DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton were used to being the big men on campus.
In high school, they towered over their opponents like trees in a forest of shrubs. They were bigger, faster and stronger than their competition on almost a daily basis.
It often became easy for them.
“At the high school level you just overpowered everybody,” Cousins said.
If Cousins or Orton wanted to take a night off and put it in cruise control, so be it – they’d still score 20 points and grab 10 rebounds. Physical abilities alone were good enough for a nightly double-double.
“A lot of times, I guess you could say I played laid back,” Cousins said.
How laid back?
“I was very laid back,” Cousins said “It’s just bad habits from high school.”
Cousins, maybe a bit unfairly, earned the title as being a lazy player because it was so easy for him in high school. Orton never earned that questionable distinction, but it was just as obvious that the game came easy to him at Bishop McGuiness in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Now the twin towers are no longer the only buildings on the block. Unlike high school, the collegiate floor is filled with players just as big and just as strong as they are.
“Here they’re just as strong as you so you’re going to have show some skill,” Cousins said. “It’s just an adjustment. The speed of the game, the strength of the game, all of it’s just a new adjustment.”
Patterson remembers a similar alteration when he came to UK two years ago. Although he hardly showed any signs of struggling during a 16.4-point, 7.7-rebound, All-Southeastern Conference season, he said it takes times for young post players to learn that they have to bring it every day, game and practice.
“There’s guys bigger than you out there, so it’s all about you wanting it more and you getting lower than they are,” Patterson said, pointing out some of college’s biggest post presences like Cole Aldrich of Kansas. “(Cousins and Orton are) not necessarily lazy guys. I think that just comes naturally. You’re used to overpowering people by not putting forth much effort. You get used to that. But when you come to another level where you have to put forth the effort and put forth the energy and power to it, actually getting low, actually running and doing all the little things, it takes time to adjust to it.”
Orton, who towered over most high school players at 6-foot-10, said he fell victim to the playing level of high school, where he could get away with just about anything and still dominate.
“In high school, usually after a while you become the man and really don’t have to work that hard,” Orton said. “Your coach knows that you’re the guy so you really don’t have to put forth much effort in practice and all. You are bigger than everybody so it takes less effort to score and play defense, so you do become lazy and develop bad habits in high school.”
In the two exhibition games, it looked like both would breeze through the transition. Orton scored four points and seven rebounds in his debut before getting hurt the next game against Clarion, and Cousins averaged 15.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in the two preseason games.
However, when it came to the real thing in the season opener vs. Morehead State, both appeared to become lost in the flow of the game. Cousins was saddled in foul trouble for much of the contest and Orton played just 13 minutes.
“You really can’t walk over people,” Patterson said. “I’m sure that they’re starting to figure that out.”
It took an 18-point first-half deficit to Miami (Ohio) for them to understand what head coach John Calipari has been warning them about since the start of practice: play hard every minute because Kentucky is everyone’s Super Bowl.
“I just got to get my motor going early,” Cousins said. “I’m just going to try come out with a different approach.”
Cousins and Orton appeared to find that approach Monday night. Orton finished with an overall strong performance despite limited minutes because of an elbow he took to the head, and Cousins, after sitting out most of the first half with two fouls, erupted in the second.
“DeMarcus, he’s just a freshman. He’s got to keep his emotions in check,” Calipari said Monday night. “He sometimes wears them on his sleeves, so his body language doesn’t look right. What he doesn’t understand yet is that negative physiology blends to the rest of us. That passion and emotion and the enthusiasm is also contagious. He’s just going to learn.”
When Cousins screwed his head on straight, he scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, most of them coming during a critical stretch near the end of the tightly contested game.
“The reality of it is for that four-minute stretch he dominated the game,” Calipari said. “He just dominated.”
Like any freshman, Cousins and Orton are going to struggle. The hills and valleys of a college season are in a freshman’s DNA, and highly touted or not, there are rarely exceptions.
Calipari understands that, but he has also quickly realized that the paint is where his team’s strength lies. After watching his team boot around a few more turnovers than he would like and struggle with the pace of the game, Calipari’s told reporters twice in the last three days that he plans on getting the ball to the post more often.
Patterson’s body of work has proven that he’s up for the task. Now it’s time to find out if the young twin towers are ready to play like big men on campus.
“We’ve got two good centers,” Calipari said. “The problem is they’re 18 years old.”
