Page 12, The Estill County Tribune, February 24, 2016 ...Page 12, The Estill County Tribune,...
Transcript of Page 12, The Estill County Tribune, February 24, 2016 ...Page 12, The Estill County Tribune,...
Page 12, The Estill County Tribune, February 24, 2016
Larry Vaught
Kentucky freshman IsaacHumphries grew up playingrugby in Australia -- and hethinksthathashelpedhimbea more physical basketballplayer. One thing Humphries candoisplayphysical,somethingthatUK’sotherbigmenhavenotdoneconsistentlythisyear.Humphries joked that whathedidbest inrugbywasrundown the field with the balldraggingsixorsevenplayerswithhimbecausehewasbig-gerthanthemall. KentuckycoachJohnCali-pari said he might have an-otherplayer thatneeds to tryrugby. “Ifthat’swhathelpedhim,thenwe’regoing todosomerugby with Skal,” Caliparisaid noting Skal Labissiere’slackofphysicalplaythissea-son. Calipari likes the wayHumphriesisplaying. “He’s not afraid. He’s inthere.He’sfighting,”Caliparisaid. The coachwenton to ex-plain that Humphries playswith an intense look, not ascaredlook. “Hemakesmistakes.He’ll
say, ‘Myfault.’Butproudofhim,”Caliparisaid. That didn’t change whenHumphriesgotthelatetechni-cal foul inovertimeatTexasA&M when UK had a one-point lead with less than 10seconds in agame it eventu-allylost. Teammates and CalipariinsistedHumphrieshadnoth-ing to apologize for becausehedidnothingwrong.
Kentucky in NCAA Where will Kentucky endup starting NCAA Tourna-mentplay?That’s aquestionmoreandmoreUKfanshavebeen asking since the Catsstarting showing they couldbeafactorinMarchMadnessagainthisyear. FromUK’spoint, the ide-al seeding would have UKplaced in the South Regionwhereifitwontwogames,itwouldplayattheYumCenterinLouisvilleintheSweetSix-teen. The first-round sites areProvidence,R.I.;DesMoines,Iowa;Raleigh,N.C.;Denver;Brooklyn; St Louis; Oklaho-maCity;andSpokane,Wash.Other regional sites areAna-heim, Philadelphia and Chi-cago. It’s still hard to imaginetheNCAAselectioncommit-tee putting UK in the SouthRegion if it is not at least athreeseed,andprobablyatwoseed.Thatisgoingtobealotmore difficult after the bitterlossatTexasA&M, too.Butwhoknows?TheNCAAdoesnotalwaysmakelogicaldeci-sions. AsforwhereUKwillstarttournament play, don’t lookfor it to be Raleigh. DukeandNorthCarolinabothwill
Nothing To Apologize probably get to play there.Kentucky would be fine go-ingtoSt.Louis—rememberthewinoverWichitaStatein2014.
SEC Player of Year WhoshouldbeSoutheast-ernConferencePlayerof theYear?ShoulditbesensationalLSUfreshmanBenSimmons,the likely No. 1 pick in theJuneNBAdraft,orUKsopho-morepointguardTylerUlis? MostSECcoachesconcedeit is a two-player race and itseemsthatthewinnerwillbedeterminedbywhetherUKorLSUwinstheleaguetitle. “I mean, you’d be hard-pressedtofindanybodywho’sbeen any more impactful,”said Vanderbilt coach KevinStallings, who will see UlisagainSaturdaynightinNash-ville. Simmons, obviously,has been impactful for LSU.