Kentucky looks to shore up defense
November 21, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)—After watching Sam Houston State’s Corey Allmond put onthe best 3-point shooting performance in the history of Rupp Arena, Kentuckycoach John Calipari figured it was time to appeal to a higher power.
“I just called the (NCAA) rules committee and asked them to move the(3-point) line back,” Calipari said.
Given the way the fourth-ranked Wildcats guarded—or didn’t guard—Allmondor the rest of the Bearkats in a harder than expected 102-92 win on Thursday, itmight not have mattered.
Sam Houston State sank 18 3-pointers against Kentucky to keep thingsinteresting late into the second half. The performance that came three daysafter Miami (Ohio) poured in 15 from behind the arc against the Wildcats—whoescaped on a last-second shot by freshman guard John Wall.
Calipari originally chalked the Miami game as just one of those nights.After watching his team seem to shrug its shoulders on defense against SamHouston State, he realized he has a problem. A big one.
“We stopped playing as much as any team I’ve ever coached,” Calipari said.“We just stopped.”
No matter how many timeouts Calipari called, how hard he stomped on thefloor, no matter who he brought in off the bench, the Wildcats seemed to beinnocent bystanders as the Bearkats fired away.
“We had no sense of urgency defensively,” Calipari said. “There wasabsolutely no communication on the court, which makes it hard.”
If Kentucky (3-0) can’t find a way to shore up its defensive woes onSaturday against Rider (2-1), things could get even harder. The Broncs areshooting 49 percent from 3-point range this season and have already won on theroad at Mississippi State. It’s not the best combination for the Wildcats, whoare allowing opponents to shoot 42 percent from behind the arc.
“We’re not doing like we’re supposed to,” said Wall. “(Calipari)” saidhe’s always had a great defensive team, probably the tops in the country and hesaid we are his worst team right now. Until everybody wants to take pride in itand play defense, there’s going to be struggles.”
Wall got a firsthand taste against the Bearkats. He found himself matched upseveral times against Allmond, not that it seemed to bother Allmond, who wasn’tin awe of the player considered the top freshman in the country.
Allmond made several 3-pointers with a hand in his face, including adouble-pump leaner with Wall draped all over him.
“He was on fire,” Wall said.
It’s a humbling lesson Calipari hopes will teach his talented butinexperienced team that their days of lighting it up in AAU are over. TheWildcats clearly are not at that point yet.
“They are playing how they played AAU ball six months ago,” Calipari said.“It doesn’t matter what the score is, they get numbers in the last threeminutes. They say, ‘I’m getting mine, this game is over. I’m getting a few morebaskets.’ You can’t do that now.”
Good defensive teams, however, take time to build. Calipari is quick topoint out that the nine players who saw the floor against the Bearkats includedfive freshmen and a sophomore.
And there were bright spots. Freshman center DeMarcus Cousins had 27 pointsand 18 rebounds and played with the kind of consistent effort he never neededwhile dominating in high school, where defense was never a priority.
“It is hard,” said freshman center DeMarcus Cousins. “When you come outof high school and you’re one of the top players, you have a lot of badhabits.”
Kentucky will have to start breaking them quickly. A trip to Cancun nextweek and a matchup with either Virginia or Stanford looms. The Wildcats haveenough firepower to overcome their defensive lapses against smaller teams. Thatwon’t be the case in Mexico.
“We’ve got to learn to stop people,” Wall said. “Until we start doingthat, it’s going to be tough in a lot of games.”
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