By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
At first, John Calipari didn’t want to talk about Alex Poythress.
Although his senior forward had a double-double with 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds to lead fifth-ranked Kentucky to an 88-67 win over Eastern Kentucky Wednesday night, Calipari dodged a question about Poythress before he finally obliged.
“I want the kid to be the best player in the country, that’s what I want him to be,” the Kentucky coach said. “He’s capable of that. He made free throws, (but) he just stopped on one rebound and he brought it down his old self and he lost it. And then on one defensive play, he knew he stopped and the guy drove for a layup and he knew it. I mean, he eliminates those two (and it’s fine). (He) missed a couple of shots, but (he played) a near-perfect game.”
The motivation behind the performance by Poythress dates back to an 87-77 setback at UCLA last week. The senior forward wanted to prove the Wildcats (8-1) were capable of bouncing back from their first regular-season loss in more than a year.
“We tried to make a statement in this game and I tried to start (playing well) early,” Poythress said. “I’m just trying to play hard every time I’m out there — just trying to give 100 percent out there, trying to bring energy and trying to play the best I can.”
Poythress added that criticism regarding the team’s lack of toughness, especially underneath also provided a dose of inspiration against the Colonels.
“It really challenges us because when people say not tough they’re challenging our manhood,” he said. “So we have to correct the persona of us and show people we are tough guys. We’re not soft or anything like that. If you want to call us soft then come and play us.”
Even though it remains to be seen whether Poythress can keep playing with the same rate of consistency, signs indicate Poythress has gotten past an ACL injury that derailed his junior campaign. In his first three seasons at Kentucky, Poythress recorded just two double-double performances. Nine games into his senior campaign, he has three, giving him five in his career.
“You just have to play with energy and just bring it every time you step on the court,” Poythress said. “A lot of things sound easy until you start doing them. Everything’s tough. Nothing in this world comes easy. If it was easy everybody would be doing it. You just have to bring it every day.”
The outing by Poythress wasn’t a surprise to Eastern Kentucky coach Dan McHale. Behind the play of Poythress, the Wildcats doubled up the Colonels on the boards (50-25) and snagged 18 offensive rebounds, resulting in 19 second-chance points for Kentucky. Poythress collected a team-high six offensive rebounds.
“He was the difference-maker,” McHale said of Poythress. “He’s a pro when he wants to be. When that motor clicks and he starts playing at that speed he played at tonight, he’s tough to guard. He’s jumping on trampolines and finishing in traffic. He’s a special, special player.”
Poythress started in place of Marcus Lee and helped the Wildcats take command early. Kentucky scored its first 16 points in the paint, establishing a presence in the post they lacked in the loss to the Bruins.
“We were just trying to take what the defense gave (us),” Poythress said. “They were trying to spread it out. We were just trying to attack the rim and it worked. We got easy layups and easy buckets. We were just trying to feed off of that.”
Poythress said the win over Eastern felt “good” but added the Wildcats don’t want to become complacent.
“We’re trying to look for ways to improve and hopefully I can improve the next game,” he said. “We have a tough opponent. We’ll watch the tape, watch film and get ready to play them.”
Notes
* Lee made all five of his field goal attempts and finished with 11 points. Lee left the game with a head injury in the first half of the loss at UCLA. Skal Labissiere, who had six points against the Bruins, had 10 points and three blocked shots against Eastern.
“We took a huge step forward,” Lee said. “Skal had a great game today. He played with great confidence and we pushed him so much in practice that he played really well in the game today and he showed it. That’s what we’re excited for.”
* Kentucky limited the Colonels, one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the nation, to just five treys.
“Their length really bothered us,” McHale said. “We didn’t get any clean looks. It’s just one of those things where you go and you shoot the ball great at the walkthrough. Today we didn’t miss a single shot at the walkthrough. Then our guys go out there and see 20,000 people in the stands and that definitely has something to do with it. We’re a lot better offensively than we showed tonight and a lot of that was because they took us out of our stuff.”
* Much to Calipari’s dismay, the Wildcats committed 17 turnovers against the Colonels.
“I was disappointed in turnovers,” Calipari said. “Four from Jamal, four from Marcus Lee, three from Skal. I mean, come on. Most of that is just being tough with the ball, making easy plays.”
Game tracker: Arizona State at Kentucky, 3:15 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com