Lee, Cauley-Stein trusting each other

By: LARRY VAUGHT

Marcus Lee played so well against Eastern Kentucky Sunday that Willie Cauley-Stein, who was coming off his best game at Kentucky versus Texas, told coach John Calipari to let Lee play more and have some of his minutes.

“That totally does put trust and comfort in your other players, knowing that I would be able to do it for him, and he is also capable of doing the same thing for me. It kind of shows how much we care about each other and we are just not there for ourselves,” said Lee, who scored a season-high 10 points, grabbed three rebounds and blocked one shot in the win.

“It was good for Marcus. These guys genuinely really like each other,” associate coach John Robic said after the Eastern game. “It was Willie's turn to go in, and Willie told coach, ‘Keep Marcus in.’ So, it was one of those things that if you think back what (Michael Kidd-) Gilchrist did for Darius Miller (in the 2012 SEC Tournament). That's a sign of maturity, that's a sign of a leader, that's a sign of being a good teammate. They appreciate that.”

Here’s more of what Lee had to say after the win over the Colonels.

Question: How did he feel the team played?
Lee: “As a group we really grinded that game out. As you guys see, we’re trying to work on the fly and just try to learn differently. That’s what we’re doing really well. You see that we’re playing really well together. Even when he tries to throw different platoons out, we’re doing really well. So that’s a good thing.”

Question: Was his hard foul on Timmy Knipp an example of trying to be more physical?
Lee: “The block? Oh, I just wanted the block. I didn’t know I hit him that hard. I didn’t even know he fell until I looked down at him. I really don’t understand why they called that foul until I saw him fall on the floor that hard.”

Question: Was it good to get more minutes?
Lee: “I mean, it was great the other game just watching him (Cauley-Stein) go off (against Texas). That’s the greatest I’ve seen Willie and that’s just the kind of team we are. When someone ahead of you is doing really well, you’re just like, ‘Hey Coach, keep him in,’ and you’re totally fine with it and you know you have the next game. So I wasn’t worried about it at all. I knew today would just be a new game and everything would be different.”

Question: What about the team having so many lobs and dunks?
Lee: “It makes the game fun. Any kind of lob is fun. But playing this fast tempo is just something that I’ve always loved to do. It’s just my kind of game and the lobs just kind of came naturally in this game.”

Question: Has everyone totally bought into playing defense?
Lee: “Just in practice you’ll see something happen and then we’re go platoon for platoon and you’ll see one platoon just totally rip one of their players because they’re not playing hard enough defensively. So we’re just always pushing each other to get better defensively each day.”

Question: Do they ever feel bad and want to let the other team score?
Lee: “We’re in a sport. We don’t really know what nice is once you step in the court. We’re just really worried about getting better every day and not really worried about what the other team’s doing.”

Question: What about Eastern coach Jeff Neubauer saying Kentucky is the best defensive team in the modern era?
Lee: “It’d be cool, but the other thing we’re really stressing about it is just being the best team we can be and not really the best team ever. Because if we’re the best team we can ever be, that’s great for us.”

Question: Is there room for improvement?
Lee: “Oh there’s definitely much room. There’s a whole lot of room that can be better. It’s scary how much room there is.”

Question: What will happen if they improve?
Lee: “You guys got imaginations. I’m just saying. You guys know just as (much) as I do. I’m just saying, we’re not even in the middle of the season. We’re almost at 30 percent of the season, so we have so much more practice to go through, so much more time to get used to each other.”

Question: How hard is it to stay engaged on the bench?
Lee: “It’s very easy, especially with this team, that we’re so into each other, not into ourselves. We got lost in our own team. I think that’s what makes it really easy. You’ll see our players on the bench laughing, getting hyped, jumping up and down if something happens on the floor. It’s just great that we’re so into each other instead of ourselves.”