Toughness, aggressiveness sought fromTai Wynyard

By: LARRY VAUGHT

Kentucky coach John Calipari has been looking for ways to make his team play tougher and be more aggressive. He’s hoping the answer might be arriving next week when 6-10, 260-pound Tai Wynyard of New Zealand joins the team at the semester break.

“Could he be the answer to toughness? Then the other guys got to take a back seat? I don’t know until we get him here and we let him get in there and mix it up,” said Calipari.

Realistically, it will take time. Wynyard can join the team Dec. 18. The next day UK plays Ohio State in Brooklyn. After that, the team will get a few days off .

“So when they come back, we have a couple practice days and we play Louisville who is playing really well right now. So we have no — this stuff is on now. Like it’s on,” Calipari said.

Calipari said he plans to play guards Tyler Ulis, Isaiah Briscoe and Jamal Murray. Ditto for Marcus Lee and Alex Poythress. What about center Skal Labissiere, who came into the season projected as a potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft? However, he’s not rebounding consistently, has been confused on defense and has been pushed around.

“There’s one or two guys, if you want to play, play better and do it in practice. But you got five, six, seven guys, it’s locked in who they are. Skal wants to give it up to those other guys or Tai when he comes, then give it up. If you don’t want to give it up, fight. Fight like crazy and go get it done,” Calipari said. “Prove it in practice. That’s the old school way of doing it, I hope you know. That’s, like, how they do it. And then the other guys don’t play. Now, it’s, you know.”

Of course, the intriguing thing is that even Calipari does not know that much about Wynyard. He saw him play on tape, liked him, recruited him and Wynyard didn’t take long to pick Kentucky even though he anticipated being redshirted when he joined the team.

So how far along is Wynyard?

“I don’t know. I don’t have any idea. I’ll see him. I watched him on tape, but I haven’t seen him in person. Haven’t seen him against our guys. We’ll see what he is and what he’s not and whether he’s going to be able to help us this first year,” Calipari said after Wednesday’s win over Eastern Kentucky.

“He could redshirt, but the plan is, let’s slide him in there and go. But again,OK, we play on the 19th. He gets here only on the 18th. Then we go on Christmas break. And he’s going to come back here and I’ve got to have staff working with him over Christmas. Then we have two practice days and we play Louisville. Not probably the ideal game to shove him in, with two days practice. But then let’s just see where he is and let’s, we’ll figure it out.”

Even Wynyard’s future teammates know little about him even though Labissiere, Murray and Briscoe were in the same Nike Hoop Summit game as him in April.

Freshman guard Charles Matthews says he knows who Wynyard is, but not when he is coming.

“It’s great to add another piece to this team. Get somebody to come out and help this team get better,” Matthews said.