NEW ORLEANS — DeMarcus Cousins has become the media darling of this year’s basketball team.
Whether he intends to or not, he often gives the most candid, hysterical, and quite frankly, most insightful interviews.
During Friday’s pre-Wake Forest media availability, he was in rare form.
First he tried to sneak into the locker room without any reporters noticing. How does a 6-foot-11, 270-pound forward scurry past 30 reporters in a 30-by-20-foot dressing area, you might ask. Crawling past the legs of the journalists toward the bathroom was Cousins’ method of choice.
Obviously, it did not work.
When Cousins finally sat down, he shined some new light on this whole “land the plane” mantra that head coach John Calipari has preached since the opening day of the tournament.
In case you haven’t read or heard it, here is what Calipari said: “When you have a team this young, you’re in the survive-and-advance mode. What we’re talking about and the message I’ve given the team is land the plane. Land the turbulence. There’s storm, there’s lightning, people drinking their ‘Hater-ade’ and coming at you. There are going to be things written and said. It’s all coming at you. Land the plane. Survive and advance.”
Cousins took the speech quite literally.
“We had a rough landing on one of (the flights),” Cousins said. “You know how you come down, it’s supposed to land on the back wheels then the front wheel. It’s supposed to be smooth. It was like (smacks his hands). So I thought he was like, ‘land the plane.’
” ‘Yeah, coach, (the pilot) almost killed us.’ “
Cousins believes the rough landing occurred on a flight back from the Mississippi State game.
“I was sleeping and just woke up and thought I was dying,” Cousins said.
Whether or not Calipari has a book of aphorisms, we’ll never know, but he’s become a machine for motivational adages. “Land the plane” was good, Cousins said, but he still has a personal favorite.
“The first one that I’ll never forget was ‘poop ice cream’ ” Cousins said. “I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ “
Asked if he thought he did “poop ice cream,” Cousins mischievously looked up and popped a grin too priceless for words.
The message, though, has always been clear for Cousins and the team. The constant theme is to keep improving and don’t settle for just good.
“I understand Cal in a strange way,” Cousins said. “It takes me a minute to get it as well.”
As for the whole “land the plane” mantra, Cousins eventually got it. He wrote it on the whiteboard for one of the team’s pregame objectives, although Calipari wasn’t sure who did it.
“That was me,” Cousins said, laughing again. “Don’t tell him though.”
Don’t worry, DeMarcus, your secret is safe with us.
