Michael Kidd-Gilchrist takes a shot against Iowa State. (Victoria Graff photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
For only the second this season, Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has gone three straight games without scoring in double figures. Yet Kentucky coach John Calipari insisted after Saturday night’s win over Iowa State that Kidd-Gilchrist was “fine†and doing plenty of things to help the Wildcats going into Friday’s game against Indiana.
Kidd-Gilchrist had just two points and was 1-for-4 from the field against Iowa State. He had nine points on 4-for-8 shooting against Western Kentucky Thursday and tallied five points on 2-for-4 shooting in the Southeastern Conference Tournament loss to Vanderbilt.
“He has a list of about nine things that he does when he’s not scoring,â€â€ˆsaid Calipari. “If he is scoring, he’s as good as anybody. Right now on this team with Doron (Lamb), with Darius (Miller), with — I mean, he goes — he scored how many today? He scores two points, but he gets seven rebounds, he defends like crazy. He gets toughness.
“And he’s fine. He’s in there happy as heck. It’s what’s unique about this team. They know they’re not being judged by numbers. They’re being judged by how they’re playing as a team and as an individual.â€
Calipari also said not to forget that Kidd-Gilchrist gave up his starting spot to Miller in the SEC Tournament game when he was in a scoring slump. Miller had 16 points in that game and came through with 19 points against Iowa State in one of his best games at Kentucky.
“So Darius got going a little bit (in the SEC tourney). He wasn’t great. He took too many shots, but he played pretty good. But it got him and kick started him for what happened today,†Calipari said. “And I got to give credit to Michael for that, and there’s just not that many players who would say, let him start. Let me come off the bench. Let’s get him going. We need Darius in this NCAA Tournament. That’s basically what he said to me.â€
Wiltjer update: Calipari also said after Saturday’s game that freshman Kyle Wiltjer was okay after taking a nasty fall on his back in the first half.
He said he didn’t put Wiltjer back into the game “only because of the game we had going.â€
Wiltjer had hit a 3-point shot before he took the spill.
“It was a huge shot. He defended and did some pretty good shots. He got hurt, and I took him out. But Kyle is a terrific player for us,†Calipari said.
5 Responses to Calipari: Kidd-Gilchrist has a “list of about nine things that he does when he’s not scoring”
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Two years ago, I never thought I would hear Cal say, “Darius took too many shots.” I remember when getting him to take a shot was almost like pulling teeth.
if i were cal i would leave darius alone and hope he continues his aggressive assault on the bottom of the net.
Glad to hear Wiltjer is ok, I love this team they are all for one and one for all, even when they show the bench players they are into the game loving each and every minute whether they are in the game or not, and they are a very big part of the team because they play against the starting 5 every day to make them better. I’m also proud of BBN for following the team the way they do and cheering them on, heck when I was watching Saturday evening whenever those Blue and White clad fans got up and started clapping and cheering it even gave me goosebumps, cannot imagine how it makes Our Team ( and for that matter the other team ) feel to see and hear that!!!!!!!!
I’m not worried about MKG he is explosive and one of these games ” BOOM ” !!! He
is going to explode, Friday about 9:45 would be great !!!!!!!!
GO BIG BLUE, C A T S —- Cats, Cats,Cats!!!! GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!
I agree, Jan, that Friday night would be a good time for MKG to get it going. Larry, thanks again for another great article!