Kentucky Basketball: Overshadowed Devin Booker Brings Needed Balance to Wildcats

Kentucky may be the only place in the college basketball world where 5-star recruits are overshadowed, but Devin Booker was anything but overlooked in Saturday’s 84-70 victory over North Carolina.

Booker finished with a game-high 15 points and drilled all three of his three-point attempts, which was a welcome change after struggling from deep in his last two contests. The Tar Heels may have focused much of their pregame attention on the likes of the Harrison brothers or Karl-Anthony Towns, but they certainly knew Booker’s name after the game.

Now that Alex Poythress is out for the season after tearing his ACL, it is imperative for Kentucky’s national championship hopes that opposing teams and fans all know Booker’s name by the end of the year.

James Crisp/Associated Press

The opportunity is now there for Booker to play bigger minutes and assume a more significant role when Kentucky takes the floor. His 22 minutes against North Carolina tied his season high, which suggests there is more playing time to come since it was the team's first game without Poythress.

Booker needs to take advantage of this chance.

To be fair, Saturday was not the first time the freshman turned in an impressive offensive performance this season, as evidenced by his 15 points against Boston, 18 points against Montana State and 19 points against Texas-Arlington.

It is also no fault of Booker’s that he was something of the overlooked guard on Kentucky’s roster before the season. After all, head coach John Calipari basically built an NBA team with Towns, Trey Lyles and Tyler Ulis joining a loaded core that already featured Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Poythress (out for the season), Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee.

In terms of the freshmen, Towns and Lyles are the dominant big men who can score on the low block, control the boards and swat shots all the way into the concession stands. Ulis is a fan favorite because of his ability to control the flow of a game with his defense and excellent ball-handling and penetration skills, despite checking in at only 5’8.”

Overshadowed or not, Kentucky needs Booker to produce like he did Saturday, especially in the light of Poythress’ season-ending injury.

For one, the Wildcats were shooting an abysmal 27.7 percent from three-point range coming into the clash with North Carolina. You can have all the defensive talent, length and athleticism in the world, but at some point in the college game you have to hit from the outside. Otherwise, teams will simply pack the lane in the one-and-done tournament and exploit that weakness.

Even though Booker missed all nine of his threes in his last two games, he flashed his potential against the Tar Heels. He hit 12-of-17 from three-point range in a three-game stretch against Boston, Montana State and Texas Arlington, so we know he is capable of connecting from downtown.

James Crisp/Associated Press

Booker's hot shooting from deep helped open up the floor for the rest of his teammates. North Carolina had to devote extra attention to the shooting of Booker and Aaron Harrison, which freed the lane for the likes of Cauley-Stein to throw down alley-oops and Andrew Harrison to get to the free-throw line (9-of-10 from the charity stripe).

If Booker becomes a consistent threat from deep, it will give Kentucky’s offense more balance and an extra dimension outside of its dominant post play.

The argument can certainly be made that there are more talented players and even freshmen on the Kentucky roster, but another reason Booker’s importance cannot be overstated is the overall makeup of the roster.

The Wildcats simply have more depth in the frontcourt than the backcourt with Towns, Johnson, Cauley-Stein, Lyles and Lee still in place after the Poythress injury. How many teams in all of college basketball can lose one of their most important players from the forward spot and still have five future NBA players ready to lace it up down low?

There just isn’t that kind of seemingly never-ending supply of guards on the Wildcats roster behind the Harrison brothers.

James Crisp/Associated Press

Ulis is an excellent distributor and can control the pace of the game through his ability to get out in transition or hound opposing ball-handlers, but that is only three established contributors outside of Booker, and Ulis is still a freshman adapting to the college level. 

Seth Davis of CBS Sports noted that there is already some effective chemistry in the Ulis-Booker pairing that will likely pay off as the season progresses:

What’s more, ESPN’s Jeff Goodman seems to believe that Booker would be part of a particularly lethal offensive combination if Calipari switched up his platoon style of substitution a bit:

Ultimately, though, Booker’s value the rest of the season has increased because of Poythress’ injury. Booker is a versatile 6’6” athlete who is strong and long enough to deal with forwards on the defensive side but quick enough to contend with guards if needed. He can handle the ball and shoot like a guard or dart into passing lanes on the defensive side like an athletic forward.

Poythress was the player in Calipari’s rotation who could play multiple positions and score from a variety of areas on the floor. That role is now up for grabs, and Booker is the most qualified one on paper in terms of his physical skills to provide more balance for a roster that could otherwise be dominated by big men.

Booker is also a better three-point shooter than Poythress, as evidenced by Poythress' 0-of-7 mark this season and 24 percent mark from last season, which opens up the floor a bit more for the big men.

Yes, it will be difficult to replace Poythress' defense and willingness to mix it up down low on the glass, but Booker's shooting could open the floor up more for the offense, which will lead to additional room for the bigs to operate down low and the Harrisons and Ulis to penetrate.

Nobody is suggesting that Booker will completely replace Poythress' production for the Wildcats, but he can certainly keep the team's national title hopes alive. He got off to an excellent start Saturday.

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