Bruiser Flint on Kentucky's Slower Start: 'Cal Warned You'
Longtime John Calipari assistant Bruiser Flint is looking at Kentucky's 2022-23 season with that same glass half-full mentality that the rest of the program has leaned on through the first three weeks of the year.
"It's okay, 4-2, we've got some things to work on...it's early," Flint said when speaking to reporters on Monday. "Just got to work on 'em."
Easier said than done, but those things that need to be worked on stem from a similar issue that Calipari notified Big Blue Nation of before the season even began.
"Let me explain to you, and you know i'm honest about this stuff...we're not where we need to be right now, and i'm looking at November and December saying, 'we could be a little shaky,'" the Hall of Famer said in a Twitter video on Nov. 1. "What we're building to and what we're doing every day, these guys are giving everything. I love the pieces and I love the teammates. But, what we have to do to win at the highest level is gonna take us a little time."
While that might not've been what BBN was looking to hear in the lead-up to the regular season, that message has held true so far, encapsulated by the Wildcats' losses to Michigan State and Gonzaga.
"Cal warned you," Flint noted. "Because one of the biggest things he saw from not having guys out there was 'we don't have the people out here that we've been having,' and your practice is a little different. That's why he said what he said about 'hey, it's gonna take us some time, we're not the same team now that we're going to be down the road.'"
Oscar Tshiebwe missed four weeks due to a knee procedure. Sahvir Wheeler suffered a knock in a preseason exhibition that kept him out for a short stint. Daimion Collins had to leave the team for a bit due to the sudden passing of his father. Before the season-opener against Howard on Nov. 7, it already felt like Kentucky was on the ropes.
Fast forward to now, and all three of those players have returned and appear to be at full strength. That doesn't mean the immediate results were positive, however.
Tshiebwe and Collins made their debuts in the Champions Classic against MSU, but the team synergy was clearly off. That was exemplified in a big way when Gonzaga shellacked the Cats 88-72 inside Spokane Arena, as Tshiebwe even said post-game that the team weren't running the plays that were being called by Calipari on the bench.
"We weren't together, and that comes through practice," Flint said. "We knew we needed to get that time, get those reps in with each other, check out different combinations on the floor, because that's what you lose when guys aren't there ... if you don't practice them, that's why you look the way you look sometimes. We had to get back to that this week."
The loss of players early in the year heavily slowed that team connection that grows over the course of the season. From the get-go, the Cats were behind, having to play catch-up to try and meet those lofty expectations that remain the same from November all the way to March.
"Our biggest thing is to get everybody together, get everybody on the same page. We had a lot of guys miss a lot of time, that hurts you, especially when they're important to the team," Flint said. "Let's just get all back on the same page, let's get back to taking care of some of the details that we sort of missed with guys being out ... get guys back in tune with each other."
Kentucky is amidst the final day of a six-day break between games. The in-state Bellarmine Knights will enter Rupp Arena on Tuesday night as the Wildcats' final game before heading to London for their third big test of the season, a showdown against the Michigan Wolverines.
After a four-game stretch in the span of eight days, the longer break allows the Cats some time to re-tune with each other in practice, something they've hardly been able to do as an entire unit since everyone returned to full health.
"Cal really emphasized getting back to some basic stuff this week and really working on us, getting us back on track with each other. I think that was important," Flint added.
The challenge across the pond against Michigan this weekend is one of four remaining games Kentucky has against non-conference Power Five opponents. Results against the mid-majors are only taken for so much, especially when the bigger games of the year have seen the Cats come out on the losing end thus far.
"Y'all think we lose two games and the season's over," Flint joked. "One thing about basketball, it's a long season and it's not always about the start. It's about the finish. And as the season goes on, you try to get better."
It remains no secret that Kentucky was prepared for a slower start. It must now find the proper way to navigate it and create a positive trajectory heading into the meat of the schedule.
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