College basketball experts discuss why Kentucky reserve deserves more minutes

Could this freshman be the answer to Kentucky's defensive woes?

The Kentucky Wildcats took care of business in a major way on Tuesday evening, blasting the Vanderbilt Commodores and dropping 109 points in a much needed blowout victory.

Kentucky's offense has not been the issue this season, however, with the defense still coming it at just 104th in the country using KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency metric.

If the Wildcats want to make a push for an SEC regular season title and a deep run in the Big Dance, they will need to find ways to improve on the defensive end of the floor. No team in the past 20 years has won a national championship with a defense ranked worse than 22nd at KenPom, so the 'Cats have a ways to go.

Locked On College Basketball hosts Andy Patton and Leif Thulin discussed Kentucky's defense on a recent episode, and Thulin believes a seldom used reserve could potentially help with this area of need.

"If I were John Calipari I would try to force more pressure and use more length defensively," Thulin said. "I saw [Jordan] Burks played more, maybe he is buying into this. Adou Thiero's had some back issues, on paper he's their best defender. Maybe you play someone like Burks and say 'if you run the floor you'll get some buckets, but we just want you to defend and rebound'. You've got enough offense...I just think they need to have one or two players who accept a role as defensive stopper."

Burks played 15 minutes in the blowout over Vanderbilt on Tuesday, going a perfect 6-6 from the field with 13 points and five rebounds. That has not typically been the case for the 6'9 freshman forward, who has appeared in 16 games for Kentucky this year and is averaging 2.2 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.3 blocks in 7.7 minutes of action.

Burks is a big, athletic player who has proven he can impact the game in a myriad of ways, and in fact his rate stats show a player who could fill this type of role if given more opportunities. Currently Burks boasts a 17.6% rate of defensive rebounds, which is third on the team behind Ugonna Onyenso and Zvonimir Ivisic, and his 3.6% block rate is fourth, also behind Onyenso and Ivisic as well as Tre Mitchell.

The freshman's playing time on Tuesday was almost certainly due to the non-competitive nature of the contest, but it makes sense for Calipari to give him a longer look as a potential defensive stopper if he proves he is willing, and able, to handle that responsibility on a team desperate for more help on that end of the floor.