Kentucky needed Quade Green to be the best version of himself. Now he’s transferring

Quade Green is transferring from Kentucky. The sophomore point guard announced his decision to leave the program on Wednesday, just four days after the Wildcats dropped their second game of the year, an 84-83 loss to Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden.

Green played only 10 minutes against the Pirates, finishing with two points. He only played eight minutes in the previous game against UNC Greensboro. It was something of an open secret that Green had fallen out of favor with John Calipari, who had been opting for freshmen Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickley at point guard over Green.

Hagans and Quickley are bigger guards with superior athleticism, but each has endured his struggles in the early part of the season. Hagans, the starter, is a terrific on-ball defender, but is averaging only 3.7 points per game while providing zero shooting (1-of-7 from three) from the perimeter. Quickley is scoring better (7.1 points per game), but also struggles to shoot (28 percent) from three.

Calipari seemed to sour on Green because of his defensive struggles and the fact that he was more of a scorer than a true facilitator. Even still, Green entered this season as an essential player for the Wildcats because his skill set helped ease the team’s biggest weaknesses.

Kentucky was a poor shooting team last year. The Wildcats ranked No. 344 out of 351 D1 teams in percentage of field goals that came from three-point range. Last year’s team shot 35.7 percent (No. 124 in the country) when it did fire behind the arc.

Kentucky is an even worse shooting team this year. The Wildcats rank No. 339 in percentage of field goals coming from three, while hitting 34 percent of them (No. 182 in the country).

Now Kentucky just lost one of its best shooters.

Even as Green struggled to find his place with the Wildcats, he was still shooting the ball well from the perimeter. Green was hitting 42.3 percent of his shots from deep this year, the best mark of any guard on the team.

Kentucky was hyped as a preseason national title favorite, but it’s incredibly difficult to win at an elite level without knockdown three-point shooting in this era. In that sense, Green is a sizable loss for UK.

Green stepping up the seizing the starting point guard job would have been huge for this Kentucky team. It was only a few years ago that a fringe McDonald’s All-American took over as the starting point guard at Kentucky during his sophomore season and turned into the SEC Player of the Year.

That was Tyler Ulis. Kentucky’s best case scenario saw Green taking a similar jump. For a variety of reasons, it never happened.

Hagans and Quickley both have tons of long-term upside, but neither is anywhere near a finished product right now for a Kentucky team that still aspires to win it all this season. The Wildcats have excellent big men up front (P.J. Washington, Reid Travis) and high-upside freshmen on the wings in Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro. Unless Hagans or Quickley emerges, though, it’s hard to see Kentucky being a top-10 team this year, especially with its lack of shooting.

Anything can happen in the single-elimination format of the NCAA tournament. With the right matchups, Kentucky may still go on a deep run. For his part, Green may very well find greater success somewhere new.

Still, Green and Kentucky needed each other this year and couldn’t figure it out. Now it’s on John Calipari to maximize his remaining pieces so this team doesn’t turn into one of his biggest disappointments ever.