Kentucky Let it Fly From 3-Point Range in Win Over Texas A&M: 'Everyone Was Wide Open.'
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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Flashback to the first game of the regular season, and Kentucky head coach John Calipari made a statement that was unfamiliar to the ears of Big Blue Nation.
Calipari wanted his team to shoot 3-pointers, and a lot of 'em.
“I said this is probably a team that’s going to shoot 24, 25,” he uttered after the 95-63 win over Howard. “If we really make ’em, we may shoot more ... we’ve got a lot of guys that can make shots.”
Kentucky has never taken more than 19.9 attempts from behind the arc per game during the Calipari era, with that number being reached just once, in the 2016-17 season. The 24 mark would be quite the jump for the Wildcats to make. Doable, but certainly a challenge.
The Wildcats shot 24 in that 32-point smushing of the Bison. They would go on to hit that mark in four of the next five games, firing trifectas at-will. From then on, the number has fluctuated, as Kentucky was able to muster just 10 looks from deep in the shocking loss to South Carolina and hadn't reached 20 in the last three games in SEC play. Entering Saturday, UK was averaging 19.33 3-point attempts a game.
All trends and prior statistics went out of the window when Texas A&M entered Rupp Arena.
For just the fifth time in the Calipari era and for the first time since 2011, the Cats rained down 32 treys in the 76-67 win over the Aggies — who had won seven games in a row prior to the loss.
It didn't yield amazing results, as UK connected on just 11 of the looks. It wasn't a case of chucking up shots for the sake of it, however, as almost all 32 shots came without an Aggie defender in sight. Calipari isn't crazy about the notion of his team letting almost 50 percent of its shots come from three, but if they come uncontested, then so be it.
“Took more threes in the first half than most of my teams take in a game, but I looked, they were all open,” he said after the win. “They were open. So, you’ve got to shoot it.”
His players obliged, headlined by shooting guard Antonio Reeves, who connected on five of 11 attempts from downtown, propelling the Illinois State transfer to a season-high 23 points.
“My three-ball was going in, my teammates were looking for me down the stretch and a couple shots went in for me,” Reeves said postgame.
Freshman forward Chris Livingston added a pair in the span of a few possessions, while veteran Jacob Toppin managed to knock down one of two deep looks, just his sixth of the season. Those were the only individual performances to write home about.
Sharpshooter CJ Fredrick struggled again against the Aggies, making only two of 10 deep balls. He made his first look of the game, swiftly pointing over to the A&M bench and chirping a few words to some of the players. Things would go cold quickly after, though it wasn't a result of solid defense.
Calipari's confidence has never wavered in the Cincinnati native. In fact, he doubled down, urging the Iowa transfer to continue firing:
"Love CJ, he missed every shot in the first half and I said 'you better keep shooting them or I won't play you.'"
Freshman guard Cason Wallace also had a poor shooting afternoon, going 4-13 overall and just 1-7 from three. While it wasn't pretty, every splash counted on Saturday.
"How about Cason is 0 for 4? He’s 0 for 7 at halftime," Calipari said. "0 for 7, 0 for 4 from the three, but he came back and banged that one at the top, which was a big play.”
A&M coach Buzz Williams stressed the importance of trying to nullify Oscar Tshiebwe as much as possible in the lead-up to the game, so it was clear that the perimeter would be much more open than usual for the Wildcats.
"The way (A&M) play defense, as soon as someone posts the ball, the weakside guy is doubling or in the lane, so if you have two people on the corner wing, somebody is open,” forward Lance Ware told reporters after the fact. "Everyone was wide open so it was shots you had to take.”
Take 'em they did. The Wildcats are now a 36.8-percent 3-point shooting team, which remains the best in the SEC.
More on the win over the Aggies here.
WATCH: Calipari, Williams speak after Kentucky's victory
WATCH: Tshiebwe, Ware, Reeves speak after win
Game notes from the win can be found here.
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