(Jamal)Murrayhasbeenim-pactful for Kentucky, obvi-ously.Butnobody’sbeenanymoreimpactfulfortheirteam,inmyopinion,thanTylerUlishasbeen.Becausehe’sa ter-rificplayer.Hehasanincred-iblebasketballIQ. “Hemakesvery,veryfewmistakes and he controls thegameinawayveryfewguyscancontrolit.Hecancontrolit offensively, he can controlitdefensively,andhe’s justaguythatplaysthegameexact-lyhowitshouldbeplayedandrarely, if ever, deviates fromthat,andthat’sjustararecom-modity tohave inyourpointguard.” Alabama coach AveryJohnson,aformerNBAguard,thinksUlisandSimmonscanbe1Aand1B. “I loveTyler. I love pointguards. The job that he didwhen Cal got thrown out ofthe game at South Carolina,that was a textbook exampleof his great leadership andwhyhecouldbe in the talksforbestplayerinthecountry.IfforsomereasonTylerUlisisthebestplayerinthecountryandBenSimmons issecond,Ithinkthat’sstillgreatforourconference,”Johnsonsaid. FloridacoachMikeWhitewasaUlisfanbeforehisteamplayed in RuppArena.Afterthatgame,hebecameanevenbiggerUlisfan. “He’s unbelievable in theway that he affects everyfacet of the game. I appreci-ated him watching him onTVandstudyinghimonfilm,but I appreciated Tyler at anentirely different level whenwe competed live in RuppArena.Ithoughtthathecom-pletely dominated the gameoffensivelyanddefensively.Ithought thathewas theiren-gine,”Whitesaid. “Leadership qualitiesjumpedout.Hismotorjumpedout.Iknewhewasfastandhewasquick,butheplayedun-believablyhardeverysecondhewasonthefloor.Hedidn’tallow our guards to get intoballscreens.Hepressuredourguardsintoturnovers.Youseehimonfilm,it’samazingthenumber of times he’s beenmismatched in the post withopposing teams bigs and he
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Landon Young, center, and Drake Jackson, right, will get a chance to compete for starting spots in UK’s offensive line as freshmen. Kash Daniel, left, also figures to be in the mix at linebacker as a freshman. (U.S. Army All-American Bowl Photo)
fightsthemlikehe’sabig.”SEC Legend Conley
ReaderJosephFast—whoseesmycolumnintheBour-bon County Citizen — ap-proved of Kentucky pickingLarry Conley to be its SECLegendthisyear.HeenjoyedlisteningtohisTVworkwithTomHammondandsaysmanyoftoday’sTVannouncersbe-lievefanswantto“watchtheiranticsandnotthegame.” Conley was a starter onRupp’s Runts in 1965-66when the Cats lost to TexasWestern in the national titlegame. “I worked at the DairyQueen in Lexington on NewCircle Road near EastlandBowling Alley. Larry camebythereonmanySundayaf-ternoonstobuyalargemilk-shake,” Fast recalled. “Hewas always by himself, verypoliteandcourteous.Ialwaysthankedhimandwishedhimgoodluck. “I truly believe his flu (atthe Final Four) was a hugefactor in the loss to TexasWestern.Heplayedwhilebe-ing very weak, courage per-sonified.” Agreeonallcounts.
A Hidden Gem Looking for a name thatcouldbeahiddengeminKen-tucky’s2016 football recruit-ingclassastheCatsgetclosertothestartofspringpractice. Defensive end T.J. Carterof Georgia was basically notrated when he got his Ken-tucky offer and signed withtheCats.The6-4,245-poundCarterhad68tackles,includ-ing 10 for loss, as a senior.Healsoledhisteaminquar-terbacksacksasa juniorandsophomore. HisotherofferswereSam-fordandWyoming,butStoopsis convinced he has what itwilltaketohelpUK’sdefen-sivefront. “T.J. is a guy that’s justa solid football player. Verygood,”Stoopssaid.“Ifeltlikehewas toogoodofaplayer,toosolidofaperson,toomuchofoneofthosegluedevelop-mentguys,he’sgoingtobeaheck of a football player wecouldn’tpassupon.” Andwhatdidrecruitingco-ordinatorVinceMarrowthinkof him? “When he came inonthevisit,Isaid,‘Wow,thiskidisdefinitelyunderrated,’”Marrowsaid.
