Kentucky MBB's assist-to-turnover ratio leads the entire country

Not only is John Calipari’s team playing at the fastest pace of his 15-year tenure at Kentucky, but his players are doing so with startling efficiency. After smacking the No. 8 Miami Hurricanes by 22 points on Tuesday night, Kentucky is now among the nation’s top 10 in most assists per game (20.9) and among the nation’s top 10 in fewest turnovers per game (8.1).

According to BarkTorvik, the Wildcats rank first in all of Division I men’s basketball with a turnover percentage of 10.9. That’s easily the best mark of the Calipari era, with the second-closest being the 2016-17 squad that posted a turnover percentage of 15.7 — 19th-best in the country that season. UK is also tops in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.561.

“When you have players that can dribble, pass, and shoot, like Shai (Gilgeous-)Alexander said, you play this way and you won’t turn it over that much,” Calipari said following the win over Miami. “We only had three (turnovers) at halftime and Adou (Thiero) had two that were easy. What did you just do? Why didn’t you look at him and throw it underhand to him? You rocket it to him. And the other one, you threw. Like, we would have had one at halftime. And the speed of that game, now think about that, how fast we are playing. Pretty good stuff.”

It’s easy to keep the turnovers low and the assists high when you’re playing against teams that likely won’t make the NCAA Tournament, but even in Kentucky’s two biggest games of the young season, the numbers have remained the same. Against Kansas (an 89-84 loss) and Miami (a 95-73 win), UK turned the ball over just eight times in both outings. They recorded 14 assists on 25 made baskets against the Jayhawks and 26 assists on 37 made baskets against the ‘Canes.

Keeping the turnovers to a minimum was especially important against Miami, which entered Tuesday night’s game leading the country in three-point percentage while scoring 1.306 points per possession in transition, per Synergy, one of the top marks in all of college basketball.

Against Kentucky? Miami struggled to get out in transition due to a lack of opportunities. It resulted in more halfcourt play than they expected. The Hurricanes finished with just seven transition points and shot 5-19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc.

“They also beat you if you turn it over, because they unbelievably finish at the rim,” Calipari added. “And we just didn’t turn it over that much.”

Calipari built his roster this way, too. We’ve heard it all season from the head coach: everyone on his team can pass, dribble, and shoot — even the big man Tre Mitchell, who might be the best pure passer on the team. There isn’t one player on the team with more than 10 turnovers through Kentucky’s first seven games. The game is a lot easier to play when mistakes are few and far between.

“It’s really easy playing with four dudes that can play basketball,” Sheppard said after the Miami win. “Like Coach says everyone can pass, dribble, shoot. So being able to do that, you throw it to someone you know something good is going to happen. So it’s really easy playing with these guys out here no matter what lineup it is. Every single person on the team can play and help the team win.”