Returners Bringing Confidence, High Hopes into Summer
PJ Washington has only just returned from the precipice of where he’s always wanted to go.
The 6-foot-7 forward went through the entire pre-draft process, including the NBA Combine, before electing to return to Kentucky for his sophomore season.
Washington made the decision to better prepare himself to reach his long-held dreams, so you might think personal improvement – shooting, conditioning, defense – would be the first things on his mind in making his return. But you’d be wrong.
What, instead, is his primary goal for the 2018-19 season?
“Wins,” Washington said on Thursday.
As it turns out, John Calipari has been right all along: The surest way to impress in college is to contribute meaningfully to a winning team. So that’s what Washington intends to do.
It’s a good thing, then, that Washington is surrounded by such talent.
“I wanted to be here,” Washington said. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be here. Being here in front of these guys is just great and I feel like we have great group of guys coming in, a lot of great freshmen, and I feel we can have a great season.”
Washington – currently recovering from surgery to repair a finger ligament torn way back in January – might be the most high-profile returner who will play alongside yet another highly touted group of Wildcat newcomers, but he’s far from the only one. Quade Green, Nick Richards and Jemarl Baker are also back, though each of the three took different paths.
Green’s may have been perceived by the onlookers as the most uncertain. Rumors of Green’s potential transfer were everywhere, except the place where it mattered most.
“Never crossed my mind,” Green said. “That all the media stuff. That wasn’t me.”
Instead, Green is all in for sophomore season and willing to do whatever it takes to help his team win. He started his freshman season at point guard, but eventually moved off the ball with the emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. If he has to do the same this year, so be it.
“If the team needs me to shoot and score, that’s what I’m going to do,” Green said. “If the team needs me at point guard, I still got that. If they need me to play the four, I’m strong enough to play the four.”
Considering UK’s frontcourt talent and Green’s 6-foot frame, it seems unlikely he’ll need to do that. Leadership, on the other hand, is almost certainly something that will be asked of Green. So with the Cats back on campus, working out and playing pickup together the last two weeks, Green is trying to step up.
“Right now you can see in pickup he’s trying to be that vocal leader to everybody,” Richards said. “He’s trying to tell everybody what to do. He’s trying to get everybody to pick the pace up, don’t get lazy, trying to lead the team.”
As Green works to grow into a leader, Richards is looking inward. After an up-and-down freshman season, Richards is taking to heart Calipari’s postseason message about using his first year as a learning experience.
“I just gotta work out every day and just believe in what I do,” Richards said. “Mostly, I used to look towards other people for approval. Now I just look to myself for approval.”
Richards’ talent was never in doubt, a fact borne out by moments of brilliance throughout the season. Unfortunately, long stretches between those moments of brilliance were marked by struggle for the 6-11 forward. Calipari told Richards his struggles were mostly rooted in a lack of self-confidence.
“He just wanted me to be more confident in myself,” Richards said. “That’s basically what he said. He said he saw that I wasn’t even believing in myself most of the time. It’s hard for others to believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself, so he just wanted me to focus on that.”
Richards, now familiar with the grind of a college basketball season and everything that entails, is headed down the right path.
“My confidence is real high right now,” Richards said. “I know what to expect in practices and games now. I’ve been in this situation before.”
To some extent, Baker can say the same.
The 6-4 sharpshooter was with last year’s team every step of the way, but a knee injury forced him to the bench for the entire season. Now “100 percent,” Baker is working to get in “great shape” this summer to be ready to make his UK debut in the fall. As for his role, Baker is leaving that all up to his coach.
“Wherever Cal wants my skills to fit in, honestly,” Baker said. “I’m just going to go out there and play hard and show everybody what I can do.”
Since Baker has never played in a game, he’s as much of an unknown to fans as the four freshmen who arrived on campus earlier this month. Already, Immanuel Quickley, Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson and EJ Montgomery are showing their new teammates what they can do.
“All of them can play,” Baker said. “Whether it’s Keldon getting to the rim finishing, Tyler scoring, Quick scoring, EJ just playing basketball – he’s a really good player. Everybody is just doing really well.”
The unknown, of course, is whether anyone else will join that group before the season starts. Whether that happens or not, Washington and his fellow returners are happy with where they are.
“I like our roster now, but I feel like if we include a couple more guys that would be great,” Washington said. “It would be great for me, it would be great for the team, it would be great for our program. They’re great guys, the guys here and the guys coming in. So we’ll have a great chance if we get them and if we don’t get them we’ll be fine anyways.”
