Kentucky Increasing Scrimmages, Connecting As Unit to Solve Early-Season Continuity Issues
Continuity has lacked for No. 15 Kentucky through the first two weeks of the regular season.
Injuries struck throughout the preseason, causing important pieces to the puzzle to miss time, including National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe and preseason First Team All-SEC point guard Sahvir Wheeler.
Gelling as a unit is important for any team throughout the course of a season, but that becomes harder for a team like Kentucky who gets behind from the jump due to not having all of its players available from the get-go.
Tshiebwe sat out for four weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic knee procedure in late October. Wheeler missed the final preseason tune-up as well as the regular season opener against Howard after suffering a knee injury in an exhibition against Missouri Western State.
Both players have returned, but the immediate results haven't lived up to expectations. In the Champions Classic, Michigan State out-played and out-coached the Cats en route to a double-overtime win, a game that UK had many opportunities to win. Just two days ago in Spokane, the Gonzaga Bulldogs steamrolled Kentucky in a game that felt one-sided from the get-go.
Shooting guards CJ Fredrick and Antonio Reeves spoke about the loss to the Zags, improving as a team and moving forward when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
"It was tough to go back and watch, because we did not play our best brand of basketball, and we had a chance to cut it to two, cut it to one if I made that top of the key three," Fredrick said of the Gonzaga defeat. "It's stuff like that that kind of eats at you, you play so bad and you have chances to get back in that game. But there were a lot of things as a team, we got to be more sharp on executing offensively, lock in more on the personnel on defense and connecting on that."
A lack of effort was the main point of emphasis following the 88-72 loss to the Bulldogs, as Kentucky was beat to the punch all night on the floor, losing the rebound battle and failing to win those key possessions that could've garnered some momentum in the second half.
"Effort level. Competitive spirit. Playing as a group, we all learned that in film," Reeves said. "We see it, the mistakes we made as a team, we're gonna take consideration with that in practice."
Head coach John Calipari has stressed continuity and playing with one-another will be key to the growth of his team over the season, while also pointing to the lack of it resulting in some bland performances against better competition.
While Tshiebwe and Wheeler have had no issue filling the stat sheet since returning to the court this season, the offense has failed to find that kind of groove needed to put away teams like Michigan State or to hang in with Gonzaga.
Following the loss on Sunday, Tshiebwe even noted that the team wasn't running some of the plays that Calipari and the coaching staff were calling for, showcasing the true lack of offensive stability and progression the roster currently has in November.
To change that, the Wildcats have decided to up the inter-squad scrimmaging in practice, getting the feel for each other as teammates while experiencing more potential "in-game" scenarios, something the squad did more upon first getting together in the early preseason.
"Before the season started, we were going at each other really hard. Guys made the joke after the first game 'wow, the game's just super easy compared to our practices,'" Fredrick said. "As a collective group, we wanted to get back to — especially with not all of us playing together as a whole team — just getting back to five-on-five and making the games a little easier for us, getting back to those practices where we were able to at least get out there and make some mistakes, learn about each other a little more."
Despite having failed the first two major tests of the year, there are plenty left on the table. Kentucky will travel to London to take on the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 4, the third of six non-conference Power Five games the Cats will play this season.
Before then, UK will take on North Florida tomorrow night inside Rupp Arena, followed by the in-state Bellarmine Knights on Nov. 29. Playing just two games in an 11-day span before heading across the pond will do wonders for fixing those early-season continuity errors, as the group will have more than enough time to continue growing in practice.
"That's gonna be a good time to just lock in with each other, play with different groups, learn each other a little bit more and just really lock in and connect as a team," Reeves said. "Just to build our confidence and chemistry out on the floor, because we just need to play more together, that's what I feel like personally and some of the teammates feel."
Tip-off between Kentucky and North Florida is set for 4 p.m. EST and will air on the SEC Network +.
Watch Fredrick and Reeves' media scrums here.
Game Recap of the loss to the Zags can be found here.
Takeaways from the Gonzaga loss can be found here.
Watch: Calipari speaks post-game after the defeat.
Game Notes on the loss can be found here.
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