"Succeed and proceed" was never meant to be built on the backs of upperclassmen. When Kentucky won the national title in 2012, guard Darius Miller was the only member of the rotation who wasn't a freshman or sophomore. Last season when the Wildcats reached the national championship game again, they did it without a single junior or senior playing meaningful minutes.
Alex Poythress is ready for his moment at Kentucky
The forward is poised for a breakout after two up-and-down seasons with the Wildcats.
Andy Lyons
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
This is the way it works at Kentucky, where John Calipari shamelessly sells Lexington as a brief rest stop on the road to NBA millions. There's no questioning the results. It all goes into making junior forward Alex Poythress something of a rare bird.
College Basketball
College Basketball
Poythress still isn't old enough to buy a beer, but he qualifies as an elder statesman at Kentucky. He and fellow junior Willie Cauley-Stein project as the only two upperclassmen in what might be Calipari's deepest rotation ever. Cal will have to juggle playing time for a roster that includes nine McDonald's All-Americans. To put that in perspective, the Big 12 as a conference only has seven. The Big Ten has six.
Kentucky has unofficially started its season before anyone else, using a six-game exhibition slate in the Bahamas as a way to get in extra practices under NCAA rules and face competition that isn’t a scrimmage. They’re 3-0 with an average margin of victory of 28 points. They’re doing it all without Cauley-Stein and highly-touted freshman power forward Trey Lyles.
The Bahamas tour ostensibly serves an introduction to the next generation of freshmen, and big man Karl Towns and point guard Tyler Ulis have already showed they will make an impact early. Still, it’s Poythress who seems to have Calipari buzzing the most.
After watching Poythress attack the rim, own the glass and win fight after fight for loose balls, Calipari officially set the bar on the forward’s season-long expectations. He didn’t hesitate to compare him to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Kidd-Gilchrist was, of course, a dynamic freshman wing on Kentucky’s 2012 national championship squad. He used his one season at Kentucky to become the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft despite a skill set that had very obvious strengths and just as obvious limitations. Those same strengths and limitations mirror Poythress’ own to a significant degree.
Kidd-Gilchrist earned his paycheck on the defensive end, turning into a premier stopper at the wing for that 38-2 Wildcats team. He was also a force on the glass and at getting to the rim. Even as a freshman, opposing college players weren’t able to stay in front of a 6’7, 232-pound freak athlete like Kidd-Gilchrist.
There was only one thing Kidd-Gilchrist couldn’t do, really, and that’s shoot from the outside. Even after two years in the NBA, it remains the one aspect truly holding back his ascent in the league. You can say the same thing about Poythress and his two strange years at Kentucky.
Alex Poythress, Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports
Poythress was a McDonald’s All-American out of Tennessee in 2012. He started as a freshman for what turned out to be the only team of Calipari’s tenure to miss the NCAA Tournament. As Calipari reloaded with top recruits the next season, Poythress was demoted to the bench. He went from playing nearly 26 minutes a game as a freshman to 18 per game as a sophomore. Meanwhile, his shooting percentage dropped from 58.1 percent to 49.7 percent.
Two years can feel like an eternity at Kentucky with the way Calipari recruits every summer. Make it back for a third and there’s a good chance you’ll be going pro in something other than basketball. That’s not the case with Poythress (or Cauley-Stein, for that matter), though. At 6’8, 240 pounds and with top-level athleticism, Poythress has the makings of a first round pick.
Two years can feel like an eternity at Kentucky. Make it back for a third and there's a good chance you'll be going pro in something other than basketball.
Of course, Poythress is only back for his junior season for a reason. Had he come out last year, he likely would have been a second round pick. He needs to develop a jump shot and improve his handle if he’s going to transition to becoming a full-time small forward. It’ll be a challenge for someone who has mostly played the four throughout his career, but the size and versatility to defend either forward spot is part of what makes him unique.
Kentucky’s offensive rebounding helped set them apart as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and they should an even bigger advantage this year. Poythress looked tenacious on the glass in three games in the Bahamas. Even if he never turns into a knock-down shooter, he should rack up tons of free throw attempts and be a menace as a baseline cutter.
With so much talent dispersed throughout the roster, there’s unlikely to be a single star in Lexington this year. Even more impressive than the gaudy margins of victory has been how unselfish Kentucky has seemed.
The players all know what they signed up for. Most of them could have been the focal point of a team anywhere else, but they decided they would rather be part of something special with Calipari. Poythress can relate more than anyone.
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