The Courier-Journal’s Kyle Tucker spoke with several “Basketball Bennies” to get the “Reasons for Hope, Cause for Concern” for the Kentucky Basketball team this season.
Tucker spoke with The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy, CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish, and ESPN’s Seth Greenberg and they all gave their thoughts on the current state of the Cats.
Seth Greenberg had the quote that stood out to me the most and it was about Kentucky freshman center Skal Labissiere.
I have noticed a lot of Kentucky fans trying to figure out why John Calipari keeps playing him even though he looks absolutely clueless on the basketball floor.
Greenberg sounds like he is wondering the same thing:
You can’t just play Skal on potential. You gotta play him for productivity. Now, I do think he’s going to be a good player (but) I think Skal is overwhelmed right now.
Player’s first can sure get in the way of wins sometimes and it looks like that is the case with Skal Labissiere right now.
Gary Parrish also said something that I have thought about before, and that is Skal has so much talent that he will surely figure it out one day, but it might not be while he is at Kentucky.
“DeAndre Jordan came off Texas A&M’s bench. Jrue Holiday averaged single digits at UCLA. Andrew Drummond was terrible at UConn. Steven Adams was a bit player at Pitt. These are all one-and-done guys who are relevant NBA players now, but it didn’t happen for them in their four months of college basketball. You could look up in five years and Skal’s an NBA All-Star, Jamal Murray’s an NBA All-Star and Isaiah Briscoe is a rotation player on a good team and go, ‘My God, look at all that talent. How did Kentucky not do more with that roster?’ The answer would be: Those three guys weren’t those three guys back then. I’m not predicting it, but it’s possible.”
Could this be another NIT year with 3 first round draft picks or will this team end up overcoming adversity and still find a way to make a run in the NCAA Tournament?
