Kentucky needs Skal Labissiere to start showing more fight
LOS ANGELES — Late in yet another listless, lethargic performance from top-ranked Kentucky’s most heralded freshman, point guard Tyler Ulis decided he had seen enough.
Ulis shoved Skal Labissiere in the chest during a huddle and challenged the skilled 6-foot-11 forward to start working harder.
The confrontation followed a play in which a rebound skidded out of Labissiere’s grasp because he failed to both box out his man and dive on the floor to secure the loose ball. UCLA’s Jonah Bolden instead beat Labissiere to the ball, leading to a key 3-pointer that helped the Bruins stifle Kentucky’s comeback bid and emerge with a stunning 87-77 victory.
“I just told him we need that rebound,” Ulis said. “He’s going to come around. He’s a great player, a great kid, with great skill. Once he starts fighting for us, we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Labissiere’s inability to handle the physicality of UCLA’s frontcourt was one of the biggest concerns that emerged from Kentucky’s first regular season loss in more than 20 months. On a night when Marcus Lee played only four minutes because of a head injury and Alex Poythress fouled out midway through the second half, Labissiere was still a ghost, finishing with six points and just one rebound.
He got pushed around on the defensive glass. He wasn’t strong enough to hold position against either UCLA’s Tony Parker or Thomas Welsh on the low block. He also got caught out of position on help defense so frequently that he wasn’t an effective rim protector either.
The lack of toughness from Labissiere was unmistakable in part because of how hard UCLA’s big men competed. Welsh (21 points, 11 rebounds) and Parker (11 points, 3 rebounds) were highly motivated to get revenge after enduring a humiliating loss to Kentucky last December in which the Bruins trailed by scores of 24-0 and 41-7.
While John Calipari didn’t shove Labissiere in the chest the way Ulis did to urge him to match UCLA’s intensity, the Kentucky coach was no more subtle in expressing his displeasure.
Calipari benched Labissiere to start the second half and played him only 16 minutes. Twice in the second half Calipari put Labissiere into the game, watched him surrender an offensive rebound on the next UCLA possession and immediately sent a sub to the scorer’s table to check in for the struggling freshman.
“You gotta fight, you gotta battle,” Calipari said when asked what he told Labissiere. “One of the things I told him was, ‘Things don’t always go right.’ I told him that before the game. The whole team. You got to play with joy. You got to have fun playing. You can’t do that if the other team is punching you in the face and you’re not swinging back.”
An inexperienced big man struggling in his first road game wouldn’t normally be a surprise or a concern, but Labissiere is no ordinary freshman.
This is a kid who Rivals.com ranked No. 1 in his class — ahead of LSU’s Ben Simmons — because of his combination of size, length, shot blocking and scoring prowess. And this is a kid Kentucky is counting on to be their top interior scorer and the anchor of yet another potentially fearsome defense.
Labissiere has shown glimpses of immense potential at times so far this season, but the UCLA game was not the first time he has been bullied in the paint. He couldn’t stay on the floor against Duke because Marshall Plumlee and Amile Jefferson got the best of him on the glass. He was no better in Kentucky’s previous game against Illinois State when he scored two points and grabbed two rebounds in 16 minutes.
Whereas last year’s juggernaut Kentucky team had an armada of talented 7 footers, the Wildcats don’t have the luxury of experienced frontcourt depth this season. They need Labissiere to live up to his potential. Lee scores well at the rim and Poythress is an effective rebounder, but neither of them have the wide-ranging skill set Labissiere possesses.
The message Ulis was trying to convey to Labissiere with his shove was a simple one. Ulis played through a painful right elbow injury for 38 minutes on Thursday. He knows Labissiere needs to develop that kind of toughness too for Kentucky to achieve its goals this season.
“We’ve got to stay on him,” Ulis said. “We’ve got a couple guys who aren’t fighting right now, but it’s early in the season. We’re going to get there.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
