Articles by Category
When Dominique Hawkins signed with Kentucky, he knew it would be his defense, not his offense, that might give him a chance to play this season.
“I’m trying to learn to become a better defensive player, definitely putting pressure on the ball and trying to be a defensive force for our team,” said Hawkins, a freshman from Madison Central.
Kentucky coach John Calipari has been spending more time on defense as UK prepares to host Cleveland State tonight.
“As a player, I really don’t know (how far the team has to go defensively), but as a coach, I’m pretty sure we have a long way to go because it’s still early and we’re working up on progressing and getting better on defense,” Hawkins said.
He says he has dramatically improved his defense off the ball.
“In high school I always had to guard the point guard and I usually didn’t have to guard the best player because my coach wanted me to get a little break and stuff like that. But now I’m guarding players off the ball and on the ball. I learned a lot of stuff from coach Cal, what he taught how to guard off the ball,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins is averaging 1.4 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 9.4 minutes per game for UK. However, in the last two games he’s averaged 15.5 minutes and 3.5 points.
“I knew that I would get some playing time, but I didn’t expect to get early playing time. So I guess I’m kind of shocked that I got some playing time so early in the season,” Hawkins said.
While Calipari has liked Hawkins’ defense and play backing up twins Aaron and Andrew Harrison, he’s not happy some other players are not showing they can be a lockdown defender.
“With his size, James Young should be able to be that guy. Julius (Randle) should be able to be the guy. He got beat on the dribble four or five times again; stood straight up and down, didn’t really get down in the stance,” Calipari said. “But again, I’ll say this: Great bunch of kids; they really are, one of the greatest groups I’ve coached. But they’re kids. And we’ve got a lot of learning to do and a lot of habits to break, and it’s hard to break ‘em.”
On UK’s national title team two years ago, defense was not a problem because Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s intensity normally sparked the defense.
“But also Marquis Teague would go guard. We didn’t have just one, and Anthony (Davis) was back there alert. He never was flat-footed,” Calipari said. “Terrence (Jones) and Darius (Miller) and Doron (Lamb), those guys — you had a lot of guys that were willing to defend and you had some veterans that were showing the others. Michael didn’t need to be taught about effort. That’s what Michael brought to the table. There’s just something lacking that we got to get out of them, and they got to accept it, as much as anything else.”
The 6-0 Hawkins says UK has been working on a zone defense the last week.
“I feel like we could be a good (zone) team because we’re long and athletic and everybody on the team could probably cover an area pretty good because of how long and athletic we are,” the freshman said.
But he knows one thing Calipari wants no matter what defense UK is playing.
“He wants to see me talking a lot more. I’m kind of a shy person and I don’t really talk that much, but he’s making me have to talk and yell out stuff because when I’m talking I’m usually quiet, I’m not loud enough. So he’s working on talking louder with me,” Hawkins said. “It is kind of a team thing because our communication on defense hasn’t been too good lately, but we’re working on it.”
Hawkins says the weight lifting at UK has helped him — along with concentrating on just one sport.
“I played football in high school, and the weight lifting here is way harder than it was in high school. They consider lifting at least twice a week, even if we’re playing and stuff like that. I feel like I’ve put a little more muscle on,” he said.
“I played football in high school so half of my year was football and then the other half of the year was basketball. This year it’s been all basketball so I’ve been able to be in the gym more and get up more shots and be able to get some training in.”
KSR Twitter Feed
vBulletin Message