Terrence Jones guards a North Carolina player during the Elite 8 game of the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament, at the Prudential Center, in Newark, NJ. Photo by Latara Appleby | Staff
Undoubtedly, head coach John Calipari has had success year after year in not only recruiting talented point guards, but shaping them as well.
Freshman guard Marquis Teague joins the Cats following the footsteps of Calipari’s former players from the University of Memphis’ Derrick Rose to UK’s own John Wall and Brandon Knight.
Rose, who was drafted No. 1 overall to the Chicago Bulls in the 2008 NBA draft and eventually earned Rookie of the Year, and Tyreke Evans, who was selected fourth overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings, played for Calipari at Memphis.
Upon entering college, Rose was rated the top high school point guard with his ability to set plays up for his teammates and his ability to take control of the team in ways other than scoring, which is similar to the way Teague has been described this far into the season.
Carrying on to UK’s “Kentucky Effect,” Teague follows point guards such as John Wall, whose attention-grabbing speed, ability to make plays and ability to finish at the rim earned him immortality on UK’s campus, while clinching the No. 1 overall pick to the Washington Wizards in the 2010 NBA draft, and Brandon Knight, whose academic accomplishments mirrored his athletic performance and was the eighth overall pick to the Detroit Pistons in the 2011 NBA draft.
On paper, each of these point guards looks shockingly similar in their ratings, ability to set up plays, their speed and their athleticism, but Teague stresses that differences are present in each of them.
“I think I play with my own style of playing,” Teague said at a media day interview. “We all got our own style of play, but I feel like we’re all athletic, fast guards. We all can run a team.”
The transition from high school to college comes with obstacles for every college program, especially in Calipari’s “players first” mentality, but Teague is already showing potential in his stats from the exhibition game against Transylvania Nov. 2 at Rupp Arena.
Teague accounted for 14 total points and recorded nine assists and two steals against Transy.
His performance from the Transy game showed improvements from the Blue-White scrimmage, where Calipari commented on adjusting to the pace of the game, “when to go, when to pull, when to fly, when to pull it back.”
“Marquis Teague played a good game for a point guard first time out,” Calipari said at a postgame conference after the Transy exhibition. “Showed some good poise. Missed some shots. But that’s not what he’s going to be doing for us.”
Teague has been praised for his resemblance of a “pit bull” on and off the court, listening attentively to every detail Calipari has to say and being aggressive on defense, but having the opportunities to learn from the NBA players who have returned this year has impacted his view on the game.
“When Brandon (Knight) was here I was working out with him a little bit, just talking to him (and) seeing what I could do better,” Teague said after the Blue-White scrimmage. “I’ll do anything to get better, so I picked at Brandon.”
But from listening so close to Calipari, Teague has been able to adjust to the role of a point guard. He said point guards for Calipari are expected to be tough and that he wants to take in everything he says to lead the team on the court successfully.
“The players he coached before me were great players,” Teague said, “so he expects me to do the same thing.”
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