Marquis Teague’s statline from UK’s 108-58 win over Marist: 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Not bad. But: 4 assists, 3 turnovers. John Calipari saw a regression in Teague’s running of the offense compared with the exhibition games.

Calipari said Teague went for “hero plays” against Marist, trying to create offense by himself (there was one stretch where Teague fell in love with juking his defender) and by forcing passes when he didn’t have to. Teague did plenty right in this game, but with UK about to face No. 13 Kansas, Calipari is focused on fixing what he did wrong (also, he’s a coach, and coaches always focus on what’s wrong). Let’s focus on that second part with two plays in which Teague made rash choices with the ball.

PLAY 1

Anthony Davis has pulled down a rebound and is moving in transition (which he can do, as there were multiple instances in which Davis went end-to-end handling the ball), but Teague is right there with him. Since Teague is the point guard, he naturally gets the ball and is in charge of it. Said Calipari after the Morehouse exhibition, “We’re flying, driving and moving. He has a lot of decisions to make when he has the ball. He has the ball 75 percent of the time.”

|

|

Teague comes down the court with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to his far left across the court, Davis trailing him and Darius Miller to his right. Off the screen, Doron Lamb is ahead of everyone.

|

|

|

|

|

Teague cuts toward the middle of the court, preventing him from seeing Miller open on the wing. Calipari wants his team to run wide in transition so they can get the ball and then attacked the basket at an angle. Miller would be in perfect position to do this. However, Teague sees another option, one further up the court. He’s off the screen, but Lamb is hanging around the baseline.

|

|

Teague launches the pass. At the far left of the screen, the fifth Marist defender — and the one who has just arrived back in place to defend Lamb. The problem with this pass: it’s too long and in the air, allowing for easy defense.

|

|

|

|

|

Interception. Marist defended in transition well on this play, but Teague still tried a pass that had a minimal chance of succeeding while simultaneously skipping an option that would have put a teammate (Miller) in a good chance to score. Shortly after this play, Calipari could be heard from across the court screaming, “easy plays!”

In the postgame press conference, Calipari said, “This game, he was trying to make hero plays to get ooh’s and ahh’s from the crowd.”

|

PLAY 2

Teague has often talked about knowing the difference between when to push it and when to pull it back. How does he tell the difference? When “all five defenders” are back on defense, Teague says, he wants to hold the ball and allow UK to set up its offense. On this play, it’s an in-between play. Four Marist player are back, and one is close. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis is on the move down the middle of the court heading for the basket. Teague faces a decision: Pull it back or try and hit Davis in motion.

|

|

|

Teague makes his decision: Go for Davis. However, Marist closes down quickly, as the interior player (the white guy) slides over and the perimeter player (at the top) dives toward Davis to help. The hole that was there is virtually gone. Davis does get his hands on the ball, but it’s not a clean look. Davis is swarmed by the two defenders. He’s not strong enough to power through players at this point. On this play, Marist strips the ball for him and gets out in transition.

|

|

So Teague played a game slightly worse than the one he played against Morehouse. It’s expected. Calipari has maintained that it will take time for him to fully grasp the point guard position and that he will make mistakes early in the season. In this game, Calipari said “he lost his mind a little bit” from the game being the first of the season and it being on television with 22,000 fans in the stands. “But I told him, hey, I’ve coached point guards before,” Calipari said. “And the ones that listen to me do fine. So listen to what I’m saying and stop arguing with me and do what I’m asking.”

Calipari sees the point guard position as being crucial to the upcoming game against No. 13 Kansas next Tuesday. “The biggest thing is, will we play the way you have to play for us to win. In other words, as a point guard, will you play the way you’ve played, or will you revert?”

Follow @KernelASmith

or email him at [email protected]