Freshman PG Tyler Ulis is Exactly What Kentucky’s Been Missing

I’m not exactly going to sing a sad song for a team that’s won an average of 29.3 games per season over the last four years, played in two of the last three National Championships, and had at least a co-share in six of the last seven SEC Rookie of the Year Awards, but since John Wall’s departure from the Kentucky Wildcats in 2010, it’s been clear that John Calipari’s team has been truly missing one thing.

A floor general.

And again, while the Wildcats’ success hasn’t ultimately been hindered by their lack of a pass-first facilitator, I think that freshman Tyler Ulis could be the main difference between Kentucky getting to the championship game last season, and them winning it all this year.

Ulis’ main challenge this season – similar to just about every single one of his teammates – will be finding the minutes to make the impact that he’s capable of making, and with Kentucky returning 64.6 percent of minutes played in 2013-14, and 59.3 percent of its scoring, not to mention a re-focused Andrew Harrison who’s been dishing at an improved rate in Kentucky’s Big Blue Bahamas Tour, Ulis is going to have to share the basketball in ways he’s never done before.

Fortunately for Ulis, and Calipari, that’s what the fourth ranked point guard in the 2014 high school senior class is best at. And with so much returning talent, wouldn’t it be best to have the ball in the hands of a player who thrives on being an extension of the coach out on the hardwood?

Yes I know that Kentucky/Calipari prefers to use a bigger, more athletic point guard to head the dribble drive motion offense, and at 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds Ulis doesn’t fit the mold of a typical Calipari point guard. With that said, when Kentucky won their last championship in 2012 they were 25th in the nation in assists, the last two seasons they finished 119th (missed the NCAA Tournament), and 104th respectively, and coincidentally had their two worst seasons from a winning percentage standpoint of the Calipari era.

Obviously the Wildcats were able to make up for their lack of ball movement last season with their size and athleticism, and by returning so many key players from last years run and by adding two more incredibly talented bigs in freshmen Trey Lyles and Karl Towns Jr. (both are projected as top-10 picks in the 2015 NBA Draft) to the mix it’s feasible that they can continue to play the same way and hope for late game heroics from the Harrison’s again.

However, ball movement was a continuous problem for last year’s Wildcats, and Cal’s taken notice of the impact Ulis has had already, chiming in after Sunday’s loss to the Dominican Republic “they’ve figured out how to share the ball more than any team I’ve had this early.”

I don’t want to read too much into exhibition basketball, but to this point Ulis has looked great playing against professional basketball players. He’s protecting the ball, guarding his position well, and he’s even shot ridiculously efficient from deep, connecting on 9-of-12 triples.

Any team with nine players on the roster who have been ranked in the top 25 of their high school class will flourish, and if there’s anyone who knows how to get the most out of young talented players it’s unquestionably Coach Cal, but Ulis has the skill set and the mentality to be the guy who can glue all the pieces together. Whether or not he’ll be counted on to do so is a different story.