Metric highlights Kentucky’s major shooting problems

Everyone knows the Kentucky Wildcats’ offense is struggling mightily.

You may have not realized it was quite ‘this’ bad, however, as an advanced analytical study from Fifth Factor Plots shows that Kentucky has the worst shooters taking the worst shots of any college basketball team.

If you check out the graph on the left of this tweet, you will see that Kentucky is the team with the worst shooters while also shooting the worst shots. Which is just awful to think about.

Unfortunately, though, what we’ve see on the court if reflective of this.

If you look through the stats on ESPN, Kentucky’s team field-goal percentage through 15 games is 41.5%, which is on pace to be the lowest of the John Calipari era. And if the season ended today, it would be the lowest by several percentage points.

Look back at all the missed layups and baby hooks, and there is probably a few percentage points in the positive direction.

Now, let’s talk about from behind the arc.

As you can guess, when it comes to three-point percentage for the team, it is a sight to behold. As a team, they are shooting 29% from three, which again is on pace to be the lowest of the Calipari era.

When you look deeper at individual leaders it doesn’t get much better. Cam’Ron Fletcher has the highest with a 54.5% through only six games played. For those that have played the majority of the schedule Olivier Sarr is the highest on the list with 47.4%.

From three, Dontaie Allen leads the way with 46%. Besides Davion Mintz, no other Player shoots above 30 percent from three, which in today’s game this is a formula to lose a bunch of games.

Heck, Coach Cal even said this Tuesday:

If you have watched all 15 games this season, then you absolutely understand the truth behind this graph and this statement from Calipari. It’s a bad shooting team, with no great shooting threat besides Allen.

It also shows the fact that this team could really benefit from a solid point guard threat. Either way, confidence is at an all-time low, and the team needs to see the ball go through the net in a big moment to hopefully turn the trend the other direction.

Fans have been calling for the staff to recruit consistent shooters for years. Maybe this will be the season to finally help them see the truth behind it.

The Cats have some winnable games coming up later this month to get the train rolling for the SEC tournament. Let’s hope a team of streaky shooters can catch fire at the same time from all levels of the floor.