Cats Host Asbury in Final Exhibition

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Based on Kentucky’s personnel and everything John Calipari and his players have said so far, it seems a foregone conclusion the Wildcats will play fast this season.

The one thing Coach Cal isn’t going to rush, however, is the development of his latest team.

“I’m trying to go at the pace that these guys (can handle),” Calipari said. “I don’t want to throw too much. I want them to worry about competing at a high level versus worrying about, ‘What am I supposed to be doing out here?’ Compete.”

The Cats have more than four months before they play their most important basketball, so there’s no reason to try to cram in everything they need to learn before their second exhibition on Sunday at 7 p.m. against Asbury. 

“My thought is the first week of the season, probably first two weeks, it will be a limited package of what we’ll do,” Calipari said. “Limited baseline, limited sideline, limited what we’ll do versus zone, limited man offense. We’re just trying to get good at some things right now.”

UK is only just establishing the foundation of its identity. A key part of that process is figuring out the rotation and who plays well together. To that end, Calipari scripted out the groups he wanted to see play together and substituted accordingly in UK’s first exhibition, a 108-51 win over Clarion. 

“We’re still trying to figure out combinations,” Calipari said. “I’ll do the same thing I did last game, play a lot of combinations. Don’t know if I’ll start three guards. I might start three guards this time, and then figure out some sort of rotation of how we want to do this.”

One of the surprises that came out of Calipari’s tinkering was the appearance of Wenyen Gabriel in the starting lineup. Whether Gabriel will once again start remains to be seen, but it doesn’t matter too much. It’s the process that really counts.

“Us being able to play with each other and against each other or different groups every day in practice, we get to figure out where guys like the ball and where our players like to shoot and different things like that where we feel comfortable,” Gabriel said. “I think definitely builds on our chemistry off the court as well. Spending more time together, that’s been really good for us.”

Gabriel drew praise from Clarion head coach Marcess Williams for his motor and activity. He’s hardly alone in displaying those traits among yet another talented group of freshmen. Calipari wasn’t able to compare the freshmen to their predecessors – “I can’t ever remember,” he said – but he does know he has the kind of group he likes.

“All I can tell you is a very smart group, a very driven, wired group, competitive group,” Calipari said.

The idea is that those things, to start with, will overcome inevitable early-season mistakes.

“This is November, the beginning of November,” Calipari said. “It’s the first time these kids are doing some of this stuff and they’re going to be uncomfortable and they’re going to be wrong. I mean, they’re still going to be wrong 60, 70 percent of the time. Just play. Play hard, compete, battle, come up with balls, let’s get some easy baskets. And then let’s see how we execute.”