Yes, it’s freshmen who lead the UK basketball team. They are the stars that dominate the highlights — and the box score, usually.
But after two road losses where UK couldn’t win the game in the final minutes, head coach John Calipari wanted to get away from total reliance on his freshmen at the end of games. So he issued a challenge.
“I’ve got to get our two juniors and seniors to be a bigger part of what we’re doing at the end of the games,” Calipari said Saturday. “What are you doing to help us win, or are we sitting there saying, ‘let’s hope one of these freshmen get us the win?’”
That would be directed at DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller and Josh Harrellson, the veterans who comprise half of UK’s established six-man rotation. So they took the challenge, apparently, leading up to UK’s game against South Carolina last Saturday, which UK won.
“Me, Josh and DeAndre had a little discussion between ourselves and talked to each other about stepping up and helping the team,” Miller said.
A reporter asked Miller what the difference in the game was, but when he started to answer, Calipari cut him off.
“No fadeaways,” Calipari said. “That’s what it is. … It’s aggressive. That’s all I’m asking him to do. You don’t have to make every shot. Today, he looked like one of the best players in our league.”
DeAndre Liggins again proved he can make a difference in the game with essentially zero offensive impact. He missed all seven of his shot attempts and scored one point. But assigned with guarding Bruce Ellington, he held the small guard to eight points, which Miller credited as the key factor in the win.
“DeAndre’s a hard-nosed defender who enjoys playing defense and locking down opponents,” Terrence Jones said. “You got to have those type of players to win games and championships.”
Brandon Knight, who goes up against Liggins in practice on occasion, had his own breakdown of Liggins’ game.
“DeAndre’s pretty quick for his size, can stay with them, and his length. Once he gets up on you with his wingspan, you can’t make the same passes you would or the same type of shots,” Knight said. “And he doesn’t go for ball fakes.”
Harrellson didn’t leave quite the imprint on the game Miller or Liggins did, scoring just two points and grabbing five rebounds. His opposite, Sam Muldrow, scored 23 points on 7-for-12 shooting, collected 13 rebounds and had at least three tip-in dunks over either Harrellson or Jones.
“Like I told Terrence, we’re going to have a highlight tape of you getting dunked on in this game,” Calipari said. “He came back and says, ‘You gonna show my dunks too?’”
Jones was asked if the team would get under Harrellson’s skin about it.
“I’m going to let him slide.”
Follow Aaron on Twitter @KernelASmith.
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