Notebook: Fox’s Transformation Enhances UK Offense

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – De’Aaron Fox has changed.

He’s not a different person. He doesn’t do or say different things or act in different ways, but on the basketball court he’s become a different player and the Wildcats may just be a better, more dangerous team because of it.

“He’s grown, but what he’s learned to do is play physical, not take a hit and fly, and throw a ball,” head coach John Calipari said. “He’s learned to play through bumps. He’s learned to work. He’s understood the grind now. It took him a while. They think, well, I’m just going to go play. He shot 15 percent for a while. Like, dude, you can’t miss every single shot. Now all of a sudden, if he’s open, that ball is down. Second thing is he goes to the rim, and I know if he gets hit, he can still make it. Well, early in the season, he wasn’t doing that.”

Fox missed the Wildcats’ home game against Florida on Feb. 25 with a left knee contusion, and came off the bench in his first game back against Vanderbilt. Since returning to the starting lineup on March 4 for UK’s regular-season finale at Texas A&M, he’s averaged 22.4 points and 2.4 assists per game. Among the highlights of that seven-game stretch is a NCAA Tournament freshman-record 39 points against UCLA in the Sweet 16, and a Southeastern Conference Tournament MVP nod.

That’s a stark contrast to his numbers prior to that, where he averaged 15.4 points and 5.2 assists per game. This is the same player who opened his career with a dozen assists against Stephen F. Austin, the most ever by a Wildcat in their debut, and logged just the second triple-double in school history when he had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a blowout win over Arizona State in late November.

“Honestly since the postseason started,” Fox said. “I’ve been in attack mode.”

“The SEC Tournament, honestly, is what – it gave me a huge confidence booster, especially winning MVP,” Fox said Saturday. “Coming into the tournament with that much momentum, I’m just not trying to look back right now.”

The 6-foot-3 Fox, blessed with as much speed and quickness as any college basketball player in the country, was far more of a pass-first player early in his career. He had 10-plus assists on four different occasions by mid-December. But with UK’s up-and-down, fast-paced, transition-oriented play diminishing as the season progressed and teams got back quicker on defense, so too did his assist numbers.

But what has transpired is now perhaps even a more dangerous weapon, and one who’s game only seems to be becoming more difficult to defend.

“He can score whenever and he can pass the ball,” Malik Monk said. “It’s hard to guard him. He’s been knocking down shots. His jumper has gotten way more consistent now. He’s knocking down jumpers and stuff like that now. He’s just hard to guard at all three levels.”

Bam Adebayo sat at his locker late Friday evening and couldn’t help but shake his head. He just couldn’t believe it.

“Book (Devin Booker) scored 70. Man, how many points did we score tonight?” he asked a reporter standing next to him.

86.

“Yo, Zay, we only beat Booker by 16!” Adebayo said with wide eyes.

Early in Friday night’s Sweet 16 victory over third-seeded UCLA, Twitter was abuzz with what the former Kentucky star was doing to the Boston Celtics. After scoring 19 points in the first half, which should be noted is nothing to frown upon, Booker scored a remarkable 51 points in the second half, which is more than both UK and UCLA scored as a team in the second half.

He is just the sixth player in NBA history to score 70 points in a game, and at 20 years old is the youngest to ever do it. The list of players to reach the 70-point plateau now includes Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, David Robinson, David Thompson and Booker.

The remarkable performance by the second-year pro was so great that the Wildcats, fresh off a win that put them in the Elite Eight for the sixth time in the past seven seasons, couldn’t stop talking about it in the locker room afterwards.

“We were talking about good win, all that stuff, but I think (assistant coach Tony) Barbee came in. He was like, ‘Your boy Book just dropped 70,’ ” Derek Willis recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ That’s just nuts. He’s a talented player. He can put it up. He can get buckets.”

On Saturday, the mere mention of Booker scoring 70 points incited chuckles of disbelief from the five Wildcats seated beside him on the dais. Malik Monk, who broke the Kentucky freshman scoring record earlier this season when he scored 47 against North Carolina, could only put his head down and shake it back and forth.

“How do you get 70?” Coach Cal asked. “Like he showed up our team. We just have a great win and they’re going to be talking about Devin Booker all night now.”

Here we are, with eight teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament, there’s one common theme with nearly half of them: They come from the Southeastern Conference.

“There are not three SEC teams in the Elite Eight,” Calipari said facetiously Friday night. “We’re supposed to be a bad league. That’s got to be all these other leagues, right?”

Nope, Coach Cal, the SEC does have three teams in the Elite Eight and it’s the only conference with multiple teams still standing.

After being criticized throughout much (read: all) of the regular season, the SEC has shown that perhaps it’s a bit tougher than originally believed. 

Kentucky (32-5), the No. 2 seed in the South Region, Florida (27-8) the No. 4 seed in the East Region and South Carolina (25-10), the No. 7 seed in the East Region, are still standing and will all be in action Sunday afternoon. With the Gators and Gamecocks meeting in the East Region finals, the conference is guaranteed at least one team in the Final Four.

“It shows our league isn’t as weak as some people say it is,” freshman forward Bam Adebayo said. “We got good teams in the SEC. It’s not just a football league and we fight.”

That fight and physicality is a big reason each of the three teams still standing have said they are still standing. The day-in, day-out grind of the conference has helped prepare each of them for the rigors and pressures of postseason play, they said.

After failing to get a large number of teams in the tournament over the past few years, the SEC was often criticized and mocked for being a football conference that didn’t care about the roundball. The constant (and incorrect) rhetoric grew old and boring to South Carolina head coach Frank Martin, but he said the only way to change it was to do what the conference is doing this year.

 “We can sit and gripe and mope and complain and blame, they’re not about that. And I’m not about that,” Martin said. “I just let people know I don’t appreciate that negativity, but the only way to get people to shhh is by doing what these guys have done.”