Cats turn focus to offensive tune-ups
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Here's the scary thing about the top-ranked University of Kentucky basketball team: its offense isn't overly impressive and the Wildcats are still walloping everyone, including now three ranked teams.
Kentucky (8-0) was outrebounded 42-31, shot 37.5 percent and hit just 1 of 12 3-pointers on Friday night against Texas — and beat the No. 6 team in the country by a dozen. That's because the Cats held the Longhorns to 29.8 percent shooting and forced 22 turnovers.
"If we can figure out offensively what we have to do …" coach John Calipari said, not needing to complete that thought. "And that's on me. That's not on these kids. We're still at about 50, 60 percent of where we need to be offensively."
Starting guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison combined to make just 3 of 17 shots against Texas, and Aaron has been stuck in a slump all season so far. He has hit only 33.8 percent of his shots and 8 of 36 from 3-point range. The good news: he started slow last season, too, and everyone knows how that turned out.
He and the Wildcats will try to get going offensively tonight at home against Eastern Kentucky (4-2). After a heavyweight fight against similarly sized Texas, UK will be back to towering over the Colonels, but the visitors do rank second in the country in steals.
"I've got to really do a better job of evaluating how we're playing, if it's the right way," Calipari said Friday. "I've got to look at the shots we had. When we missed these (11) threes, were they good 3s that we just missed or were they bad shots? But the greatest thing: It's December whatever it is and our team is not nearly what it can be. We're just not."
While Kentucky ranks third nationally in advanced statistics guru Ken Pomeroy's adjusted offensive efficiency — or points per 100 possessions — the Cats rank 106th in effective field-goal percentage. Of UK's 222 made shots this season, 113 are dunks or layups and only 44 have been two-point jumpers.
"If you want to be a world-class team, you're not going to do it just on one end," Calipari said. "Both your offense has to be good and your defense has to be good."
The Cats have one half of that equation down cold.
Against three ranked opponents — Texas, then-No. 5 Kansas and then-No. 25 Providence — Kentucky has held them to a combined 36-of-142 shooting (25.3 percent), 10 of 47 from three (21.2 percent), and forced 51 turnovers (17 per game). The Cats beat those three by a combined 64 points.
MORE: Cats hand Longhorns first loss
MORE: Game Rewind | Cauley-Stein, UK knock off Texas
Add a more potent offense to that mix and "it'll be crazy," center Dakari Johnson said.
"As great as we are defensively right now, we still haven't even touched our offense," he said. "That's the main thing: we're not even playing to our full potential yet."
Kentucky leads the nation in blocked shots and adjusted defensive efficiency, having surrendered just 45.4 points per game and allowing only three opponents to shoot better than 30 percent. The Cats have given up fewer than 30 points in 12 of 16 halves this season.
"You can say whatever you want about the stats," Johnson said, "but we have a lot of warriors on this team that are just willing to fight and give it their best effort."
A towering and talented Kentucky team that plays with such an edge on defense is scary enough for anyone trying to beat these Cats. That there's still so much room to grow offensively and so many months left in which to do it should be downright terrifying.
Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.