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By: LARRY VAUGHT
LEXINGTON — Kelly Well was proud of the way Pikeville kept Sunday night’s exhibition game with Kentucky fairly close early before a 21-0 UK run late in the first half broke the game open and paved the way for a 116-68 win for the Cats.
“We will not be the only team that happens to,” said the Pikeville coach after watching UK put six players in double figures and shoot over 80 percent from the field in the first half. “They are so big and one of the problems we talked about is that we knew easy shots would be hard to find and obviously they were few and far between.”
Wells said coach John Calipari’s team might be as “talented as any team ever assembled” at Kentucky.
“You’re looking at a team that is historically probably the most talented team ever assembled here, and that’s saying a lot. No disrespect to any team that’s been here. You’ll be hard pressed to find anybody more talented than that bunch,” Wells said. “We just couldn’t compete on the glass with them. When they started pressuring us they’re just so long that we couldn’t find any outlet passes. It just was a tough night for us and it’s going to be a tough night for everyone that steps in this gymnasium.”
Wells was impressed that Kentucky would never “settle” for difficult shots but kept working for dunks and/or layups.
“I’ve never been a part of a team where we gave up 80 percent field goals in the first half. They don’t settle for anything, but dunks and layups. You and I make a conventional bounce pass and chest pass and every time they’re throwing lobs and we look like middle school kids out there at times because they’re just so big,” Wells said.
“They take away the basket from you, they take away easy baskets, but I think the biggest key is they don’t settle for anything and (Devin) Booker when he’s open, it’s good for him to shoot it.”
He said UK did not have a weakness that Pikeville, ranked No. 2 nationally in the NAIA preseason rankings, could expose.
He said the challenge for UK would be to not “fact happy” and to “stay hungry” all season.
“There will be nights throughout a college basketball season when you just don’t have it; somebody gets hurt, injuries and rotations. I would like to have some of the problems that they’ve had,” Wells said.
He said UK’s depth in almost unbearable with “10, maybe 11” future NBA players on the roster and that the players seemed to handle the platoon system well.
“I do think that will be some kind of a concern for them. I like to give a group a role and let them play all of the minutes, but that’s going to be a challenge for Ca (John Calipari). He’s won more games than I’ve coached in so I’m not telling him anything new,” Wells said.
“I think sometimes that will be an issue. How he can keep those guys happy, I can’t keep five guys happy, but he’s the master at that. I think they’ll be fine. They seem like they love each other. There’s a lot of good continuity on the floor for them.”
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