Numbers game: Who makes the 8-man rotation for John Calipari, Kentucky men's basketball?

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Without the reigning National Player of the Year, a preseason All-SEC first-team pick and another key member of its rotation, Kentucky men's basketball nearly put up a triple-digit total in its season opener Monday.

UK settled for 95 in a 32-point win over Howard at Rupp Arena.

In his first college game, freshman guard Cason Wallace almost posted a triple-double. (He finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.) In their Wildcat debuts, Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick had the game's top-two point totals: Reeves had 22, Fredrick 20.

That's all well and good for UK — in one sense. During the grind of a college basketball season, depth can be a team's best friend. But it also will be an issue — albeit a "good problem" to have, coach John Calipari said after Monday's dominant win — once Kentucky's aforementioned NPOY (forward Oscar Tshiebwe), All-SEC first teamer (point guard Sahvir Wheeler) and rotational piece (forward Daimion Collins) are back.

Tsheibwe, obviously, will return to the starting lineup, once he's fully healthy; he'll be on a minutes limitation initially as he recovers from knee surgery. Wheeler (knee injury) will start, too, while Collins will come off the bench.

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So the biggest question facing Calipari going forward: How does he handle a roster with so many players who can contribute?

"One of the things I’m trying to do is, I’m holding guys to a high standard because they’re going to be fighting for minutes," Calipari said. "Most of it will come down to, 'Are you breaking down defensively? Are you not rebounding balls? Then I got to play someone else.' And (if) there’s two or three of you, whoever’s the best defender, the best rebounder, (will be the) guy who's out there."

All told, Calipari said he has 11 players capable of taking the floor any given night.

That the Wildcats didn't have that many available is why Monday ran so smoothly, he said.

"I’m playing eight guys. Nice little rotation," Calipari said. "And you’re getting in there and you can make a mistake and you stay. So the ideal rotation would be eight. But we have 11.”

Calipari is no stranger to lengthy rotations. During the team's 2014-15 campaign — a season in which UK won its first 38 games before falling to Wisconsin in the Final Four — Calipari used a platoon system. The "Blue platoon," the starting five that year, included the Harrison twins (Aaron and Andrew) along with Alex Poythress, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Karl-Anthony Towns. The "White platoon" that came off the bench featured Devon Booker, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Trey Lyles and Tyler Ulis.

The reason Calipari hasn't employed that strategy again — and doesn't plan to utilize this season — is "for two years I couldn’t recruit anybody." Rivals negatively recruited against the Wildcats, Calipari said.

"(Other schools were saying), 'You want to go there and play 20 minutes? I’m going to start you and you’re going to take all the shots,'" he said. "And I said, 'I did that one time in my career.' And I had no choice. I had 10 guys."

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Here's a look at a few of the positional, and battles for playing time, that may ensue this season:

Running the point: Wallace vs. Wheeler

The expectation is once Wheeler, the SEC's assist leader each of the last two seasons, is full go again, that he'll take over point guard duties, with Wallace shifting off the ball more. After Monday's game, Wallace said he and Wheeler rarely have played on the same team during practice.

"Because (Calipari) wants me for this situation: being able to play the 1 comfortably," Wallace said. "So we end up on the same team sometimes, but often we're going against each other, making each other better."

Wallace expects it will be a seamless transition once Wheeler makes his season debut.

"We'll definitely be interchangeable," Wallace said. "Whoever's closest to the ball, we usually just tell that man to get the ball and run the offense. Being a guard, you know pretty much every position on the court, so it doesn't matter where he's at. He'll know the play."

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The same goes for the defensive alignments the Wildcats can throw at foes with the backcourt duo.

"It's going to be great, because we give different looks," said Wallace, at 6-foot-4 already a top-flight defender, and who's longer than the 5-foot-9 Wheeler.

Whether Wallace ends up as the primary ballhandler, or cedes that to Wheeler, Calipari said the freshman phenom shouldn't be pigeonholed as a point guard.

“He’s a guard, is what he is," Calipari said "And the best players I’ve had have been guards. They can play on the ball, they can play off the ball. But they’re tough as nails. He is tough."

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On the perimeter: Reeves vs. Fredrick

Fredrick got the starting nod Monday and played 30 minutes. Yet Reeves edged Fredrick for top-scorer honors despite being on the floor five fewer minutes. Though they both play on the wing, they aren't necessarily competing for minutes. The pair probably will be on the court as part of the Wildcats' end-of-game lineups — when the stakes are highest and points are needed the most.

"There’s an ego to starting," Calipari said after UK's exhibition finale versus Kentucky State last week. "(Like), ‘I’m a starter.’ I’ve said this before: who finishes the game is probably more important than who starts the game. Because you can start a guy just so he feels good about himself and sub him three minutes in. But that last part of the game, you’re playing the guys who have that grittiness to them, that mental toughness to them, to play to win the game. And it’s not playing just to play basketball."

In that vein, Calipari has been comfortable starting Fredrick and then subbing in Reeves to play alongside. It's a look that puts the Wildcats' two most lethal shooters on the floor at the same time.

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It certainly made life easy for Wallace.

"That's why I had so many assists this game: Just throw it to them and tell tell them to shoot it, because more than likely, they're going to make it," Wallace said with a laugh, alluding to Reeves' eight made field goals, one more than Fredrick in Monday's romp.

Calipari has employed the same practice strategy with Reeves and Fredrick as he's done with Wallace and Wheeler: the two sharpshooters normally have to square off with one another.

"That's how you get better: You come in here every day and you're playing against guys who push you to get better," Fredrick said. "Having a guy like (Reeves), who makes it hard on me, it gets me better every day. Hopefully I do the same for him."

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Tshiebwe's backup: Lance Ware vs. Ugonna Onyenso

With Tshiebwe sidelined, junior Lance Ware has manned the 5-spot during Kentucky's two preseason exhibitions as well as Monday's opener. Freshman Ugonna Onyenso, originally a 2023 prospect who reclassified to being college a year early, has served as the backup.

The two bring different things to the table.

Ware is 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds, more thickly built. Onyenso is 6-foot-11 and 225 pounds, with long, slender arms that make him appear far thinner than his listed weight.

Their strengths are exactly what one would expect based on their body types: Ware is physical, willing to make all the little plays that don't always show up in the final stats. Onyenso already has shown an otherworldly shot-blocking ability for such a young player.

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"(Onyenso) impacts the game in a different way than Lance impacts the game," Calipari said. "What Lance can do, I’ll be honest, Ugonna is not very good at. But what Ugonna is really good at Lance isn’t as good."

Simply because of his experience, it's a good bet Ware will earn the lion's share of the backup minutes when Tshiebwe reclaims his starting job. Still, Onyenso already has exceeded the coaching staff's expectations for what he could supply in Year 1. Yes, Calipari said Onyenso isn't vocal enough defensively yet. But he's impressed Calipari with his mind.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: John Calipari figuring out best 8-man rotation