By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Tyler Ulis was all smiles after receiving the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year award Tuesday. He was even happier when he learned he also was named the league’s top defensive player.
“That’s an award that I like the most because I take pride in my defense,” he said. “I really don’t like being scored on and I didn’t really know if people noticed the defense I played. But that was a surprise to me that I won that award and I’m happy to have it.”
Ulis credited the team’s success as a big reason for the postseason recognition. The Wildcats (23-8) earned a share of the conference title with Texas A&M and won seven of their last nine regular-season games, including back-to-back blowout victories over Florida and LSU, respectively.
“At the end of the day, you still have to win games,” Ulis said. “With winning, that’s where the awards come. You have to focus on the games coming up and these are just two things that I have now and there’s really nothing else to it.”
Ulis finished the season as the team’s second leading scorer (16.6 points per game) and averaged 18.3 points a contest against conference opponents. In addition to his scoring contributions, Ulis has dished out four assists or more in 24 straight games, including at least six in the past nine games.
“He does it all,” Kentucky guard Jamal Murray said. “He passes the ball, scores, leads his team and like you see he gets after it on defense. All-around player, all-around performance this season.”
In addition to Ulis’ conference awards, Kentucky coach John Calipari thinks his sophomore point deserves to be in the conversation for the top honor nationally.
“If there’s a better point guard in the country, you’ve got to show me who he is and I’ve got to watch tape,” Calipari said. “He’s made (the players’) job easy, because he’s coaching (the) team on the floor.”
Although Ulis sets the tone for Kentucky’s offense, he is equally effective on the defensive end of the floor and spends as much energy defending as dishing out assists and scoring in transition.
“I just try to be disruptive on the ball with the point guard full court and just try to keep them from getting into their offense and just try to keep everything hard,” he said. “I just try to play off my instincts defensively. But if I have a guard who is known for dribbling and stuff like that, I may watch a couple highlights before the game. But other than that, just come out and play.”
Behind the scenes, Murray has face Ulis in practice and described his teammate as a “pest” on both ends of the floor.
“Everywhere you turn he’s always right there,” He’s so short, he’s quick and he uses his size well. He’s underrated, his strength. A lot of people underrate his strength. He gets after it. He’s quick and anticipates the ball well. He reads patterns well. He does all the things defensively that coach (Calipari) could ask for.”
When he arrived at Kentucky, the 5-foot-9 Ulis didn’t set lofty goals but wanted to “prove I could play and win” despite his small stature.
“It proves that I obviously wasn’t too small to play college basketball, but the next level I don’t know yet,” he said. “I’m just focused on this year just trying to still win games.”
Despite the accolades, Ulis isn’t satisfied with his regular-season accomplishments.
“There’s room for a lot of improvement,” Ulis said. “I haven’t shot the ball as well as I’ve wanted to. Going into March, I feel like I need to do a lot better job of doing that for my team. Just continuing to play hard to win.”
Game tracker: Kentucky vs. winner of Mississippi-Alabama, SEC Tournament, 7 p.m., Friday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com