Yes, John Calipari is worried about Kentucky's shooting

It’s no secret that this team’s Achilles’ Heel is shooting. Not only is Kentucky 1-6 in games in which they shoot under 30% from the outside, they’re 0-7 in games in which they’ve had a five minute or longer scoring drought. When you look at percentages, this is John Calipari’s worst three-point shooting team at Kentucky and his third worst from the field overall. Today, Calipari admitted he’s concerned.

“You gotta make some shots at some point,” Cal said. “You’re going to have to drop some shots. In the games we really played well, we made some shots. They’re all capable of that. I’ve got five guys in there that are capable shooters, more than capable shooters. But, we’ll see.”

With a team so young, Calipari said he’s walking the fine line of expressing his concerns about shooting without psyching his players out.

“If you make a big deal about it, it’s worse. This should be a good shooting team, but we’re so long and active, it doesn’t need to be a great shooting team….We’re a good shooting team that’s just not making shots. I hate to tell you they’re open, and some of them are missed badly, and that worries me with some of these guys. ‘How did you miss that, that badly? Where’s your mindset right now?’ Because most of shooting is in their mind.”

That last quote suggests the issue is confidence, but Calipari said he thinks it’s shot preparation about everything else. Regardless, with seven games left to go in the regular season, he’s keeping the faith that this team will turn it around like so many before them have.

“We should be a better shooting team, and look, we have time. I been through this with a couple teams here.  I haven’t lost any faith…If we’re getting better, the rest of the stuff will start taking care of itself.”

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