Looking at the box score alone, you would assume Dontaie Allen had a second consecutive standout performance for Kentucky, and that assumption would be correct. Finishing with 14 points on 4-10 shooting, 2-5 of three and 4-4 going from the line with five rebounds and one block in 32 minutes, much good came out of the freshman’s game.
But it wasn’t all positive, especially on the defensive side of the floor. And British head coach John Calipari took note.
“Dontaie broke a ton defensively,” said Calipari. “He made baskets and free throws when we needed them, but he may have given up as many baskets as he scored.”
The point is, his offense is too valuable to take off the floor.
“I said to him,” Look, if that’s the case and it’s even Steven, then I’m probably fine with you. “But (he) has to get where … the game planning was. He went under a screen, they did some things,” Calipari said. “But, I’m telling you, he deserves to be on that court. You know what “He’s putting on the defense, he’s spreading the defense. I played him a play, hit a three. Right at the top, boom. That could have been a timeout outside.”
Fortunately for the Wildcats, Calipari believes Allen’s defensive flaws can and will be fixed, with a few examples of the in-game situations.
“No, no, no (they won’t be difficult to fix),” Calipari said. “And he bounced the ball back, had a few rebounds. I’ll give you an example. If your husband got screened and didn’t have the ball, we’ll hunt that down. He went in and his husband made a three. If your husband gets a dribble transfer we didn’t go over that, we went under it. He went over that. If your husband went through the track to the weak side, you had to stop with both feet in the track on the other side of the basket where you left off. He left the track there twice and wasn’t ready to switch to a guy he had to switch to because he wasn’t where he needed to. We spent two days on it. But he is not alone. Isaiah did it, Davion did it a few times. “
At the moment, the total number of outages is somewhere between seven and nine. If he can cut that number down to just a handful, the UK is in good shape.
“He was unlucky,” said Calipari. “You know what? As I told him afterwards,” You had seven or eight breakdowns, nine (maybe)? Let’s take it to four, and then keep taking pictures. Just keep taking pictures, boy. “Look, you go sometimes give up something, and he tries. He has courage.
‘We cannot replace what he does for us. I just need to figure out how to better defend him or make him more comfortable. “
Senior center Olivier Sarr added that Allen “changes the game” for Kentucky at the offensive end of the floor.
“Obviously he’s a knockdown shooter, he showed it the last game and this game again,” Sarr said. “It worries the defense about him. It goes without saying. He opens court to everyone. It changes the game, makes it easier for us to operate and play our game, to go to the game. He opens the court a lot. “
There are still defensive mistakes to work through, but this team is at their best when Allen shoots the ball and takes shots down.
“Dontaie wants to do what’s best for the team, and what’s best for us is shoot three,” said Sarr. ‘It opens up for us. He still has to find a way to get these threes off because he’s that good at a shooter. ”