Kentucky's interior defense still needs plenty of work

It was just the first of two exhibition games, but there were still plenty of glaring holes in Kentucky’s 95-72 win over Kentucky Wesleyan College on Friday night at Rupp Arena.

Yes, Kentucky shot over 53 percent from the floor; and yes, Kentucky didn’t turn the ball over once in the second half. But that being said, KWC’s 6-foot-6 forward, JoMel Boyd, poured in 29 points on 12-17 shooting. The Panthers were only outscored by five in the entire second half, 47-42, with most of the work coming inside. Obviously, this team is far from a finished product.

One area that needs Kentucky’s immediate attention, according to head coach John Calipari, is the interior defense.

“The biggest thing became our interior defense where, in the second half, JoMel (Boyd) just went crazy. 12 out of 17,” Calipari said after the game. “Again we gotta figure out–and I’ll be honest I have not zeroed in on it but I told them after the game, ‘If you can play interior defense you’re gonna play for us.’ So you wanna play? Play interior defense.”

On the night, Kentucky Wesleyan scored 28 points in the paint, 24 of them off of layups. In the first half, KWC had just eight points in the paint, mainly due to Oscar Tshiebwe’s imposing presence on the court. The transfer from West Virginia was a menace early on, but some minor foul trouble and nursing a hip injury held him to just seven second-half minutes.

As a result, KWC attacked the paint over the final 20 minutes and Kentucky paid the price.

Which begs the question: who will soak up minutes as the rim protector when Tshiebwe is off the floor? Right now, there isn’t a clear answer to that.

“This team needs an interior defender other than just Oscar (Tshiebwe),” Calipari added. “Who is it? I don’t know.”

The two obvious replacements are Daimion Collins and Lance Ware, who both had solid performances on Friday, but noticeably lacked the inside presence that Tshiebwe brings down low. Jacob Toppin is another option, although a minor shoulder injury has kept him from seeing the floor at all. In the immediate future, the best answer might be the longest-tenured player on the roster: Keion Brooks Kr.

Brooks, who finished tied for the team-high with 18 points, admitted after the game that he needs to step up more on that end of the floor. He accepted some of the blame for KWC’s impressive night around the rim but quickly added that there are ways to amend it.

“Interior defense was pretty bad. I take a lot of responsibility for that,” Brooks said. “There’s just some stuff we need to work on. I feel like in the first half, we were bad in transition a bit but it’s communication, and I think a lot of it has to do with us–a lot of us haven’t really played together, and practice teams were split. So I feel like we got to communicate better with one another. It’s some stuff we got to work on but I feel like we do have the potential to be really good defensively.”

Luckily for Kentucky, there is still plenty of time to iron out the issues. This is what exhibition games are for. As the young Collins continues to develop, so will his ability to defend the rim. Ware was serviceable on both ends, but he might be a question mark for extended minutes down the road. Toppin is still out and Brooks can’t make up the work of three players.

But communication, as Brooks said, will be key early on in the season to shore up the interior defense issues. This won’t be a quick fix, though, especially if foul trouble becomes a repetitive issue for Tshiebwe. However, if everyone is on the same page when it comes to defense and moves as one unit, the help will create itself.

Remember, it’s still very early. There is another exhibition game left before the matchup against Duke. But as is common with Calipari-coached teams, there will be some lumps before smoothing out.

“Let me just put it this way, we got a lot of work to do,‘ Calipari said.