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Kentucky Basketball: 3 things we learned from Wildcats loss to Notre Dame

By Caleb Hightower

Dec 1, 2020; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Davion Mintz (10) drives to the basket against Kansas Jayhawks guard Dajuan Harris (3) in the second half at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 1, 2020; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Davion Mintz (10) drives to the basket against Kansas Jayhawks guard Dajuan Harris (3) in the second half at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kentucky Basketball John Calipari Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports /

Wildcats still can’t shoot from deep

Kentucky’s three-point shooting woes continued on Saturday when the Wildcats shot an atrocious 21.7% from downtown. Brandon Boston Jr. had the most 3-point attempts against Notre Dame (8) but was only able to get two of them to fall.

Davion Mintz had a far worse day from three-point land, as he did not see any of his five triples go through the net on Saturday. Jacob Toppin, Cam’Ron Fletcher, and Olivier Sarr went a combined 0-4 from long distance, while Devin Askew and Terrence Clarke netted three treys combined in 6 attempts.

Kentucky’s best three-point shooting performance this season came against Georgia Tech when the Wildcats drilled 8 threes in 20 attempts (40%). The Wildcats’ worst three-point shooting performance came when they faced off against Richmond, and failed to make a three in 10 attempts. Kentucky’s cold shooting from behind the arc in that contest carried over to their next contest against Kansas when the Wildcats shot just 14.3% (3-21) from three.

Kentucky’s three-point shooting wasn’t terrible to begin the season, as they shot 37.5% from three (6/16) in their lone victory this season (against Morehead State). However, the Wildcats’ 24.4% overall three-point shooting so far this season, should tell you that they are currently unable to string together a few solid performances from deep in a row.

Now I am not going to lie, Brandon Boston Jr. did have a few clean looks from three on Saturday, but his unorthodox shooting mechanics most likely prevented him from knocking more than two of them down. Instead of elevating and releasing the ball at his highest point, Boston elects to briefly bring the ball down to his waist area, before rising up and firing his threes.

While I wouldn’t consider Mintz as a prolific scorer, he is certainly an accurate passer who would be averaging more than 3.0 assists, if guys like Boston could hit more open threes. Mintz does a great job of probing defenses, and not over-penetrating when he encounters help-side defenders.

On Saturday, there were a few times when he delivered the ball right into Boston’s chest, which should have allowed Boston to finish the job by instinctively raising the ball up to the top of his head, flicking his wrist, and then holding his follow-through.

Unfortunately, that is not what occurred on Saturday, and I firmly believed that his inability to get straight into his shot impacted his shooting greatly against Notre Dame, and ultimately led to his three-point misses.

As far as the other Wildcats go, well, they simply couldn’t find the bottom of the net on their three-point attempts. Sometimes, a player can do everything right, but still, struggle to connect from long range.

There wasn’t anything noticeably wrong with any other player’s shooting mechanics to me on Saturday, but the bottom line is none of them could consistently cash in on the open three-point opportunities they received, which is one of the main reasons why they lost the contest.

Hopefully, Kentucky’s long-distance shooting issue is resolved sooner rather than later, or the losses may continue to pile up for the Wildcats.

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