Chris Livingston and Lance Ware Provide Potential Solutions to Kentucky's Abhorrent Offense
NEW YORK — For the first time this season, freshman forward Chris Livingston eclipsed 20 minutes of playing time in a game.
For the first time this season, junior forward Lance Ware played significant minutes on the court while next to Oscar Tshiebwe.
Neither of these things resulted in Kentucky leaving Madison Square Garden with a victory on Saturday night, but they do point toward potential solutions down the road if Kentucky's offense remains as ineffective as it was in its 63-53 loss to No. 16 UCLA.
After being the odd man out for the first few weeks of the regular season, Livingston took advantage of his extended run, leading the sputtering Wildcats with 14 points on 5-8 shooting.
"I was being very patient on the offensive end," Livingston said after the loss about what went well for him offensively. "Not settling for jump shots, being around the paint, I got myself going with my jump shot and so forth."
Livingston kept Kentucky in the game during a stretch in the second half, as he laced three midrange jump shots followed by a 3-pointer, doing all he could to try and spark some sort of run.
That run never came along, however.
"Towards the end, we tried to really grind the game out, get into our sets, you know what I'm saying?," Livingston said. "To move the defense a lot more. Because late-game situations, it's winning time. You've got to grind it sometimes. Sometimes you've got to grind it and get the best shot possible."
There was plenty of grinding from both sides, but there were hardly any positives as a result. UCLA head coach Mick Cronin labeled the game a "bloodbath", one that saw his Bruins come out on top.
As for Ware, his spot as the "4" in the rotation alongside Tshiebwe was something head coach John Calipari envisioned in the lead-up to the game, noting the potential advantages that could come from having that much size out on the court at one time.
"I played (Lance) at four, and we worked on it this week because I said, You may be our four this game," Calipari said. "So we worked on it, and he did great. He had great practices, and he's excited. He just wants to play and fight and be a great teammate."
Ware tallied five rebounds and three assists to go along with two points in the loss. He finished with a team best plus-minus of plus-eight, impacting the game positively in his 14 minutes on the court.
"I think, when both me and Oscar are in the game, it's hard for teams to rebound the ball," Ware said post-game. "If that's going to be a thing, I'll probably find some offensive sets that we can still get some baskets. I liked it."
Livingston and Ware were apart of some quirky and unusual lineups for the Cats, but in the eyes of Calipari, it was clear to see why those two needed to be on the floor for more time: toughness.
"Toughness. That's all we talked about, and that was the same with Chris. Just we needed toughness on the floor," Calipari said. "When they started bullying us a little bit, the game slipped, and when you got those other two in there, that was kind of negated."
The switches came after Jacob Toppin was once again off, not scoring in the first half, going 2-10 from the floor for the game. Kentucky guard CJ Fredrick didn't even attempt a shot on Saturday, while Antonio Reeves was a poor 2-13.
Both backup forwards made their mark inside The Garden, but it couldn't yield a win. The pieces to the puzzle appear to be there, but Calipari and Kentucky can't seem to connect them through the first 10 games of the 2022-23 campaign.
