Kentucky’s Anthony Davis, a 6-foot-10, 222-pound freshman forward from Chicago, Ill., was named SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 15.5 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in wins over Georgia and at Florida. Davis averaged a double-double on the week including a 22 point-12 rebound-six block performance in UK’s win at 13th ranked Florida. It was his 14th double-double of the season, second most by a freshman in UK history. He moved to eighth (146) on UK’s career blocks list, fifth on all-time NCAA freshman blocks list.
Fouled up: UK Hoops loses to LSU 72-61 in SEC Tournament LSU was 34-for-43 from the free throw line. The Cats (25-6) will next play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament March 17 or 18. Their seeding, opponent, region and location will be decided and announced Monday, March 12.
On the opportunity to go undefeated in the league … “Every game has its own importance for this program. We treat every game the same so it doesn’t matter who we are playing it is treated the same way. We will approach this game like every other game. One way you look at it is that it has no bearing on anything. Will we show up and play or will we let go of the game? We are going to find out about our guys. My thing is that you just want them to compete and if that is not good enough (that’s fine). Florida could come in and make 25 3s on you. If they come in and make 25 3s then alright we are going to the tournament as a one seed.”
On wanting to make history by going undefeated … “I don’t think I have ever talked about making history. I would like to make history to take our home-winning streak to 12 years. Here (at Kentucky), there is no setting records. You try to be the best team you can be and establish the excellence of a program. We are playing Florida, a terrific basketball team and a ranked basketball team on the road. It is going to be very hard for us to win. We know that. I am more concerned about my team. We have gotten better now let’s see what we do with our last true road game. The rest of the games this season will be at neutral sites and we will have our share of fans.”
On taking Anthony Davis off the first team some during practice … “It has worked out well two ways. One way, Anthony (Davis) gets to play the four position, which you saw him pop out and hit a 3. The second side of it is that it is giving us an awareness of, ‘Hey Terrence (Jones), you have to be him. You have to block more shots and do more stuff.”
On Dance Blue going on in Memorial Coliseum and the team making an appearance … “I didn’t even know that is going on to be honest with you, but that is a great thing that our students do. We just sent the team over to cheer them on. It is a really neat thing and they raise a lot of money for a lot of good things. It is one of the highlights for our students.”
On heading into tournament play and the added length to TV timeouts, halftimes, etc., and if that affects the team … “In the NCAA Tournament you have like 10 minutes to walk to your locker room so some of it is that and you need more time. People want to talk about our bench; I am almost like, ‘Man, are you wanting to grab anything.’ I have two players that come off the bench and score 25 points. If there is any other team in the country that has two players that can come off the bench and score 25 points tell me who they are. Maybe it’s Syracuse, maybe it’s Ohio State, I don’t know who it is. But those two (Darius Miller, Kyle Wiltjer) can score 25 points. You talk about our 3-point shooting. We don’t rely on it, yet, we are one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league. If we make 15, then we are going to beat you by 30. If we make five, then it appears we are going to beat you anyway. All I am trying to do is see how good we can be as a team, how much better we can be individually. Can we get in better shape? Can we get a little stronger? I am really trying to encourage these guys and I will say it again, one of the things I have said is that if we win then you are going to get all the credit. Each one of you are going to share in the glory and benefit in that success. And if we get beat, then it will be on me and I will take full responsibility. Just go play, go get better. I am not going to blame anybody. I’m not going to blame an official or blame a player. I have been through it now. In 2008, we lost and I took responsibility. I said, ‘You guys were great and that was me.’ I am going to do the same now. We are going to play it out and try to get these kids in the greatest frame of mind we can. This game here is a hard one, tough game.”
On if he has seen any signs that the team feels some pressure … “No, I haven’t. But part of it is that two weeks ago I began the mantra that, ‘You guys are fine, just go play.’ I told them yesterday that over 100 practices I can’t remember a bad practice. DeWayne (Peevy) told me about this BPI, which I had never heard of, and (it measures) efficiency of teams. We are No. 1 in that and we have been so consistent all year it’s been amazing. In the last five years they have been doing it I have had two teams that have been No. 1 in it. The 2008 team was the No. 1 BPI team. No game is more important and you are trying to get them to play every game out. It is really, really hard. But that is the challenge and that is what we are trying to do.”
