You can enjoy FREE * grocery delivery, 2X Fuel Points and more for as low as $59/year. *$35 order minimum. Restrictions apply. Subject to availability. Delivery time not guaranteed. Official Grocery Partner of UK AthleticsCONTENTS 2022-23 Wildcats 20 Brennan Canada 22 Daimion Collins 24 Grant Darbyshire 26 CJ Fredrick 28 Walker Horn 30 Chris Livingston 32 Ugonna Onyenso 34 Antonio Reeves 35 Adou Thiero 36 Jacob Toppin 38 Oscar Tshiebwe 40 Cason Wallace 42 Lance Ware 44 Kareem Watkins 46 Sahvir Wheeler Coaching Staff 50 Head Coach John Calipari 52 Associate to the Head Coach James “Bruiser” Flint 54 Associate Coach Orlando Antigua 55 Assistant Coach Ronald “Chin” Coleman 56 Assistant Coach K.T. Turner 2022-23 Opponents 58 Howard 58 Duquesne 59 Michigan State 60 South Carolina State 60 Gonzaga 62 North Florida 64 Bellarmine 66 Michigan 68 Yale 69 UCLA 70 Florida A&M 71 Missouri 72 Louisville 73 LSU 74 Alabama 75 South Carolina 76 Tennessee 77 Georgia 78 Texas A&M 79 Vanderbilt 80 Kansas 81 Ole Miss 82 Florida 83 Arkansas 84 Mississippi State 85 Auburn University & Tradition 88 University of Kentucky 89 President Eli Capilouto 90 Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart 92 Kentucky in the SEC 93 Hall of Fame 94 Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center 96 Kentucky in the NBA 100 Kentucky in the NBA Draft 103 Kentucky in the NCAA 104 Unparalleled Tradition 107 Retired Jerseys 108 All-Americans 111 UK Sports Network 2022-23 Kentucky Basketball Yearbook is published by the University of Kentucky Athletics Department. University of Kentucky Athletics Director: Mitch Barnhart Communications and Public Relations: Deb Moore, Brett Rybak 546 East Main Street First Floor Lexington, KY 40508 (859) 226-4540 UK Sports Marketing Powered by JMI Sports Brandon Baker, Seth Boyle, Curtis Burch, Randy Carter, Annie Gillenwater, Devin Jones, Adair Mattingly, Seth Poteat, Kim Ramsay, Lance Reed, Chad Ruhl, Kim Shelton, Brad Tucker Design & Publishing Managing Editor Jai Giffin Creative Director Jamie Barker Production Assistance Laura Doolittle, Lisa Roberts On the Cover Top (l-r): Ado Thiero, Daimion Collins, Jacob Toppin, Antonio Reeves, CJ Fredrick, Sahvir Wheeler, Lance Ware, Ugonna Onyenso, Grant Darbyshire, Brennan Canada, Cason Wallace, Chris Livingston, Walker Horn, Kareem Watkins, Oscar Tshiebwe Built for Success Length, versatility and athleticism hope to be the formula for UK’s ninth NCAA title. 4 Battle of the Bluegrass Kentucky’s top 10 wins over Louisville in the last 40 years. 8 2022-23 KENTUCKY BASKETBALL 2 @KentuckyMBBLength, Versatility and Athleticism Hope to be the Formula for UK’s Ninth NCAA Title By Tom Leach “Voice of the Wildcats” 4 @KentuckyMBB“G entlemen, we can rebuild him. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.” So went the opening to the 1970s tele- vision show, “The Six Million Dollar Man.” But they only had to rebuild Steve Aus- tin (aka Kentuckian Lee Majors) one time. John Calipari has had to rebuild his team every season in the one-and-done era and the available parts aren’t always the same. Yes, the transfer portal has provided more experienced teams in recent years but we’re still talking about new parts to be melded together into a team. Even with blips on the recent radar screens, Calipari has done this job better than others, thus enabling Kentucky men’s basketball to be “in the hunt” for a Final Four most seasons. With that being said, the thing that makes me most optimistic that I’ll be working UK games in April of 2023 is that I see a team more well-suited to Cali- pari’s coaching philosophy than his recent squads. “When I’ve had shot blocking teams, we’ve been in Final Fours and national titles. When we haven’t we’ve had good teams, win 25-30 games, but it’s hard to have a breakthrough game in the tournament with- out someone who can block shots,” Calipari said before game one of the recent four- game set of exhibitions in The Bahamas. I had asked if he thought this could be his best defensive team since 2015 and he said it’s too early to tell on a statement like that. Understandable for sure, but if you look at the way this club is constructed, the pieces surely do fit nicely together on the defensive end (which has always been Cal’s wheelhouse as a coach). In Calipari’s first six seasons at Kentucky, when the Wildcats won a national title and played in three more Final Fours, the fewest blocked shots they recorded was 204 in the 2014 season. Starting with the 2016 season, when Kentucky blocked 186 shots, the total in that stat line dropped every season but one, culminating with Calipari-era lows in the past two seasons (138 last season and 148 in the previous one). That’s the one stat that showed the biggest contrast from the first half of Cal’s term as field-goal percent- age and 3-point shooting didn’t fluctuate much and free-throw shooting improved in recent seasons. If you set out to build a defensive unit best suited to Calipari’s coaching style, you’d start with guards who can pressure the ball. You have that in Sahvir Wheeler (sure, it’d be great if he was taller, but he makes up for some of that with long arms) and Cason Wallace. Next, you’d want shot blockers and guys like Daimion Collins and Jacob Toppin provide plenty of that com- modity, as does Oscar Tshiebwe to a lesser extent. Of course, it’s good that your best shot blockers come from the ‘4’ spot as that leaves Tshiebwe to do what he does best--be closer to the hoop to rebound the misses. Then, you’ll add length and physicality on the perimeter, which Chris Livingston and Adou Thiero bring to the court. Of course, it’s not about just defense, so you’d have 3-point specialists like Antonio Reeves (whose 3-point shooting earned him MVP honors for the week in the Bahamas) and CJ Fredrick (who also graded out highest in defensive accountability in the Cats’ ex- hibition opener). Finally, you’d have an en- ergy guy like Lance Ware, who could hold his ground in the low post when Tshiebwe isn’t on the court. Don’t