In-State Recruiting One reason head coachMarkStoopsand thenoffen-sive coordinator Neal Brownwanted John Schlarman ontheUKcoachingstaffwasforhisin-staterecruitingconnec-tions. “Coach Stoops has em-phasized fromday1 thatwehavetodoagoodjobwithin-state recruiting,” Schlarman,a former UK offensive line-man, said about UK’s 2016recruiting class. “Sometimesyou work really hard at thatand we’ve been working onthisclasssince2013.Thishasbeen a work in progress forthelasttwotothreeyears.” Kentucky signed two in-stateoffensivelinemen,DrakeJacksonofWoodfordCountyandLandonYoungofLafay-
ette. Other in-state signeeswere linebacker Kash Dan-iel of Paintsville, cornerbackDavonte Robinson of HenryClay and athlete Zy’AireHughesofMcCrackenCoun-ty. Schlarman said there’snothingbetterforaKentuckyhighschoolplayerthantoplayat UK, a message he hopeshighlytoutedLafayettejuniorlineman Jedrick Wills hearsandunderstands. “Thatwaspartof itwhenIstartedrecruitingDrakeandLandon. I understood howimportant it is being fromKentucky and playing at theUniversity of Kentucky andwe talked about that quite abit.Thentoseethemearnalltheaccoladestheydid(nation-ally)andstill stayUniversityofKentuckyguyswas reallyexciting,” Schlarman said.“Now we can get them hereandgo towork.Let’sgooutandwinmoregamesandgetafterit. “Whenyouhaveyourfam-ilyandfriendscomingtoev-erysinglegame,youwanttomake sure you are out thererepresentingthestateandrep-resenting your name also tothe best of your ability. It isimportanttoyou.Youwanttoshow the rest of the countrywe are doing special thingshere at Kentucky. I know itmeansalottotheseguysandI am looking forward to seewhattheyturninto.” Here’s more of whatSchlarman had to say aboutYoungandJackson. Question:CouldYoungandJacksonplayastruefreshmenoffensivelinemen,somethingthatdoesnothappenoftenatUKorintheSEC? Schlarman: “It definitelycouldhappen.Wehavesomeguys coming in that will beabletocompeteforjobs.Willtheystartgames?Wewillsee.Wewantthemtocompeteandeverythingwillsortitselfout.Ifaguywinsthejob,thenhewillbeouttherewhetherheisa freshman, junior, senior. Ifhe is the best player for thatposition,hewillbeoutthere.”
Question:Aretheoffseasonweight workouts a lot moredifficultforoffensivelinemennowasplayersaresayingtheyhavebeen? Schlarman: “It definitelymakesadifference in theof-fensive line.Youhave togetinthatweightroomandgrindandgotowork.Thisyearwearelookingtoturnuptheheatanothernotchandmakesuregettingbiggerandstronger.” Question: What are theplussesandminusforaplayerlike Young who plays threesports (football, wrestling,track) in high school com-pared to Jackson who didfootball only and is alreadyenrolledatKentucky? Schlarman:“AplusisIamanxious to see what he doeswhen he just concentrateson football. He has been athree-sport guy which keepshimfromgettingburntoutonfootballbutIamlookingfor-ward to see him concentrateontheweightroom365daysayearandjustconcentratesonfootball.Hehasatremendousupside. “Now with a guy likeDrake,concentratingonfoot-ball has helped him. He is atechnician. He is as polishedwith his technique as I haveseenoutofahighschoolse-nior. That part helped him.Surenegativestobothbutalsoplusses.” Question: Does wrestlinghelp Young’s football tough-ness(hewonthestateheavy-weightchampionshiplastSat-urday)? Schlarman: “Definitely.It is a tough sport. There isnowhere tohideon thatmat.Landon being a top wrestlerin heavyweight division hasdefinitelyhelpedhimwithle-verage.Heiscompetitive.Hewants towin every time andthatcarriesovertofootball.”
Contact Larry [email protected]@vaughtsviews.Youcanalsoseemoreofmywork at www.lex18.com andwww.vaughtsviews.com.
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Isaac Humphries has given UK a lift with his defense and rebounding in recent games, including last Sat-urday at Texas A&M where teammates told him not to worry about a late controversial technical foul against him. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Larry Conley, right, will be Kentucky’s SEC Legend this year. He worked many years as a TV color ana-lyst with Tom Hammond, left, and the two got togeth-er at a recent UK home game.