On how the injury to Will Yeguete affects them … “That hurts them, that hurts them. Because they have to go small, which in another sense could help them, because now they could have five 3-point shooters on the floor if Erik (Murphy) is at the five. I want you to think about that, all five guys can shoot 3s. So in one way it hurts them, but it also helps them. He is that guy off the bench that was physical and could so some things. It is just unfortunate for the kid; I wish he didn’t get injured.”
On what he liked from looking at the tape from the win Thursday night vs. Georgia … “There was a lot of good. I thought that we shared the ball. Three of our turnovers out of eight were a shot-clock violation, a lazy pass by Marquis (Teague) and look-away pass by Terrence (Jones) and those were all late. When you look at it, for us to play the way we did and we defended and talked and made it hard for them and rebounded. We did a lot of good stuff. The breakdown tape yesterday there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff I could show them. I picked out some stuff like how a guy went and got water and this guy wasn’t cheering on the bench, but it was hard to pick out stuff.”
On tomorrow being the last true road game and if there is a feeling that this is a throw-away game … “I hope not. It is a pride game. Let’s figure out what we are. I let them know that it would be a physical game and that they would in all likelihood come out and be physical. They will play at their best and they will be so hyped and the building will be sold out. I don’t know if it is cup day, bat day, ball day, whatever it is. I imagine it is some day. Family night or senior night, whatever it is, it will be a hyped game.”
On if they are preparing for anything unexpected like West Virginia’s 1-3-1 two years ago … “We have faced everything. We have faced it all. What happened in that game is we went 0-for-20 from the 3-point line and they were good. They had played in Syracuse a few different times before and had an advantage over us and for them to be the last two, or whatever you want to say, was unfortunate for us. I guess the luck of the draw as they would tell you. We were prepared but if you go 0-for-20 you aren’t supposed to win.”
On if there is any weakness he sees in his team right now … “We are just trying to get better. You can go have a bad 3-point shooting night, a bad free-throw shooting night, get in foul trouble. There are all kinds of things. It is just one-and-done right now. Fate intervenes and all of a sudden that is a foul and that is foul and Anthony (Davis) you are done sit down. There is a close call and it goes against you twice. You get the seeds and look at the draw and say, ‘Oh my gosh, they let the Lakers in. I don’t think they can have the Lakers in there.’ It is fate. It intervenes in what you are doing here. All I am trying to do is say that we are in the best frame of mind and physically ready to go. Let’s go play the game and whatever happens is going to happen at this point. It is one game. It is not best of five or seven. Historically, I have had my teams ready for the challenge of that march and it is truly a march now. It is not just, ‘OK, play a game and yay.’ No, the first game is hard. Think about us last year, we had a pretty darn good team and played Princeton and were lucky to win. We won on a bank shot.”
On him thinking through as many contingency plans as he can to get them as prepared as possible … “Yeah, but there are things that are going to happen that you aren’t prepared for. Do you ever think your team is going to go 0-for-20 from 3-point line. Then what do you do if they do? You say, ‘You can make it just keep shooting.’ Then they keep shooting and the balls keep bonking (off the rim). Stuff happens. Then you say, ‘We are good, get fouled and we will make the free throws.’ And you go 1-for-5. What is your solution? Put your best free-throw shooters on the line, they were. They were and they missed too. Guard these guys. It happens. My thing is to just get my team as prepared as we can be and let it go and see what happens.”
UK Hoops celebrated a SEC regular-season championship before tipoff of its SEC tournament game in a trophy presentation on the court of Bridgestone Arena. UK Hoops rally late in second half to win 71-67 and advance to face LSU Saturday at 4pm.
