Just by taking a look at the box score, one would assume that Dontaie Allen had a second consecutive outstanding performance for Kentucky, and that assumption would be correct. Finishing with 14 points in 4-10 shots, 2-5 from three and 4-4 from the line to go with five rebounds and a block in 32 minutes, a lot of good came with the play of the redshirt freshman.
But not everything was positive, specifically at the defensive end of the court. And the UK coach, John Calipari, noticed.
“Dontaie broke a ton defensively,” said Calipari. “He made baskets and free throws when we needed them, but he may have given up on as many baskets as he scored.”
The point is that your attack is too valuable to take off.
“I said to him,” Look, if that’s the case and you’re Steven, I’m probably good with you. ” But (he) has to get to where … they were game planning stuff. He went under a screen, they did some things, ”said Calipari. “But, I’m telling you, he deserves to be on the court. You know what he does with the defense, he spreads the defense. I ran a move for him, hit a three. To the top, boom. This may have occurred due to the timeout. “
Fortunately for the Wildcats, Calipari believes that Allen’s defensive mistakes can and will be corrected, giving some examples of situations in the game.
“No, no, no (they won’t be difficult to fix),” said Calipari. “And he hit the ball, he had some rebounds. I’ll give you an example. If your man was being tracked and didn’t have the ball, we are chasing this. He went in and his man got three. If your man is getting a dribble transfer, we weren’t going through this, we were going under. He examined this. If your man was going down the track to the weak side, you should stop with both feet on the track on the other side of the basket where you left. He went off the track twice and wasn’t ready to switch to a guy he needed to change because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. We spent two days on this. But he is not the only one. Isaiah did this, Davion did a few times. “
At the moment, the total number of faults varies from seven to nine. If he manages to reduce that number to just a handful, the UK is in good shape.
“He had some breakdowns,” said Calipari. “You know what? As I said to him later:” Did you have seven or eight attacks, nine (maybe)? Let’s get to four and then keep shooting. Keep shooting, kid. “Look, you’re going to give up of something sometimes, and he’s trying. He has courage.
“What he is doing for us, we cannot replace him. I just have to figure out how to make it better on defense or more comfortable. “
Pivot Olivier Sarr added that Allen “changes the game” for Kentucky on the offensive side of the court.
“Obviously he is a knockdown sniper, he showed in the last game and in this game again,” said Sarr. “This makes the defense worried about him. It’s self-explanatory. He opens the court for everyone. It changes the game, makes it easier to operate and play our game, get to the game. It opens the court wide. “
There are still defensive errors to overcome, but this team is at its best when Allen kicks the ball and hits the kicks.
“Dontaie wants to do what is best for the team, and what is best for us is him shooting in three,” said Sarr. “This opens up for us. He still needs to find a way to get these three out because he is such a good sniper. ”