If freshman forward Terrence Jones continues at his present pace, he’ll become the first Kentucky player to average 20 or more points per game in his first season at UK since Mike Casey in the 1967-68 season.
That’s an interesting piece of trivia considering UK’s all-time leading scorer, Dan Issel, was actually the second-leading scorer to Casey in their first years on the varsity.
Cotton Nash is the gold standard for first-year production, though, with an average of 23 points per game in the 1961-62 campaign.
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ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes gives the edge to UK in its matchup with North Carolina on Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C. Dykes, a one-time Kentucky assistant coach, has worked games involving both teams in recent weeks.
“I think that’s a winnable game for Kentucky,” Dykes said on “The Leach Report” radio show this week. “I think Kentucky is a tougher team, with more of an edge to them. They understand how to play hard every possession more than North Carolina does at this point. To me, in the months of November and December, that’s what wins you games, more than execution.”
The series has been streaky. UNC won six in a row, then the Cats won four straight and last year’s 68-66 UK victory snapped another five-year run for the Tar Heels.
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Saturday’s game at UNC begins a stretch of three straight contests against rivals for the Big Blue. Notre Dame is next (at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky., on Wednesday) and then Indiana comes to Rupp Arena next Saturday.
But head coach John Calipari has talked about the benefit of what is learned from facing quality competition and that’s something Michigan State coach Tom Izzo believes in, too.
At a news conference on the eve of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, Izzo talked about his philosophy with tomleachky.com. He said, as a young coach, he came to admire how Temple’s John Chaney would play anybody, anywhere.
“It just worked for me,” Izzo said of adopting that approach. “I like going to places and playing the best teams and the best coaches. When I’m done, I’ll get to say ‘I got to do it the best way I could do it and that’s not back down from anybody.’ If our team and our program gets that mentality, I think we win more than we lose.”
Izzo’s Spartans have already played three nationally ranked teams in the likes of Connecticut, Washington and top-ranked Duke.
“Dick Vitale, over the years, has said the most important thing is competition,” Izzo said. “And then some people say the most important thing is confidence. I kind of waver on that. I think competition is important but I think the way social media is nowadays and talk radio, kids can get hammered (by criticism). But I think they’ve learned that if they come to our place, that’s what we’re about. Some day it’s going to catch me but I’m going to keep doing what we’re doing. Although this year, I might have bit off a little more than I can chew because our league is so good. So be it — it’s more about the program than it is about one year.”
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When Kentucky and Oklahoma squared off in the first round in Maui, Hawaii, OU coach Jeff Capel was already familiar with Coach Cal’s style from having faced him twice when Cal was at Memphis. Capel said there’s one big difference between this UK team and the way those Memphis teams played.
“Right now, it may be one of Cal’s best shooting teams,” Capel said. “We played them two years in a row (when he was at Memphis) and they didn’t have guys that shoot the ball (like this). With their versatility and especially with Terrence and his ability to score inside and out and draw your bigs out, (they’re hard to guard).”
Capel tried hard to convince Jones to come to Oklahoma. In addition to the overall skill package, Capel thinks Jones has one more advantage.
“You don’t see a lot of left-handed guys out there,” Capel said. “It’s awkward (for a defender).”
