Calipari: “Archie is our point guard”
In his pre-Notre Dame press conference this afternoon, Coach Cal said Archie Goodwin is Kentucky’s point guard. Cal said Harrow’s return to the team gives them two options at the point guard spot. “My best teams have had two point guards,” he said.
Interesting stuff from Cal and a different plan for Archie from what we heard in the beginning of the season.
We’ll have more from the presser in just a bit…
41 Comments for Calipari: “Archie is our point guard”
Ryan kind of screwed himself, this is now Archies team!
Brrrrr!!!
make that burrrrr! damn phone.
This is good news as far as I’m concerned. Tyreke 2.0
You know what they say about a team with two QBs…
Lot going on behind the scenes here. There was news out of the camp after last year that Ryan was acting like he had the job, and that Cal had told him he had to earn it with hard work. We may never know what’s been going on with him lately, but I’d be safe to say it’s more than an illness and a personal family matter. Hope the kid does well, but Archie does seem to fit the prototype Cal point guard better.
You need to be able to get others open shots. Archie can to do that! He is a 2 guard.
No surprise considering that Cal has been continuously saying that Archie is very much like Tyreke Evans. He was just saying that and planning on keeping him at the shooting guard. He has always been molding him to run the team as the point guard.
Wiltjer suffers the most from not having a true point out there.
5-i believe they say that it has nothing to do with basketball. at all. wow…
Archie’s a beast and Harrow is too weak with the ball, bottom line. If Cal can get Archie to pass when he should and run the offense a little better. By the end of the year he could be the best point guard we’ve had at Kentucky since Cal got here.
I trust Cal completely but I’m a little disappointed considering I was really looking forward to seeing just how good Archie would be with Harrow just feeding him the ball.
Oh well, in Cal we trust!
7 — Point guards come in all different shapes, sizes, and abilities. Some guys pass it more and others look to score more. Archie is clearly a score-first point guard and there is nothing wrong with that. He has more room to drive off the dribble from the top of the key and basically cannot be stopped unless teams focus on providing an enormous amount of defensive help. That alone will allow other guys to play off of Archie and he will begin to learn how to find them as defenses start to help off more on him. I also think Cal believes Archie’s size and skills — compared to all other teammates — allows him to run the high pick and roll better than any other guard on the team. He has shown a tremendous ability to get to the rim and throw the lob in the paint when driving.
Win-win IMO. This takes some of the pressure off Ryan, and let’s Archie develop his game more fully. Also helps with defense having both of them in the game together. Dual-PG lineup worked well for the Cats back in 2010.
Cal had to say this… Ryan will be back at the helm, you’ll see…
3- I wouldn’t say that was Cal’s plan. I tend to think it just kind of happened that way with this whole Harrow deal. Harrow has been gone for too long to be on the same page with the rest of the team. We play Notre Dame and Baylor next. If you want to win you can’t change what you’ve been going with for the past few games just because Harrow is back. Personally, I think that’s why Archie is and will be the point man now. Archie will have to fight his way back into the line up now because Archie has too many games under his belt while running the team, plus the 2 games coming up. Plus he’s a beast.
9 — Wiltjer suffers because he doesn’t have teammates with the overall offensive ability that last year’s team had. Teams are focusing more on him and his lack of athleticism is making it very hard on him to get his own shot.
sorry … *8^
I think its safe to say that Harrow doesn’t have AIDS since he is back at practice. I don’t know why people tried to spread that rumor.
I still wonder what Harrow’s real issue is as it sounds like he is in CAL’s doghouse already.
(edit to post #8) He WASN’T just saying that and planning on keeping him as the shooting guard.
16 — I respectfully disagree. I don’t think it was his Plan A, but from the All-Access you heard him say that they needed to get Archie up to speed at the point guard spot because they weren’t sure Ryan could do it. I think he always thought there was a good chance that Archie would be the team’s main point guard. Now he is convinced of it.