On the seniors … “You have two players and people who have come to this program in different circumstances. Darius (Miller)’s case, rough freshman year, new coach comes in with a bunch of new players, adapts, changes his game, accepts new players and then responds and gets better every year. He will be an NBA player, no doubt in my mind. There is no college player that has played with more NBA players than him. Eloy (Vargas) comes here and again, plays on a team with some pretty good players and has been waiting his turn. Like I’ve told you before, I’ve had scouts come to me like, ‘is this another Josh (Harrellson)?’ we’re not getting to see him because he is playing behind the spider-man (Anthony Davis) there. My hope is he gets the opportunity to go to Portsmouth and show himself and at the end of this year as we finish it out, including this game Thursday, that he shows people, hey I’m Swen Nater, played behind (Bill) Walton, all the sudden has an 11-year career. When I said he’d be a professional, he will be a professional, it may not be the NBA and it may be the NBA. Someone is going to like his size and what he does. They are both going to graduate which is neat. They have both done the work they need to do and they have stayed out of trouble. Last night I get a call at 11:20 and Eloy Vargas is on the treadmill, last night at 11:20. He is waiting for his opportunity, that’s hard now, it’s easy to be out there playing, it’s hard when you are standing there waiting for your opportunity and working hard every day.”
On what he tells scouts when they ask about Eloy … “What I say is, you have a 6’10, 6’11 player who can rebound and run the court and is more skilled than you think. You look in the NBA, how many big guys are there, they have 30 teams. You look at all these teams in Europe, if he chooses to do this he will continue to play.”
On Darius Miller late in games … “It’s not been calming, he’s just changed. I got on him because he was 1-13 on free throws after someone calls a timeout and he has to go shoot a free throw. I told him, you know why, because you sit there and think too much then you go out there and almost shoot an air ball. Well the last game there was a timeout and he made one and he said, ‘did you notice I made that free throw after the timeout.’ When you let him know, he responds and he has responded for this team. Like I said, we have six starters and he has started some of the games and if he’s not the sixth man of the year you have to show me who it will be. He’s awfully good.”
On how much Eloy will play against Georgia … “I’m going to try to play him as many minutes as I can which is what I always do with the seniors on senior night.”
On Darius being a “glue” guy … “It means he does everything the team needs him to do, he completes everybody. He’s not competing, he’s completing. He’ll do, if he needs to rebound, defend, he’ll play some guard, and he’ll play some forward, whatever position we ask him, he just completes everybody.”
On what he saw from Darius when he became the coach at UK … “Well when I first got here, of the all the players that I watched and this is before the freshman class came in, he had a better feel for the dribble drive than anybody there and I was pleasantly surprised. Then I said, ‘how much did he play?’ ‘Two minutes a game.’ What? So obviously there were two different styles of play. I liked what I saw and obviously he has just gotten mentally and physically tougher. All these kids are on different time tables. Just because a young man stays three years, four years doesn’t mean the guy that’s one or two years (is better). No, they are just on different time tables. When you talk about us having three guys in that ‘Rise’ game and no other school had more than one, I hope that’s every year. Which means, not only are they leaving to go to the league, they are performing, Josh Harrellson. When you look at that and a guy like Darius, it has taken him some time but at the end of the day he is going to be in the position he wants to be in.”
On Darius Miller getting an opportunity to play more … “There is no such thing in any program that I have coached that says it is my turn. It doesn’t matter if you are a sophomore, junior or senior. There is no such thing that says it is my turn. Either you play or he plays. There is no real emotion about it. We are trying to put the best team on the floor and the best players on the floor. You like to reward, but at the end of the day, it is about performance and you know, it’s like he was playing in front of guys my first year here and then some guys were playing in front of him. That’s just how it goes. There is no ‘my turn’. If you have that kind of program, you don’t have that competitive fire within; you’re not going to reach the height of your team in my opinion.”
On Darius Miller playing better off the bench … “It didn’t matter if it was he or Doron (Lamb). And it still doesn’t matter. If Doron is in, and he’s not playing, then he’s out. If Terrence (Jones) is not playing, he will go in at the four and we will go small. My point guard threw it away two times in 2:30, then you’re out. Then he went in, and Doron moved to point. This is about performance and it is day-to-day. We talked today about this team in general. I told (assistant coach) John Robic, how many bad practice days have we had? We have probably had over 100 practice days. Maybe one or two, and it’s hard for me to remember. How many games did we just play flat this year? I don’t really remember any. These kids are not machines and they are not computers. They are trying. They know they are up against it every game they play. Someone is going to come out and try to blow their brains out. I’m really proud of all of these guys. Leadership on this team, you think about it, whether it’s Darius (Miller) coming off the bench or Eloy (Vargas) not playing a whole lot. They haven’t affected us, except in a positive way. They have both been positive in how they have done this. I really want them to do well.”
