UK offense closes the regular season in a rut
March 11, 2014
By Nick Gray | UK basketball beat writer
In theory, the dribble-drive offense featured by head coach John Calipari is supposed to produce points in the paint and open 3-point shots.
UK has gotten a glut of each in the last four games, yet the Cats are shooting 34.6 percent from the floor in that time span.
Calipari summed up the offense in the last two weeks during his teleconference Monday.
“You can’t start the game shooting 3’s and then you can’t on drives think you’re going to get bailed out with fouls,” Calipari said.
Freshman guard James Young has been the poster child of the struggles from the perimeter. Young shot 1-of-11 from the field, and 1-of-10 on 3-point attempts in UK’s win over the University of Alabama last week. He was 3-of-4 against the University of Florida.
The rest of his teammates have shied away from a reliance of outside shooting. The only other UK player who averages more than three 3-point attempts per game is freshman guard Aaron Harrison, who shoots 30 percent.
Calipari said that UK needs to be more assertive, both in confidence and in its perimeter shooting.
“You have to shoot it. You have to be confident. You don’t have to shoot a three,” he said. “You don’t even have to bounce it. Just don’t stand out wide.”
Calipari said the Cats’ offense has complicated things that should be easy.
“The great ones make a two-on-one look simple,” he said after Saturday’s game. “We kind of make those look harder.”
Another issue for the UK offense is its ability to score against multiple defenders inside. The difference showed in the Florida game, where UK went 8-of-23 from the field in the first half and dug a 21-point halftime deficit.
The Cats followed with a 15-of-28 shooting second half from the field, with a flurry of points coming from freshman forward Julius Randle (10 points in the second half).
“We saw that we kind of had the advantage inside, and that’s what we started to go to,” Randle said.
Consistency is the key, Calipari said, and it has hurt throughout the year when UK has faltered in crunch time.
“We’ve got to share the ball and create good shots for each other,” Calipari said. “I said it – We got the (Florida) game to six and took two of the worst shots with people open.”