Archie will be a great point guard once he learns how to give the ball up. Any decent opposing coach will set Archie up for the charge every time he drives uncontrollably into the lane. It’s going to happen Thursday night. It’s not a problem when it’s against weaker opponents because we have many other opportunities to score, but against quality opponents every possession counts. I hope he learns quick.
If you remember Cal’s Memphis team with Tyreke, he moved the young man to the point guard from the 2 spot and the team began to excel. Cal learned from this. Cal knows you don’t have to be a pass-first point guard to play the position and help the team. Tyreke was always a score-first point guard as he averaged 17.1 points per game that season. Archie will be the same type of point guard.
19. People were also trying to say he had cancer. Alot of over reacting. Everybody chill we are UK we are/are going to be awesome!
On a team of players not loaded with individual offensive talent, you sometimes just want to give the ball to your best player and tell the others to get the hell out of the way. Although not totally to this extreme, this is kind of what Cal is planning on doing.
Let Archie run the point…Dude is a monster and all motor anyway. As far as everyone complaining about him looking to score to much, I don’t remember anyone bitching about John Wall driving to the basket 100 times a game. That seemed to work out ok.
I haven’t seen anything from Harrow that impresses me so far other than he can dunk in practice. He’s turn over prone, weak with the ball, not any faster than Archie, outside shot is decent but not great, throws to many weak/stupid passes that got picked off and is to little to play through any kind of bumps.
From very early on (before Maryland) Cal was on ESPN All Access telling Archie “you have to do this if you want to play this (pg) position here”
Nothing new here, but i think Cal was hoping Ryan would give Archie a little more time to develop. Ryan can come in and give rest to Mays and Archie. But make no mistake, this is the Archie Goodwin show. Think about Wall w/Patterson & Boogie. THey were big parts but it was Wall’s team.
Archie had 9 assists last game, how many more times does he need to give it up? Sure he needs to prove he can do this consistently, but I think he is going to be more than fine.
Also, if you are Archie and you want to make it to the NBA, this is the best route. If he does well he will be lottery.
29 — I tend to agree that this will help his draft status. He will be a lottery pick regardless, though. He is slated to be the No. 10 pick right now on NBADraft.net. Although, if he has a great season at the point guard spot I think he can move into the Top 5.
Archie is very good. Maybe Ryan had to much pressure on him and this will ease it a little.
Cal has had a big, strong point guard for at least 6 years now. This isn’t terribly surprising, although I do wonder about Harrow’s role from here. Is he the Eric Bledsoe to Archie’s John Wall, or will he come off the bench? Not just over the next week, but long term.
Archie is not a point guard and will never be a great one. John Wall had great court vision and Archie does not. He is a great 2 guard. Just wait how Archie does at point when facing a real defense. You guys will be begging for Harrow or even Polson.
I think for Archie’s NBA draft positioning, he’ll need to start shooting the ball from trey land and even mid range shots. Aren’t the vast majority of his shots in the paint, while driving? That’ll be a harder way to make a living in the NBA. If he can shoot, then shoot more. He passes up A LOT of wide open mid-long range jumpers. Why not take half jumpers and drive the other half. THAT would be totally unstoppable, if he could make half of his open jumpers, because you know he’s making way more than half of his layups, or he’s getting fouled. I’d hate to have to guard Archie.
Archie is a fantastic player but he’s not going to be a PG in the NBA. He’s a great 2 guard. I want the team to be successful but I also hope that it won’t have an impact on his draft stock by playing out of position, either.
“Ok Ryan, you and me, after practice!” “Dance off for point guard!”
#5 That they can’t shoot a basketball?
Already forgotten about Wall/Bledsoe?
Archie is very strong and talented, but Cal got Harrow to be the facilitator for his team. Having Harrow in the backcourt will free Goodwin to slash and shoot with even more confidence while limiting turnovers. Plus Goodwin wont have to play 38 minutes a game and play hero ball all the time. It’s worked for a while, but it’s far from an ideal situation. Goodwin is more of a lanky 2-guard
Does Archie want to be our point guard or the 2?
Does Archie even want to be the Point Guard? If so let him lead.
Does anybody know the name of the song that Archie came out to at Big Blue Madness?