forget that 6-11 shot-blocking specialist Ugonna Onyenso is being added to the mix. “You look at the length, the versatili- @UKSportsNetwork 5 Jacob Toppin's versatility makes him a scoring threat on offense and possibly one of the conference's best shot blockers on defense.6 @KentuckyMBB ty, the athleticism and it’s off the charts. I don’t see them struggling against bigger teams and they’re not going to play against anybody quicker and then they’ve shot the ball well,” said SEC Network analyst Dane Bradshaw, after working the games in The Bahamas. “And they play together. I haven’t seen anybody here who hasn’t shown well. Guys are leaving here feeling good about themselves. “Shot blocking is one thing but it’s hard to put a number on how many times that an opponent is worried about the shot-blocker or they miss a ‘bunny’ layup. They’re going to have that intimidation factor and espe- cially with a guy like Jacob Toppin at the four. Coach Cal has never wanted to give up size in exchange for the small ball stuff but Toppin gives them that element that he can score and he can hold his own against anybody down low,” Bradshaw added. Much of the preseason “buzz” through the practices leading up to the exhibition tour focused on Toppin’s improvement. When watching practice, it was clear that there was something different about the way Toppin carried himself. He seemed to have more confidence and a more serious demeanor. Calipari says Toppin is their first- man-in-the-gym guy most days. “He’s growing up,” said Calipari. “We’ve had guys leave after one or two years that maybe came in a little more physically or mentally mature but everybody is on their own path. He has a different mentality about what’s going on, a different kind of fo- cus. Sometimes he’ll slip back but I’m going to hold him accountable. I just don’t want him to judge his game on made shots.” Toppin started slowly in The Bahamas but a big second half in game two foreshad- owed a 27-point, six-assist night against Car- leton, a Canadian team that was UK’s most accomplished foe of the week. However, the Cats’ got their toughest test the next day, from a team made up of Bahamian players from their national team or guys vying for spots on it. Toppin delivered 20 points in that win to go along with five rebounds but that doesn’t tell the whole story. When the Bahamians built an eight-point lead late in the first half, Jack “Goose” Giv- ens noted on our UK Radio Network broad- cast that this was a time when Toppin need- ed to assert himself if he wanted to claim a leadership role on this squad. Toppin did just that, providing key plays on both ends of the court that sparked a UK run that en- abled the Cats to take a one-point lead into the locker room. “One of the things you notice about Ja- cob, when you’re around him and up close, is that he’s so long, his arms are down to Oscar Tshiebwe won last season's Wooden Award becoming UK's first unanimous National Player of the Year.@UKSportsNetwork 7 his knees. With his quickness, he should be able to get a lot of deflections--which he started to do (in The Bahamas). He should also be able to get some rebounds and then he was able to get out on the break,” Giv- ens said on “The Leach Report” radio show. “I was glad to see it (the assertiveness) be- cause that’s a huge message to those young guys. It’s a different Jacob and if he’s going to be the man, those are the opportunities that he really has to take advantage of.” Givens thought Toppin turned down some open looks at the 3-point line even though he’d been shooting well from long range in practice. Givens noted that Reeves missed shots in the first half of the final ex- hibition game but he kept firing with that “shooter’s mentality” and exploded in the second half with a barrage of 3-pointers. “That mentality takes some time to es- tablish and I think Jacob’s going to get there. When he has those opportunities, he has to let it go. That’s what you expect from a guy playing the role he’s going to play,” explained Givens. “He got it going and I think he’s go- ing to be the man on this team this season.” Kentucky has a strong group of multi-year veterans on this team, at point guard, in the low post and on the wing via the transfer of Reeves. Calipari’s latest freshman class gen- erated plenty of excitement in the exhibition games with Wallace, Livingston and Thiero, plus whatever Onyenso provides. “I think it’s very helpful to them,” Sport- ing News columnist Mike DeCourcy said of the August experience in games for those rookies. “I thought Wallace, in particular, showed the kind of ability that can really change Kentucky’s team. A year ago, they had terrific guard play but they were small and that was problematic.” DeCourcy liked seeing how Collins chal- lenged shots more aggressively than last season and he’s a perfect example of the overall length and athleticism of this roster, which at least in those terms compares fa- vorably with Calipari’s best teams. “They’ve almost always been a top 10 defense and last year, they were just 36th (in kenpom.com) in defensive efficiency. They were thin in the playing rotation and they were small at the guard spots,” DeCourcy continued. “(This team) is going to block a lot of shots and get a lot of deflections. I think they’ll still emphasize defending the lane but with the length they have, you can be more aggressive.” That ranking was one notch lower than the nine-win team of the pandemic season. Every Calipari team that reached the Final Four at Kentucky ranked in the top 20 in de- fensive efficiency except for the 2014 group. The teams in 2010, ‘17 and ‘19 — all legit Final Four challengers — were top 10 in that statistic. Bottom line? This is a Wildcat team that one could easily see finishing that high and if that happens, it bodes well for a deep run in March. Sahvir Wheeler's defensive pressure on the ball will be a challenge for UK opponents. With his length and improved play, look for Daimion Collins to deflect and block many shots this season.Next >