2018-19 Preseason Basketball Coverage
Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro never get a break from each other on the court.
Almost every practice, scrimmage and workout, the two freshman swingmen battle tooth and nail.
“Me trying to kill him and him trying to kill me,” Johnson said. “I think that’s the best way to describe it.”
Frankly, if you only saw them in that context, you might be a little concerned about their ability to coexist.
“If you saw us on the court, you would be like, ‘Dang, they hate each other,’ ” Johnson said.
The thing is, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Outside the lines, Johnson and Herro are close to inseparable. As heated as their battles might be and in spite of the fact that they are competing for playing time on a crowded roster, all is forgotten when they leave the court.
“Me and Keldon go at it almost every day, but off the court we’re as close as it gets,” Herro said. “We might get in a fight in practice, but once we step back in the locker room we have each other’s backs. At the end of the day, we’re each other’s brother.”
Away from the court, Herro and Johnson are more interested in having fun than stewing over their latest on-court tussle, no matter how heated it might have been. Their relationship serves as a microcosm for this entire Kentucky team. On one hand, you have a group of 13 players who relish competition, who would do anything to beat one another. On the other, that same group is just a bunch of kids always up for a good time.
It’s that very combination that could make the Cats special.
“We have excited people on our team that like playing, that like the fun, that like to joke around,” sophomore Quade Green said. “But when they get in here, they take everything serious. And that’s kind of fun too, because everybody loves basketball.”
The dynamic is one that coaches across all sports try to manufacture, but this Kentucky team seems to come by it naturally. As rewarding as last season was, Green says this year’s group is different in that regard. He credits UK’s incoming freshman class in part for that.
“They make it fun,” Green said. “We’re all together and it makes it fun for each other. Nobody has to try to make it fun. Nobody has to force you to do anything. We do it on our own.”
That was certainly true on UK’s Big Blue Bahamas Tour, on which the Wildcats posted four dominant victories and – perhaps even more importantly – became even tighter as a group.
“It made us bond a little bit,” Green said. “Matter of fact, a lot. It made us bond a lot. … We were just having fun, being brothers. Get to know each other, everybody. See what they don’t like, see what they do like. See what they’re scared of, what they’re not scared of.”
Some of those fears came to the surface on a team snorkeling trip, memories that be a little scarring for those scared of the water. That will not be the most meaningful takeaway from the trip, Herro knows.
“We’re already real close, but I think at the end of the year when we look back on the season I think the Bahamas trip is really going to be what sets us apart,” Herro said. “That just molded us even tighter.”
Back in Lexington and adjusting to the rigors of balancing basketball, class and lives as college students, the Cats are reaping the benefits of that closeness. The result is an all-for-one approach that, though it guarantees nothing, certainly bodes well for a team sure to face the national-championship-or-bust expectations that come with playing at Kentucky,
“The group that we have this year, everybody wants to see each other succeed, on and off the court,” freshman Ashton Hagans said. “When we’re going to class, we’re making sure everybody is there on time.”
Just as the Cats are looking out for each other when it comes to going to class, they are also making sure they are all working hard beyond what’s required in practice. That’s borne out of that competitiveness.
“If you’re not working out, you’re definitely going to know that you’re not working out because the other 12 guys are in the gym,” Herro said. “Just being here, you’re going to have to work. I think every one of us knows that because every one of us in the gym.”
Counterintuitive as it may seem, the Cats’ care for one another comes out in the way they compete with each other just as much as it does in the fun they have spending time together. For this group – just as it is for Herro and Johnson – competitiveness and fun are inextricably linked.
“You don’t want to be too serious all the time, but definitely when we get on the court we’re going at each other,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to, I guess you could say, expose each other in practice, make each other better in a way. I think everybody knows that.”
