Cason Wallace confident at point guard, but plans on being positionless player at Kentucky
Kentucky basketball signee Cason Wallace is a winner, a cutthroat competitor and absolute dog. That’s been clear from day one, something that quickly separated him from the pack of elite guards in the senior class.
What hasn’t been made clear, though, is the position the 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard will play in Lexington. And there’s a reason for that. He doesn’t really have a set position on the floor, which was part of the intrigue for Kentucky. Offensively, he thrives both on- and off-ball, growing as a shooter and ball-handler. Defensively, he can guard one through three with his unique combination of length, lateral quickness and all-out effort.
Long story short, he’s a plug-and-play, do-it-all player ready to do whatever is asked of him on the floor.
“A positionless player is what I’m going to be,” Wallace told KSR at the Jordan Brand Classic this week in Chicago. “(Calipari) said I’m just going to go out there and play my game. Wherever I’m at on the court, I’ll be productive.”
He’s growing as a primary ball-handler, but is that something he’s comfortable doing at the next level? Depending on how the rest of the roster shakes out, could he thrive playing the most crucial position on the floor? “Most definitely,” he says.
What would point guard Cason Wallace look like in Lexington? An all-around threat.
“Two-way, I play on both sides of the court,” he told KSR. “Locking up the best player on defense and coming down on the other end, getting everybody in the right spots, hitting open shots and creating for others.”
Again — and always — with the defense. It’s in his basketball DNA, something he prides himself on over just about anything else.
“When I was younger, my dad told me defense is a will to want to,” Wallace told KSR. “If you want to play defense, you will. I like it, I do it.”
Unsurprisingly, defense was the name of the game for Wallace during the highly competitive practice to open the week in Chicago. He started the morning matched up against Xavier signee Kam Craft, essentially taking him out of the open run as a scorer. As Arkansas signee Nick Smith Jr. started ramping up offensively, Wallace took it upon himself to take over that assignment, creating one of the best head-to-head battles of the day. He was the only person who could slow down Smith’s scoring efforts.
That doesn’t mean he can’t put on a show offensively, either. Arguably the two biggest highlights of the day came from Wallace with the ball in his hand, one being an alley-oop toss to Baylor signee Keyonte George, and then another being a filthy poster slam in the half-court on Michigan signee Tarris Reed.
Wallace drove past Craft on the right wing, attacked the basket and exploded up for the right-handed slam on Reed’s head.
“I got a lane, saw the paint open,” Wallace told KSR. “I said ‘I’m gonna go dunk it.’ And he just so happened to jump.”
Was that a mistake on Reed’s part?
“Obviously [laughs]. We’ll leave it at that.”
Again, a do-it-all threat with a killer mentality. Whatever it takes to put his team on his back and win games. Whether it’s a clutch defensive stop, made jumper, tough rebound, pass to set up a teammate, or a dunk on someone’s head, he’s going to make it happen.
“I’m a winner,” Wallace told KSR. “We’re gonna win.”
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