Kentucky succeeds by sharing

For a team that annually turns over its roster of talented individuals, topranked Kentucky is playing like a group that has worked together for a while.

The Wildcats’ unselfish play is reflected in a No. 3 ranking in assists (21.3 per game), helped by a seasonbest 33 on 44 baskets in Monday night’s 115-69 pasting of Arizona State in the Bahamas. That was Kentucky’s highest total under coach John Calipari, who has emphasized sharing the ball to every crop of heralded freshmen.

While that’s better than he might have expected this soon, Calipari doesn’t seem too surprised.

“There’s a couple reasons,” Calipari said Friday. “They’re really skilled, so you can share. When you’re not skilled, you put your head down and you bounce it and you run people over.

“Second thing is, their minds think quick. So, they can see stuff and recognize quickly. And it’s hard to figure that out until you coach a guy, so there are guys that I’ve had that you have to know that that’s who they are. OK, they’re going to play a little different. But when you put five guys with nimble minds and are skilled, that’s what you get.”

Selflessness could be in play often when Kentucky (7-0) hosts No. 11 UCLA on Saturday in a matchup of college basketball’s marquee programs featuring similar strengths.

The Bruins (8-0) lead the nation in assists (24.8 per game) and field goal percentage (55.3) and are third in scoring average (97 points), just ahead of Kentucky (95.6). UCLA also features the country’s top distributor in freshman guard Lonzo Ball, who averages 9.6 assists.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats’ freshmen are willing to feed their teammates.

“We know how we played a little bit, so we were comfortable with each other,” said guard Malik Monk, Kentucky’s scoring leader (19.3 points). “We just came here and put the work in.

“We share the ball naturally. I don’t think (Calipari) knows that we’re going to share the ball the whole game. When I said we just play basketball and we have fun together, that comes with sharing the ball.”