LEXINGTON, Ky. — If you tick through the NCAA Tournament losses during Kentucky's current six-year Final Four drought, one theme is universal:
UK freshman guards — often destined for future NBA stardom — have struggled against more experienced foes.
In the 2019 round-of-eight loss to Auburn, Kentucky's all-freshman backcourt of Ashton Hagans, Tyler Herro and Immanuel Quickley combined to shoot 8 of 25.
Auburn's veteran guards, Jared Harper (26) and Bryce Brown (24), combined for 50 points.
The previous year, in a round-of-16 upset loss to Kansas State, the veteran physicality of the purple Wildcats bullied UK star freshman point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into a 2-of-10 shooting performance.
During what became a last-second loss to North Carolina in the 2017 round of eight, Kentucky's electric, all-freshman guard duo of De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk combined to shoot 9 of 24.
When Indiana eliminated UK in the 2016 round of 32, Kentucky's star freshman guard, Jamal Murray, shot 1 of 9 on 3-point tries.
For Wildcats backers, the good news as the official tip-off of the 2021-22 basketball season nears is that John Calipari has assembled the kind of veteran backcourt that would seem ideally suited for March Madness.
"'Let me just say it," Calipari said at UK Media Day, "we've got good guards. We do."
Kentucky has good, veteran guards.
Kellan Grady, the graduate transfer from Davidson and a super-senior, comes to Rupp Arena with 2,002 career points and 113 career starts.
Davion Mintz, another super-senior who grad-transferred from Creighton before last season, has 100 career starts on his resume and was UK's leading scorer (11.5 ppg) and best clutch shooter a season ago.
CJ Fredrick, a fourth-year player who transferred from Iowa, has started all 52 college games in which he has appeared and is a career 46.6% 3-point shooter.
Junior point guard Sahvir Wheeler led the SEC in assists last season at Georgia (7.4 a game) and arrives in Lexington with 43 career starts.
The biggest beneficiary from all the backcourt experience Kentucky has assembled might be TyTy Washington, the prototypical, Calipari-era, heralded freshman guard.
Having "guys that have experience, have been in those close situations plenty of times, it will definitely pay off," Mintz says. "We have guys who have seen different environments, been different places."
If recent history suggests it takes capable, veteran guards to make magic in March, Kentucky now has them. In addition to experience, Calipari appears to have brought together complementary pieces.
Wheeler brings the one thing that Kentucky glaringly lacked during last season's 9-16 slog: The ability to create by beating defenders off the bounce.
The 5-foot-10 Houston product knows some are fixated on his 39.9% field-goal and 22.5% 3-point shooting percentages last year.
"I hear it. I am aware of it," Wheeler says of criticism of his shot. "But it's a new year."
Wheeler points out, correctly, that he shot the ball effectively as a Georgia freshman, 47.2% overall, 32% on treys.
"Everyone is going crazy about one year," Wheeler says. "I am not worried about that at all."
The 6-5, 205-pound Grady gives Kentucky a consistent wing scorer.
Grady acknowledges he's faced an adjustment adapting at UK to a quicker pace with faster on-court reads than he was used to at Davidson.
"All the points of emphasis at Davidson were different," Grady says. "Admittedly, it took me the first two, three weeks here. In hindsight, I am grateful for that experience. I think I grew from it."
The star of Covington Catholic's 2018 Sweet Sixteen championship team, the 6-3, 195-pound Fredrick should provide Kentucky with a 3-point shooter it can rely upon.
"I would probably consider myself a very good shooter — something I have always practiced since I was a kid," Fredrick says.
On a UK team that last season had trouble winning, Mintz spent most of the year looking like a winning basketball player.
This season, Mintz is part of a core of capable, veteran Kentucky guards — with all that should mean for the Cats when UK gets to the games that matter.
"This is a real-old team," Mintz says. "It's gonna be a lot of fun. There is really high-level basketball in this backcourt."
