B.J. Boston's rough start to the 2020-21 season by the numbers

The 2020-21 basketball season has been nothing short of disappointing.

Coming into the year, the Kentucky Wildcats were projected to not only be one of the best teams in the SEC, but also a contender to cut down the nets in April. One of the main sources of hope and excitement was John Calipari’s first top-5 recruit in five years, B.J. Boston.

The hype surrounding the five-star recruit was legitimate. Boston wowed in high school games while playing for one of the best programs in the nation. Before the season started, he was named preseason All-SEC.

Following the loss to Richmond, Boston was shooting 44% from the field and averaging 17.5 points per game. Since that point, he is shooting below 32% while averaging only 10.3.

What changed? Sure, the easy answer is pointing towards the level of competition. Kentucky has played only two schools that aren’t in a Power 5 conference and those were the two games that Boston had the most success in.

If you are a religious follower of Kentucky sports, one of the more underrated accounts to follow is Corey Price. As a stats nerd myself, scrolling through his Twitter feed after a game is one of my favorite things to do.

Yesterday evening, Price released two staggering stats on Boston.

Worst field-goal percentage by a Kentucky player in a single season in the shot-clock era (since 1985-1986) (min. 100 field-goal attempts):

– 33.7%, Saul Smith (1999-2000)

– 34.7%, Brandon Boston (2020-2021, as of January 16th)

— Corey Price (@coreyp08) January 16, 2021

Yeah, that’s right, a Saul Smith mention in the same sentence as BJ Boston. To put things in perspective. Smith finished his year 65/193 from the field but did knock down 31 threes in the 33 games that year. As of today, Boston is 50/144 with only seven made three-pointers.

Brandon Boston is currently on pace to be the third Kentucky player since 1946-1947 to both lead the team in field-goal attempts and be the team's worst shooter (min. 100 field-goal att.) in the same season:

– Cotton Nash (1963-1964)

– Brandon Knight (2010-2011)

— Corey Price (@coreyp08) January 17, 2021

If you’re like me, the Brandon Knight mention might surprise you. While the stat is completely true, it is a tad misleading. Knight was a 42.3% shooter for the season trailing DeAndre Liggins by a little over a tenth of a percentage point.

Cotton Nash was last on the team with a 42.2% shooting percentage during the 1963-64 season trailing Charles Ishmael by half a percentage point.

To reiterate, entering Wednesday’s game against Georgia, Boston is shooting only 34.7%. Roughly 8% lower than both Knight and Nash.

Boston was rated as the #1 SG in the class of 2020 by 247 Sports. When looking at the shooting guards ranked in the top 5 over the past five years, only five of them have shot under 40% from the field during their freshman season. The list includes M.J. Walker (37.9%), John Petty (39.3%), Zach Harvey (37.5%), Bryan Antoine (30.4%), and Boston (34.7%). Villanova’s Antoine is the only SG ranked in the top 5 across the last five years that holds a lower percentage than Boston and he only shot the ball 23 times from the field.

John Calipari continues to roll with the freshman in the lineup during key moments. Is a breakout moment on the way? It’s possible, but the one thing is clear, Boston is struggling and needs all the help he can get.