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New Season

New Opportunities to Win

Expectations for John Calipari’s basketball team are soaring after the way the Wildcats looked so dominant in four exhibition games in the Bahamas in August. Kentucky looks like it has plenty of talented pieces for Calipari to use and even better they seem to fi t together much better than any team he’s had since the 2019-20 team that featured Immanuel Quickley, Tyrese Maxey, Ashton Hagans and Nick Richards. That team seemed poised for postseason success before COVID stopped play. A year later UK suffered through the infamous 9-16 season and then came the stunning loss to Saint Peter’s in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. But now the optimism is back and Kentucky is a top fi ve team in most preseason prognostications. Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua won’t downplay the team’s talent or depth. However, he says a key this year is players accepting roles whatever they might be. “Those other teams we have had that made the Final Four and had 30-win seasons, there were players who could have started and should have started but for what the team needed everybody had to sacrifi ce,” said Antigua. “Sometimes that means a different role than what you might think as a player. We want guys to be stars in their roles and to feel appreciated in their roles.” On a team full of potential stars, junior Lance Ware may set the tone for role playing. He’s not UK’s most talented player or likely major contributor but rather than transfer, he came back knowing he would be behind unanimous national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe. “That speaks to his commitment to the program and how much he loves being in Lexington,” Antigua said. “He is someone that is not afraid of a challenge and will push Oscar and himself daily. He sees an opportunity to get better and get time on the court. Everybody has to run a different race and he is a guy who understands how hard it is here and can tell younger players what to expect.” One player who defi nitely knows what to expect is Tshiebwe. He had historic numbers last season. He led the country in rebounds, offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding percentage. He set a school record with 28 double-doubles and averaged 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game. “There’s always room of improvement. We didn’t anticipate him having a 28-rebound game like he did but we did expect double-digit rebounds and we expect that again,” Antigua said. “We want to help him expand his game when it comes to passing, shooting range.” Antigua admits everything is geared to putting Kentucky into the national championship chase and then hopefully fi nishing the chase in March. He even thinks last year’s NCAA loss can help this year much like it did for Virginia when the Cavaliers won the 2019 championship one year after becoming the fi rst No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed in NCAA play. “I think we potentially can use the same motivation. You want guys to remember that experience last year but not fester on that. It is a new year, new opportunity,” the Kentucky assistant coach said. “The returning guys can use that as fuel and constantly remind the younger guys how fragile it is when you get to NCAA Tournament play.”

STORY BY Larry Vaught PHOTOS COURTESY OF UK Athletics