Prior to the Champions Classic game between Duke and Kentucky on Tuesday night, Kentucky coach John Calipari said he needed to learn more about his team. Knowing how critical Calipari can be about his team’s performances, he probably nitpicked a few of those less positive moments. He saw that his team could get outmuscled at times in the post, and he certainly wasn’t pleased with a lack of physical play near the basket during a long stretch of the first half. He watched as Marcus Lee (even though he otherwise had a standout performance) and Skal Labissiere, two of his starting big men, committed needless fouls on their way to fouling out with over five minutes remaining. But where his big men came up lacking, we also learned that Calipari’s backcourt is already one of the best in the nation, and it stepped up big time to solidify a 74-63 statement win over defending national champion Duke.
Tyler Ulis is only a sophomore, but the 5’9” point guard played like a seasoned veteran and proved he is the undisputed leader for this year’s young and talented Kentucky squad. The energetic floor general provided a spark on both ends of the floor on his way to 18 points, six assists, four rebounds, two steals, and most importantly, zero turnovers in 40 minutes. Freshman Jamal Murray dazzled on his way to 16 points, five assists, five rebounds, and four steals, while Isaiah Briscoe added 12 points, three boards, and two steals. In this edition of Freeze Frame, we review the impact of Kentucky’s backcourt when Calipari needed them most.
1) Transition play — The Wildcats are a fast-paced, run-and-gun team with guards to take defenders off the dribble and shooters to make opponents pay for helping. Kentucky especially excelled in the transition game last night, outscoring Duke 18-4 on fast break points. You can see in the first frame below where Duke’s Amile Jefferson draws Lee out to the perimeter after he had taken an ill-advised three-pointer. Briscoe grabs the defensive rebound, and the Wildcats immediately look to push the pace with Lee (bottom center) releasing first.
A little role reversal as 6’3″ guard Isaiah Briscoe grabs the rebound and 6’9″ Marcus Lee releases on the fast break.
Lee beats all the Duke defenders back down the floor and Briscoe finds him for the easy alley-oop. While Briscoe found the best option in Lee standing alone under the basket, he also had a solid second option with Murray standing alone at the three-point line. The Kentucky guards’ ability to grab defensive rebounds and push the tempo will continue to give the Wildcats easy fast break points against teams that make mistakes in transition.
2) Dribble-Drive — Calipari last night reverted to his dribble-drive motion offense, which we didn’t see a lot with last year’s post-oriented offense. You can see in this next frame how well Kentucky spaces the floor, giving the guards plenty of room to break down their men off the dribble.
In the below set, Lee comes out of the post to set a pick for Murray, with the ball at the top of the key. A solid screen gives Murray the spacing to take Duke big man Marshall Plumlee into the lane one-on-one.
Excellent spacing by the Wildcats gives Murray the open lane and he makes an easy scoop reverse layup. He scores at the rim while Duke’s defenders watch the outquicked Plumlee try his best to recover. Duke’s other defenders in the area, Matt Jones and Derryck Thornton, are hesitant to help because Briscoe and Ulis are capable three-point shooters who will make the Blue Devils pay for leaving them.
And then there was this:
Thus far this season, Kentucky’s three-guard lineup is creating mismatches in transition and in the dribble-drive motion offense because of speed, quality three-point shooting and excellent floor spacing. Calipari was looking to learn something about his team in this November matchup, and while it’s obviously very early, it seems that we learned that this year’s Wildcats’ backcourt is already something special.