Kentucky Seniors Exiting on High Note

“What I can tell you about those two, and I said it this morning in a meeting with them, they’ve never played better in their careers than they’re playing right now,” Calipari said of Hawkins and Willis. “I can say the same for Mychal. That’s what you want as a coach.”

Hawkins, a 6-foot guard out of nearby Richmond, Kentucky, has never been a player who is going to fill up the box score, though he will forever live in Kentucky lore after hitting three 3-pointers and scoring a career-high 13 points in a win over Louisville last season. What can always be expected from Hawkins is great energy, a hard-nosed defensive presence and a great attitude.

After never averaging more than 9.2 minutes per game over his first three seasons, Hawkins is playing 18.3 minutes per game as a senior. Over the past four games he’s played 25.3 minutes per game, including a career-high 37 minutes in UK’s most recent game against then-No. 13/12 Florida.

“The way he’s been playing now, just fight, battle,” Calipari said. “And he forgets stuff and he’ll go, ‘Oh.’ But what are you gonna say to a guy that’s diving all over the floor, taking charges, sticking his nose in, coming up with balls he shouldn’t come up with, making layups and runners and not afraid to play?”

Mulder came to Kentucky last season after playing the first two years of his career at Vincennes University, a junior college in Indiana. 

The Windsor, Ontario, native scored just 12 total points and hit two 3-pointers during his first season in a Kentucky uniform. This season, he’s averaging 5.8 points in 11.7 minutes per game. His 30 3-pointers are the third most on the team and his 39.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc is the second-best clip among players with at least two 3-pointers made. With freshman De’Aaron Fox out with a left knee contusion against Florida on Saturday, it was Mulder who got the start.

“It was my first career start here, it meant a lot to me,” Mulder said. “I have been working really hard for it and knowing that I would get one on Senior Night, but being surprised with getting one before that was a great thing for me.”

“It’s a great feeling to be as confident as ever, as comfortable as ever,” Mulder said later. “There is no better time than now to be comfortable now, so I’m glad I feel this way at this point in the season.”

Willis had his breakout campaign as a junior as someone who helped space the floor for guards Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray. The 6-9 forward from Mt. Washington, Kentucky, has only built on that as a senior, averaging 7.0 points and 4.8 rebounds while playing a career-high 20.3 minutes per contest.

Willis has averaged nearly 25 minutes per game over UK’s last four games. During that time, he scored 16 points and knocked down four 3-pointers at home against Tennessee, grabbed a career-high tying 12 rebounds at Georgia and pulled down nine more in UK’s most victory Saturday over Florida.

“I think this is probably some of the best basketball we’ve played in our whole lives,” Willis said of UK’s three-man senior class. “I think just collectively for our senior class I think we’ve tried to really focus in as much as we could with everything we’re doing.”

But with these three seniors, it’s not only their growth on the court that has made Calipari proud, he said it’s what they’ve done off the floor as well. As rising sophomores, Hawkins and Willis participated with Samaritan’s Feet during their summer trip to the Bahamas. During the 2016 summer, all three seniors were among the UK players around to fit those in need with hearing aids prior to the inaugural Coach Cal Celebrity Softball Classic. They’ve sung carols and given gifts each Christmas, visited elementary schools and children’s hospitals as well.

“(You) try to get them to grow from every experience, and you look at these players, those three seniors, and they’ve all grown,” Calipari said.

“You want them to be ready for opportunities when they have to wait. You want them to learn about leadership, servant leadership. You want them to share, to give up something so someone else can have something. They embody that.”

Coach Cal said he “always” starts his seniors on Senior Night, and Hawkins, Mulder and Willis will each start Tuesday against Vanderbilt (9 p.m. ET on ESPN). Calipari added that he has “no idea” whether Fox will play or not.

The Commodores (16-13, 9-7 SEC), like UK’s three seniors, are playing their best basketball of the season and are currently among the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament field, according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi. Vanderbilt has won each of its past four games, including a nine-point win against South Carolina.

“Very dangerous,” Calipari said of Vanderbilt. “… They’re playing their best basketball. They’re making shots. They’re cutting hard. They played us all zone last time, and now they’re not playing zone at all. They struggled defensively and they’re not now. I tell ya, they’re playing and they’re playing together and they’ve figured it out.”

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