On Anthony Davis being a Player of the Year candidate … “I think there are some other worthy candidates too, but I am going to be biased and at the end of the year, he is going to take 200 shots less than all of those guys that they are considering; 200 shots less, yet probably has more of an impact on any of these games. And that’s not taking away anything from anybody else because, you know, those other guys are just as deserving. He has had a special year. What he has done defensively for us, what he has done offensively for us, and he has done it in a way where he is not selfish in anyway. He has taken 200 less shots. That’s a big number now. You’re talking about averaging five more points a game, maybe six. The best thing for my team is to pass it more and get it less, and he is fine with that.”
UK Senior Darius Miller on his UK career and UK's 2012 Senior Night game Thursday on ESPN against the Georgia Bulldogs.. Video courtesy of Courier-Journal.com.
On what will go through his mind as his last home game winds down … “I can imagine it’ll be emotional for me. I’ve been here for, like you said, a while. I had a lot of good memories, met a lot of great people, great coaching staff. I can imagine it being emotional for me.”
On what it has been like to be the one constant player for four years … “It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve met a lot of great guys, a lot of great players that I’ve had the chance to play with. I still talk to everybody to this day. I feel like they’re my brothers. It’s been a great experience and I can say I’m blessed to be a part of something like that.”
On what it will be like having his last game in Rupp Arena … “I think it will be a lot of fun. I’m happy I get to experience it with some guys like these that I’m really close with. Like I said, it might be a little emotional for me. I don’t know. It should be a lot of fun. Hopefully we have a great game and come out with a win.”
On whether he knows why he excels towards the end of games … “Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like the whole team does a great job of focusing in on it at the end of the game, trying to make big plays for us to win. We all focus on the same thing, which is winning. I think we do a great job when it’s crunch time.”
On what he thinks about being referred to as the “glue guy” for the team … “I’m happy with that, especially to be on a team with this much talent. I have great teammates and for them to say that about me, I’m happy about it. I’m grateful to be talked about in that way. It’s a great honor.”
On the lows and the highs of his career at UK … “My freshman year was kind of rough, as you all know, going to the NIT and stuff like that. I feel like we had a pretty good team. We had pretty good talent on the team, but like you said we were kind of disappointed with how we finished out. The past couple of years it’s been a great experience. We’ve had a really good team. Like I said really great teammates and a great coaching staff. If we can finish out this last game on a win, I’d be extremely happy.”
On whether he was worried about what would happen to him when Coach Calipari got hired … “I think all of us were, the guys that were here and they guys that planned on staying. I think we were all worried about what was going to happen. We had been pretty close so we were wondering if we were going to get split up. Like I said, I’m happy I got to stay and he chose me to stay so it’s been a great experience so far.”
UK Senior Eloy Vargas on his UK career and UK's 2012 Senior Night game Thursday on ESPN against the Georgia Bulldogs. Video courtesy of Courier-Journal.com.
On what it’s been like to be a Kentucky Wildcat … “Well it’s been great to be here in this program and being in Kentucky. It’s the best program in the world right now in college. So being a part of this program has been tremendous.”
On if he might possibly be another Josh Harrellson … “Well I think it’s a compliment for me in that this is my first time hearing him say that about me and what I’m doing - like trying to be focused and trying to play my best and do the right thing on the court and off the court and in practice trying to get better.”
On if it ever gets frustrating not getting much playing time … “Nah, I’m good because every time we win, everybody wins. It’s Kentucky and this is a family. It’s not about self, it’s about us.”
On the best thing about being a part of this program … “Being in front of Coach Cal, teaching me how to be a better player and a better person, and me pushing myself like before I came over here; I rarely saw how hard you had to work to be on the court, so I think I’ve learned a lot from being here and being a part of this program.”
On how he thinks Kentucky fans will remember him … “I don’t know how they’re going to remember, but I know I was part of the Final Four, so they will probably remember me, so that’ll be nice.”
On what the rest of the season holds … “This is where the fun begins now. You don’t know what’s going to happen. This is going to be a long season. We’ve got about five more weeks left and you don’t know what can happen. Somebody can get in foul trouble and I can maybe come out and do the right thing and make a play for the team and we can come out with a win.”
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