John Calipari addresses low 3-point output, compares to UMass days

Kentucky took charge early at home against rival Tennessee on Saturday and never looked back en route to a 66-54 win that completed a season sweep of the Volunteers and took the ‘Cats off the bubble, barring a collapse down the stretch. The game itself was ugly. Kentucky was once again down two of its four true guards and won on the back of free throws, rebounding and strong defense.

Without those guards — point guard Sahvir Wheeler and three-point specialist CJ Fredrick — Kentucky had to play its other backcourt players heavy minutes once again while going exclusively with three-forward lineups. The result? A really light day from beyond the arc. There have been games where Kentucky threw up 20+ three-point tries, but Saturday did not feature such a strategy. Instead, they shot just eight and made three.

According to head coach John Calipari, that’s exactly what the team needed to do to win that particular game. In his postgame presser, he explained the lack of long balls vs. the Vols:

“Well much of the game we had Adou (Thiero) and Chris (Livingston). They’re okay three-point shooters. And Cason (Wallace), who went 0-8 last game. How did he do this game? 0-3. So he’s 0-11. Would you tell him to shoot more threes? So you take what they give you and you take the shot you can make.”

Wallace is actually one for his last 18 from deep since taking over for the injured Wheeler at point guard. He was shooting over 40% from three on the year prior to moving to point guard full time, but since sliding over, Wallace has had such a heavy load to bear that his shooting stroke has suffered. He’s playing nearly 40 minutes every game while handling lead guard duties and often guarding the other team’s best perimeter player…and all as just a true freshman. So you can see why he’s hit a bit of a slump from three.

Antonio Reeves has picked up the slack a little bit, but he’s the only consistent three-point threat at the moment for UK. Hence why Calipari is getting back to his UMass roots, where the three-ball was a rarity rather than a reliant tool.

“Antonio made one or two, but you know, we’re just trying to — how do we — what is the team giving us. We’ll take what they give you,” Calipari added. “And if that means we’re shooting 25, 30 threes, we will. We’ve done it. If that means we shot — geez, we were only 3-8. That’s like a UMass team. That’s truly refuse to lose.”

John Calipari has Kentucky doing what it must to win games. Right now, that means taking their foot off the pedal from deep while trying to win in other ways.