It sounds like John Calipari is working on further tweaking his lineup moving forward.
Calipari said on his pre-recorded radio show tonight that he is looking at playing Chris Livingston at the “3” and Adou Thiero at the “4”. This would allow the Wildcats to have more ball handlers on the court.
Here is an excerpt of Cal’s comments via KSR:
“We experimented with it today (in practice) and we’re gonna try tomorrow, a little bit with Adou and Chris. Chris at the 3, Adou at the 4, two guards, and Oscar (Tshiebwe). Now you’ve got four guards in,” Calipari said during his show, which was pre-recorded in between Monday’s two practices.
Livingston has seen an uptick in minutes over the last few games, starting with the win over Yale on Dec. 10. He played 14 minutes against the Bulldogs before seeing 24 minutes in the loss to UCLA and then 15 in the win over Florida A&M. Calipari had no choice but to reinsert Livingston into the starting rotation after his performance against UCLA, and it sounds like that will continue in the immediate future.
As for Thiero, Calipari has been adamant since before the Christmas break about the need for the three-star high school recruit to find the floor more. Although he played just three minutes against Florida A&M, it was at least his first on-court action since Nov. 23. Thiero is the still-growing enigma that no one is quite sure what to make of at this stage in his development, but he sure does show a willingness to compete.
