in defensive turnover percentage since 2017. It just has never been a big calling card for his teams despite historically very good defenses. However, this season the Wildcats have the pieces to potentially get more steals which leads to some easy baskets on the offensive end. Right now, they are 202nd nationally in turnover percentage defense so they are right on the cusp of breaking through that Coach Cal ceiling.

It probably comes at no surprise that Sahvir Wheeler is one of the best in the country at creating steals. He was among the best at Georgia and that remains true through three games this season at Kentucky. This play you see above is a perfect example of what he brings to the table. Wheeler leaves his man to go take the ball off of a post player that isn’t very comfortable handling it and the steal leads to an easy layup on the other end. Creating scoring opportunities like this can make up for shooting less threes or not getting to the foul line as much as we would like.

TyTy Washington makes a similar play to Wheeler in this clip. This is a risky play as he leaves a very good shooter to stuff the gap, but sometimes high risk, high reward is the way to go. Washington does a great job of just committing to trying to get the steal. When you play this type of defense you have to either get the steal or commit a foul so as not to give up the wide open three-point attempt. If Kentucky’s guards can consistently create some turnovers like this that lead to layups Coach Calipari will be more willing to give some rope for “risky” defense.

This is another example of Sahvir Wheeler just going and making a play. He reads the pass to the high post well and is there on the catch to pressure the big man and get him to turn it over. This is the type of play that requires excellent basketball instincts and can end up winning a game at some point in the season. At the other end Wheeler gets a layup as Davion Mintz occupies the help defense in the corner. Just good all-around basketball.

Some Mid-Range Shots are Good

Not all mid-range jump shots are created equal. The contested face-up jumpers from Keion Brooks need to turn into right hand drives. Davion Mintz and TyTy Washington both take some contested ones early in the shot clock. Sahvir Wheeler should really never shoot from mid-range period. However, there are some instances when a mid-range shot is a good shot.

In this first clip from early in the game, Kentucky runs their “floppy” action. Washington straight cuts to the win and then feeds the post to Keion Brooks just off of the block. Once Brooks gets the ball he quickly hands it back off to Washington who is wide open at the elbow because his man got stuck going underneath the handoff. This is a great shot off of good offense that Washington needs to take every single time.

It probably isn’t fair to expect Oscar Tshiebwe to shoot it as well as he did Tuesday night. However, getting him to take, and make, a couple of these each game will help open things up for the Wildcats offensively. With Daimion Collins on the low block Tshiebwe cuts his roll short around the free throw line. From there, his defender still closes out short which gives Tshiebwe an open 18-foot jump shot. For his career he isn’t a bad free throw shooter so it stands to reason that this is a shot he can make. Also, more importantly, this will open up his ability to shot fake and drive it to his right for a dunk.