Kentucky Basketball: Will Trey Lyles' Wing Play Fill in Wildcats' Last Weakness?

Two games (or four if you're willing to include exhibitions) is way too small a sample to make any great sweeping determinations about the relative worth of college basketball players. Of course, that never stops us from trying.

Kentucky's absurd preponderance of talent invites constant scrutiny, as a machine blessed with so many high-performance parts can tantalize with the promise of ever-higher efficiency. Through two regular-season wins over Grand Canyon and Buffalo, that efficiency has waxed and waned for UK, but one player who's delivered the mail so far has been freshman forward Trey Lyles.

On a team that lacks the prototypical slashing small forward, Lyles has played well on the second-string "white" platoon, backing up starter Alex Poythress as the nominal 3. Kentucky doesn't have much in the way of weaknesses. If Lyles continues to offer the superior perimeter threat to Poythress that shores up the team's most glaring personnel deficiency.

Through the Cats' first two regular-season outings, Lyles has produced 26 points and eight rebounds, making 10 of his 15 shots from the floor. Four of his five misses have been on three-pointers, but he's still made a pair of long jumpers for 33.3 percent accuracy. In the two exhibitions, Lyles' production was very similar—11-of-20 shooting for 25 points and 12 rebounds.

By comparison, Poythress has produced 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocks while shooting only 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from the floor, 0-of-3 from three-point range. Both men have struggled with turnovers, with Poythress committing five to Lyles' four.

According to KenPom.com (subscription required), Lyles has posted a sterling 132.8 offensive rating through two games. Poythress is scuffling along at 92.9.

Held out of the Wildcats' summer games in the Bahamas as he recovered from a leg injury, Lyles was considered "behind" his teammates by countless analysts, including this one. If his performance to date is indicative of a man trailing on the learning curve, heaven help the opponents in wait when Lyles catches up.

Of course, everyone admits that he has some catching up to do. After the Cats' exhibition opener against Pikeville, coach John Calipari said to CatsPause.com, “He ran up and down, got tired and when he went to jump, he just stepped in a hole. He didn't jump very high.”

“The guys had a lot of conditioning during the summer and I didn’t partake in that,” Lyles said to the same site. “But now I’m going out there 100 percent and it’s getting better. Hopefully, I’ll be in top shape by the first game.”

Kentucky's two-platoon system allows players to go all out while they're on the court, knowing that they're bound for no more than 25 minutes or so. Lyles has logged 37 minutes through the two wins, the same number he played in the exhibitions. Poythress has played 44.

That workload mitigates the conditioning concerns for now, but everyone still wants to play well in the early going. Opponents like the Antelopes and Bulls are auditions for heavy minutes in later encounters with elite competition like North Carolina, Louisville and Florida, games where the platoon system won't be so strictly observed.

Poythress' spot in the starting platoon may be in some jeopardy down the line, and there will be some games in which both men will be counterproductive in their roles.

ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg told the Lexington Herald-Leader's Jerry Tipton that against pressuring teams like Kansas, Louisville and Arkansas, "(Calipari's) going to have to go with three perimeter players. You know, 'real' perimeter players. Not playing Lyles or Poythress at '3.'"

When Kentucky trailed Buffalo by five points at halftime on Sunday, the platoon system was being widely eulogized across social media. In the first 50 seconds of the second stanza, Lyles resuscitated the system and jolted the Rupp Arena crowd to life with a three, steal and dunk to erase the Bulls' lead. Doses of energy like that will make Lyles a crowd favorite and perhaps a coach's favorite too.

Junior veteran Poythress has been through the ups and downs of the game, going from a first-round NIT flop as a freshman to the national title game as a sophomore. He knows what he needs to work on. The difficult part for him will be beating out an inexperienced player who still appears more comfortable in the role into which both have been thrust.

Whether Lyles ever cracks the starting five or not, he's adding a perimeter game to the UK frontcourt that was allegedly missing before the season began. Whether he's firing threes or attacking the rim, the freshman has overwhelmed competition he should be playing well against.

Now, the major test looms on Tuesday when the Wildcats travel to Indianapolis to battle Kansas. It could be Trey Lyles' national coming-out party.

For more from Scott on college basketball, check out The Back Iron. Now Playing: Week 1 Top 25 is up, plus the Opening Weekend Extravaganza spotlights 20 All-American selections and a fully fleshed-out preseason bracket, leading to TBI's Final Four picks. You won't get that from anyone else on the Internet.

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