UNCASVILLE, Conn. – With all the talent Kentucky has, it can be easy to forget a basic thing: this team is young. And experience matters in college basketball, although it doesn’t always make the difference in the ballgame. On Sunday, that was evident as the Wildcats struggled to fend off an Old Dominion team that lost a great deal from last season’s team in terms of significant contributors.
The growing pains of the Wildcats were all there for people to see on Sunday. Point guard Marquis Teague struggled with turnovers once again, as he’s had more of those than assists in all but one game in his young college career after handing out two assists and giving it away six times on Sunday. Their big men didn’t respond well to the physicality of the game, especially Anthony Davis, who had his moments early on but fouled out in just 20 minutes.
As may happen often this season, Darius Miller was a key because he was the steady senior. He’s not as talented as the freshmen, but he’s experienced and knows the game, and more importantly knows his role. Miller scored 13 points and had five assists, which aren’t numbers that will leap out at you from the stat sheet – but that’s not what he has to do.
“We are what we are,” head coach John Calipari said. “We’re a young team, we’re still learning, and we got out of here alive somehow, and the reason we got out alive is because Darius played. If he didn’t play, we’d probably get beat by 10 or 12 easily in my opinion.”
Old Dominion doesn’t have the size or length that they had a year ago. If they did, this game would have been even more interesting than it already was, especially since that Monarch team led the nation in rebounding margin while the Wildcats won the battle on the boards by 10 on Sunday. But the Monarchs stayed within striking distance of Kentucky and were within a point when the Wildcats scored ten unanswered points to seal the game late.
Davis nearly had a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds to go with three blocked shots despite the foul trouble. That shows what he will be capable of as he matures and gets used to the physicality of the college game, especially since more teams are likely to play them the way Old Dominion did, something Calipari noted.
Besides that, the 21 turnovers the Wildcats had bothered Calipari, and understandably so. It wasn’t just Teague who gave the ball away, but when your point guard is leading the way in that category it’s not a good beginning. That’s probably the most concerning item in the stat sheet, and Calipari sees how inexperience played into it.
“We had 21 turnovers – I told them after the game, we will not win in the SEC with 21 turnovers,” said Calipari. “It’s based on the fact that guys are trying to make the hardest plays they can make.”
The potential of this team is easy to see because of the talent. It was seen a day earlier when the Wildcats humbled Penn State, and a few days earlier they showed growing pains but also how good they can be in beating Kansas going away at the Champions Classic. As the season goes along, it will be seen more just from the Wildcats playing more. However, that won’t translate into the team being as good as many projected if they play like freshmen more often than not.
“We’re a good team, but we have a long way to go, and if we want to be special, guys have got to start making incremental steps in how they’re playing,” Calipari said. “They can’t go from game to game and do the same things.”
Talent can cover up a lot of things, but not everything. It can also make it easy to forget a team’s youth. Right now, Kentucky is winning, so it can be easy to forget that this is a young team. The potential is obvious, but if they play too often like a young team, others will have a chance to beat them.
