Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Platoon System 2018 Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.

Comes now an article from Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier-Journal debating the question, “Will there be enough minutes to go around this season?” Honestly, this is a very good question.

We all remember the “platoon system” of the 2014-15 season. Remember John Calipari’s vow never to return to it? To quote:

“If you ask me if I’m ever going to platoon again, my answer is NO,” Calipari wrote on CoachCal.com. “Last season was an absolute outlier. It’s just not the way I like to coach. I would rather play seven or eight guys because I believe that gives us the best chance to win. I think we wrote the book on platooning this year, but I hope we stick it on the shelf and never have to use it again.”

Not quite a real vow, now is it, considering that last sentence qualifier? Well, it may have to come off the shelf this season, but probably not in its prior form.

I had mixed views of the platoon system, but assuming Jemarl Baker and E.J. Montgomery become fully healthy by season’s start, I don’t think it will be possible to avoid it some version of it. I really don’t think wholesale subs will be what we see like we did in 2014-15, but you will see a lot of guys get a fairly equal number of minutes. Just how equal depends upon, honestly, how hard they defend.

Here’s what Reid Travis had to say to Hale:

“We do have two people at each position that are probably a couple of the best players in the country at their position,” Travis said. “When you break that down in practice every day, you’re literally fighting for your life, fighting for minutes, fighting to be on the court. There’s no wasted time when you’re on the court.”

That’s as it should be, and those who are willing to fight the hardest are likely to see the most time. At this point, it’s way to early to say for sure, but Ashton Hagans and Keldon Johnson have already shown way more determination than is normal for freshmen, especially defensively. You know how Calipari tends to look at that.

But in the end, especially at the end of games, it’s going to be shot-makers that get the most time, which bodes well for guys like Tyler Herro and, reputation-wise, Jemarl Baker (although we’ve never actually seen him in a game.)

It’s going to be a dogfight for minutes out there, but knowing the responsibility Calipari feels when it comes to preparing his charges, I think you can expect a modification of the “platoon system” this season, even if it’s described more as sharing minutes. In the end, it’s pretty much the same thing.

Tweet of the Morning

The return of Dorian Baker is must-see TV, no doubt.

The days.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Is Kentucky’s 2018 football schedule tougher than 2017? John Clay looks at the question.
• The NCAA has a new rule that allows football players to play in four or fewer games and still retain their redshirt. This article suggests that may help prevent players from feeling detatched from the rest of the team.
• Kentucky will play two games versus Mid-America conference teams next season.
• The AP top 25 came out yesterday, and guess what — UK got one vote. That’s one more than I can remember in quite a while.

Kentucky basketball

• Kentucky has three commitments already for 2019, only the second time UK has had this many by this point in the recruiting calendar.
• TJ Walker has a long 2019 recruiting update at KSR.

Links posts

The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Urban Meyer likely to be suspended according to Sports Illustrated.
• Remember when Les Miles eating grass was all the “weird coach” rage? There are apparently weirder coaches. I’m not sure I needed to know that, though…

College basketball

• Tom Crean lands 4-star guard Jaykwon Walton for Georgia.
• SI has a “what did we learn” piece about the Duke Blue Devils’ Canada tour. Duke is legit, and we didn’t get to see them fully healthy, either. I still like Kentucky better, though.

Other sports news

• Heh. Knicks fan selling his fanhood for $1,973.00 on Ebay. And I thought Kentucky fans were weird…
• Boogie bitten by the Splash Brothers bug…

Other news

• Horseshoe worn by Secretariat during the 1973 Kentucky Derby sold for $80,736.00 in an online auction last week.
• NASA confirms the existence of ice at the poles of the Moon.
• Scientists get a better understanding of the momentum of photons, first suggested by German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler in 1619. It’s taken a long while.