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  • Q&A with fan favorite Marcus Lee



    It wasn’t hard for Kentucky coach John Calipari to explain what he liked about freshman Marcus Lee’s play against Robert Morris Sunday.
    “I like the fact that Marcus Lee gave us great energy. Did you like the press? That's Marcus Lee at the beginning of it, and it was pretty good, and he got us*— changed the game up for us,” said Calipari after the 87-49 victory.
    Lee, who had 17 points in UK’s win over UNC Asheville to open the season, made his first start after playing just one minute in UK’s loss to Michigan State in the previous game.
    “I said Willie (Cauley-Stein), if you're not going to get the jump ball I'm going to start Marcus. He (Cauley-Stein) said, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘Okay, so I'll start Marcus,’ and that's why I did it,” Calipari said.
    However, Lee’s nerves got the best of him after he got the tip.
    “Marcus, love him to death, but he kind of panicked a little bit. You have to understand that the shoot‑around we ran the first play seven straight times so he could do it,” Calipari said. “We got the tip, we went down to run that same play that we ran seven straight times, and he ran the wrong way. He spun around, he looked around. But he's such a great kid. He's trying.”
    That mistake earned him a spot on the bench just 51 seconds into the game. But he played 10 minutes and had two points, three rebounds, two blocked shots and one assist off a no-look pass.
    Lee laughed at himself for messing up on the first play.
    “I did everything the total opposite. In my head I was like, ‘Why did you just do that? We just did that. I know exactly what I am supposed to do. Why did I mess that up?’ I have no idea. Just a total mind lapse. I think it was just the nerves getting through the first start.  Hopefully that will get better next time,” Lee said.
    But if he doesn’t start, that’s not a problem for Lee.
    “We’re all from teams where we’ve been that starter so being able to sit down, we’ll all sit there like, have you ever had like little children that you try to sit them down for like two seconds and they’re just like … that’s how we are, we’re like ‘it’s time to go, it’s time to play.’ We bottle that energy before we play and we just let it all out,” Lee said.
    Here’s more of what Lee had to say after the game (Kentucky plays again tonight against Texas-Arlington).

    I just see us going higher and higher. I have never seen a team just go from level to level, and skip levels, to keep moving up the ladder as much as possible.

    Question: What did you think of 29 substitutions by coach John Calipari in the first half against Robert Morris?
    Lee: “He emphasized a lot if you are not doing something right, we have somebody else that will. It puts ourselves into perspective seeing that we have to do things right and full speed all the time, especially in practice.”

    Question: Are you glad you get to play again Tuesday night against Texas-Arlington?
    Lee: “Yeah. We all definitely love playing games more than practice just because games are way more fun than practice. We are all real excited to get back in the gym and step up one more level.”

    Question: What did you think of getting to start a game for the first time?
    Lee: “For me, I was trying to understand it and not get nervous, which made me more nervous. Usually I have time to chill or relax and then just get hyped into the game and just kind of roll myself into the game. Now I had to kind of bring myself up to it quicker than usual. I kind of brought myself up a little too much and then I had to bring myself back down and then up gradually again.”

    Question: Was Calipari happy after the game?
    Lee: “We will see tomorrow. I really couldn’t tell you. But I am happy with the game because we are rising as a team so much, so fast. I have never seen a team see a level where they have to be and keeps going up and up to get to that level.”

    Question: Did you like the expanded nine-player rotation Calipari used where all nine players got 10 or more minutes?
    Lee: “We don’t really notice that as much. Or I don’t. I can’t really speak for everybody. I see that it lets us know we can go all out all the time knowing we have somebody on the bench that can give us a break. That is one thing we stressed a lot this week, just sprinting up the court and seeing if we had anything. If we don’t we can slow it down and then do our thing. It definitely made the game more fun. We had more chances to do things we didn’t have to run a play for. We could just do what we wanted.”

    Question: Is that why you came out after just playing 51 seconds to start the game?
    Lee: “It was that play I messed up to start the game. Cal was on me like, ‘You messed that up.’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He said not to worry about it, we will figure it out. There was no pressure to get the opening tip. I have always had a little pregame ritual for how to do it and how I am supposed to do it. Trying to figure that out was the easy part.”

    Question: What is the ritual to get ready for the opening jump ball?
    Lee: “I really don’t know. My body just does it. If you watch the tip before it happens over and over in different games, you know. I couldn’t tell you what happened.”

    Question: Did you take a blow to your knee?
    Lee: “No, I got cramps all through my legs. That’s what happened there.”

    Question: How important is Alex Poythress’ energy to this team?
    Lee: “Extremely important. Knowing that we have other people that just, it’s kind of like catching fire, where everybody is just getting pumped and everybody is always ready. So when Alex is going in and getting all of those rebounds, he’s got the whole bench excited. ”

    Question: What do you like best about Willie Cauley-Stein?
    Lee: “Honestly, points really don’t matter. As long as we win, we’re good. Seeing Willie go in and he just puts all his will into that one game, into our brotherhood and just going out and playing really hard. It gives energy for everybody else to work just as hard.”

    Question: Why is this team getting to the foul line so much?
    Lee: “That’s just something we’ve learned a lot throughout the couple months that we’ve been here. Just trying to get our head and shoulders past the guard guy and trying to go strong knowing that they can’t put their hands on a body but they have to keep it up. Knowing that I can get that one dribble and go up, it gets me to the free throw line and just working on my free throws, it got me comfortable and okay, this is something I can easily make.”

    Question: What is Calipari on you the most about?
    Lee: “Me personally, trying to work as hard as possible every time. That’s one thing he’s trying to teach us all, to not give up. He’s trying to teach us how to work through the whole defense all the way through 32 minute. But that’s something that he’s trying to teach us, just keep going and grinding it out so we can keep going instead of stopping for two seconds.”

    Question: How much fun is it playing here?
    Lee: “Every game is fun, I’m playing something I love to do at the best place ever. This whole process is fun. Just working hard with my team and trying to get better day by day makes life fun.”

    Question: Is Julius Randle ever satisfied with his play?
    Lee: “That’s everybody. Just knowing that we didn’t play as well as we wanted to as a team, just seeing how much he doesn’t care how he’s doing, he’s knowing that the team needs to work on stuff. He’s just a competitor even when he’s competing against himself, he knows he has to push the team and push him to get better.”

    Question: What did you think of being part of the first ever all-freshman starting lineup at UK?
    Lee: “I actually didn’t know until they told us after the game. I didn’t think of it because we are all always together. I kind of forget that we are all freshmen.”

    Question: How did he like being the point man on the full-court press?
    Lee: “I absolutely love pressing because that’s where I shine. I love giving the offensive player the worst possible weight. You won’t make it past half court because I won’t let you. I love doing it. This is our first game actually trying it. Seeing how it went, I am really excited about it. We will see if more comes after today.”
    Comments 1 Comment
    1. badrose's Avatar
      badrose -
      Thanks, Larry. I got pretty stoked about some of the kid's comments. They told me that chemistry is good and to expect visible improvements going forward.
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