How Kentucky basketball changed the conversation with its four wins in Canada

Even after all of the necessary disclaimers about not overreacting to summer exhibition basketball, it’s reasonable to at least acknowledge this much: Kentucky’s weeklong trip to Toronto for the GLOBL JAM, a FIBA-affiliated tournament against U23 national select teams from Canada, Germany and Africa, went way better than anyone expected.

Less than a month ago, John Calipari’s entire roster was made up of seven freshmen and two sophomores. Then two vets jumped on board, the Wildcats squeezed in 10 practices and it was off to play much older teams filled with veteran Division I players and overseas pros. Baylor represented the United States last summer, as UK did this time, and went 1-4 in this event. Calipari warned that his own young squad might go 0-4.

Instead, Kentucky went 4-0, averaged 92 points, won by an average of 15, and thumped host Canada twice (by a total of 41 points) to win gold. Even if you wonder just how good the competition was — Baylor faced a Canadian team that featured Texas star Marcus Carr, former Creighton and current Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard and NBA Draft pick Leonard Miller, and this year’s version had far less fire power than that — the most tantalizing thing about these Cats was how they played with such limited time together: smart, selfless and downright modern.

Kentucky had 103 assists on 142 made baskets with just 51 turnovers. Calipari’s team shot 44 of 117 (38 percent) from 3-point range, an average of 11 makes and 29 attempts from beyond the arc. They played four- and five-out with West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell as a truly stretchy center who showed off the ability to shoot and pass better than any UK big man in recent memory. That’s a pretty dramatic swerve in style by Calipari, who in 14 years at the helm has never had a team average 20-plus 3-point attempts for a season. The Cats routinely rank near the bottom of college basketball in that category.

On the flip side, Calipari’s teams have been known for a stubborn devotion to the nearly extinct midrange jumper, the dreaded long 2. That made last week, when he all but eliminated those empty calories from Kentuckys’ offensive diet, even more shocking. The shot charts were a picture of modern offense, peppered with dots outside the arc and inside the paint, with very little ink in between. Unofficially, the Cats attempted just 29 2-pointers outside the lane in four games.

Another word of caution here: FIBA rules, especially the 24-second shot clock, contributed to the offensive explosion — and the absence of both Kentucky’s 7-footers, injured Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso, forced Calipari to play small ball. Now, will he stick with it when either or both of those guys return?

The approach will be “no different,” said Calipari, who also teased that this could be a team that shoots 25-plus 3s per game. And even when his big men come back, he said, “I kind of like Tre at the five. Tre is really…