Dontaie Allen (SEC Photo)
Would making Davion Mintz the primary point guard create more playing time and shots for Dontaie Allen? Maybe. Or at least that is what coach John Calipari said — and brought up on his own without any questions about Allen — after Kentucky’s loss at Ole Miss Tuesday.
Calipari said Mintz is ready and willing to spend more time at point guard to help the team. However, Calipari doesn’t want him to make the move and quit taking shots since he has been UK’s most consistent scorer even if the coach knows he will be asking a lot of Mintz.
“The other thing is, with him at point, it gets a chance for Dontaie to maybe come in now and be that other guard, too,” Calipari said.
The keyword there was “maybe” because I think I will have to see it to believe it.
In the last four games Allen has played 12 TOTAL minutes and taken just one shot, a 3-pointer he missed Tuesday against Ole Miss.
That’s a sharp contrast to how UK started SEC play with Allen getting 32 minutes against both Mississippi State and Vanderbilt and going 9-for-16 from 3-point range. He played 22 or minutes in five of the next six games and in the other game played 15 minutes.
But after getting 19 minutes against Tennessee on February 6 when he missed five of six shots, Allen has not played more than nine minutes in any of the last six games and has been a non-factor the last four games.
He is hitting 41 percent (25 of 61) from 3-point range this season when he does play and shoot.
Calipari noted after the Ole Miss game that Allen “needs” to play, especially against a zone defense like Ole Miss used — or Florida played the previous game.
“I put Dontaie in and again, if we’re missing shots, Dontaie is going to play,” Calipari said. “He missed one, I wish he would have taken more, but they’re playing him not to give him shots.
“But he needs to be in the game right now. But it wasn’t the shooting or not having Dontaie in. It’s you lose by 16 rebounds. That was the game.”
Think back to what Calipari said after the Florida loss about Allen less than a week ago.
“I put Dontaie in and what I basically said is, ‘Find him.’ Guess what? They didn’t even look at him. I said, ‘Get him shots.’ Are you ready? They didn’t. ‘I’m getting mine.’ I don’t know what it was, but we were not connected,” Calipari said after that loss when Allen barely played and did not get a shot.
Kentucky plays again Saturday when it hosts South Carolina and then goes to the SEC Tournament. Will Calipari make the move to put Mintz at point guard and give Allen more minutes?
The coach indicated on his weekly radio show Wednesday night that he planned to give Mintz more time at point guard but also continue to use Jacob Toppin more at the two-guard. However, Allen could still get time with Mintz in place of BJ Boston or when Toppin is not in the game depending on what Calipari does with former starting point guard Devin Askew.
“I told him (Allen) yesterday, ‘Let balls go,'” Calipari said on his radio show. “You can guard these guys in this game. There’s no one here you can’t guard. We’ll put you on the right guy. Go in there and let the ball go, because we could use him making a couple of shots right now.”
