It might not be right now, but Adou Thiero "will have a huge impact on college basketball"

Sooner or later, Adou Thiero is going to have his chance. The Kentucky men’s basketball freshman guard came to Lexington as a relatively unknown late bloomer, but quickly dazzled coaches and fans with his stellar preseason play.

As the competition elevated and the schedule spilled over into the regular season, his on-court minutes vanished. However, Thiero has all the tools and potential (and any other buzzword you can think of) to be a legit player for the Wildcats down the road.

The NIL-funded million-dollar question, is when? If you ask his head coach, Thiero is next in line to make it happen.

“I’ll say this, and I’m not saying this lightly. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but he will have a huge impact on college basketball. He will. Because he can play basketball. He’s tough physically,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said of Thiero after Wednesday’s win over Florida A&M.

The Hall of Famer’s words came shortly after Thiero played just his fourth game of the season for the ‘Cats — a three-minute performance in UK’s 88-68 win against Florida A&M where he recorded one offensive rebound and one steal in garbage time. Thiero has yet to play more than 15 minutes in any game he’s appeared in so far this season, none of which came against Power 5 opponents.

That being said, it’s easy to see the long-term vision with the still-growing 6-foot-6, 200-pounder out of Pennsylvania. Thiero is incredibly versatile, with the ability to play several positions while defending at a high level. In his limited minutes, he doesn’t try to do too much or too little — he plays his game.

Thiero is just going to have to wait his turn, much like Chris Livingston and Lance Ware had to do this season.

“This situation he’s in, it’s not easy for anybody and that kid comes to work every single day and does everything coach asks him to do,” Redshirt senior CJ Fredrick said of Thiero on Wednesday. “I mean he plays the 5, he plays the 4, he plays the point in practice. He does everything and he just has a positive attitude. His time is gonna come.”

Through four games over the summer on Kentucky’s Big Blue Bahamas Tour, Thiero averaged 6.3 points and 3.0 rebounds, shooting 10-17 overall from the floor and 3-6 from distance. It was our first look at the late addition, who didn’t sign with UK until this past May. He was even especially impressive during the Blue-White Scrimmage back in October when he dropped 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and three steals. His two exhibition games were more of the same.

That preseason playing time hasn’t translated into the real thing though, which was expected. When Thiero does check in for Kentucky, he always brings an endless motor on both ends, even if he does have a tendency to play just a tick too fast. It’s just going to be tough for him to overtake the likes of Sahvir Wheeler, Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, and Fredrick in the backcourt rotation, or even Livingston and Jacob Toppin on the wing.

There certainly is a lot to like.

Thiero’s moment might not come this year, but everyone around him is confident it will happen eventually.

“It’s kind of like waiting your turn, and he’s the one guy that hasn’t had the opportunity that the other guys on the team have had,” Calipari said. “But his time is coming, you watch.“