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Kentucky coach John Calipari keeps citing his team’s youth as a reason for inconsistent play and waiting for the time when his players grasp what he wants consistently at both ends of the court.
While UK fans might not want to hear that, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas says “most teams are singing the same song” about wanting better play.
“With young guys, it is constant about getting on them over not communicating,” said Bilas, who will be in Lexington Saturday for the UK-Florida game as part of ESPN GameDay. “Kentucky has its youngest team ever and some guys pick things up quicker than others.
Everybody is on a different learning curve and it changes every year. Some kids pick things up quicker as toddlers than others. But so what. They are all walking at age 4, they just started at different times.”
Kentucky is 19-5 and ranked No. 14 going into Saturday night’s game and Bilas sees the Cats getting better.
“They are not a great team yet, but they have kept plugging along,” he said. “Composure and poise will be important in this game. They have to play through mistakes. Will they assess the situation correctly and communicate? Can they communicate how to guard the ball screen? Can they communicate where to go when they come down the court and see if Florida is in zone or man-to-man? It sounds like little things, but they will be big in this game.
“Florida is really good, really deep. They are old and experienced together. They have a lot of guys that can guard more than one position. They are good enough to switch defenses and keep you off balance. They are very good at disrupting your rhythm and establishing their rhythm. Their defense can go from a 1-3-1 zone to a press to speed you up or slow you down. They throw in man and the more zone. It’s hard for young teams to figure out how to attack all that because they don’t give you a steady diet of any one thing.
“This is not the type of Billy Donovan team people think of where they press and just run up and down the floor. They play slower. They are not a high volume running team. They set a ton of ball screens and that’s hard for young guys to guard. They are great at putting you in bad positions.”
While playing in Rupp Arena is normally a huge advantage for UK, Bilas says the Gators won’t be rattled or intimidated.
“Florida is not going to be sped up. They are not going to be intimidated by the crowd. They have been to Rupp and been through everything before,” Bilas said. “That does not mean they could not get beat or that Kentucky can’t win, but you cannot rely on them to make mistakes for you to win. You have got to play your best to beat them because they are not just going to lose the game.”
Bilas isn’t sure who Saturday’s game might be bigger for since each team could benefit from a win.
“This is a game to win the league, but you also want to win the NCAA Tournament,” Bilas said. “To me, every game is important and you treat it that way. I think this game is important to both of them because there are not that many marquee games in the SEC. This is one everybody will be watching. It is against a Final Four caliber opponent and will tell you a lot about both teams.”
Bilas thought in the summer that UK could be a national title contender. Despite the team’s five losses, he has not backed off that belief.
“I still feel that way. The tournament is not for another month. This team is going to grow over the next few weeks as long as they don’t have injuries to worry about,” Bilas said. “They just need to be a more together team, but most teams still need that. Some of the X and O things, they will fix. That is not a big deal.
“But the issue of connectivity for a young team is important. Their talking, concentration ... they are still learning. It doesn’t mean they aren’t hard workers, but they have to learn the consistency of effort every day in practice. That can just take time at this level.”
Bilas says freshman Julius Randle remains UK’s most impressive player by a wide margin.
“He is the best player, but also the most consistent and most productive,” Bilas said. “I know John thinks he can do more and he can, but what he is doing is amazing already. He’s really an impressive player.
“I don’t know what was expected from this young team. John has kind of ruined expectations for freshmen because he has done so well with so many. I didn’t think what he has done would be possible to take so many young players and mold them so quickly like he did in 2010 and 2012. It’s been impressive and that’s why it is still way too early to write this team out of the national title picture no matter what happens Saturday.”
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