Kentucky will miss Alex Poythress

By: LARRY VAUGHT

LEXINGTON — Just because Kentucky easily beat North Carolina Saturday does not mean that the Wildcats won't miss junior forward Alex Poythress, who is out for the season after tearing a knee ligament Thursday in practice.

"Now, again, you see, and I'm going to tell you, the biggest issue with us missing Alex, and it doesn't go away, don't think, well, they played well without Alex. There is a play in the game that someone has to block a ball. Someone has to come up with a tough rebound. Someone dunks on their entire team and changes -- that's Alex," Kentucky coach John Calipari said after Saturday’s win.

"Now he may not have played great the whole time. May have played, you know, but I can remember the Louisville game in the NCAA tournament, he just, he went crazy. Changed the whole complexion of the game. We don't have that guy. Trey (Lyles) does not do that. Trey's a totally different player. Karl (-Anthony Towns) does some of it, but not like Alex does.

"So, that means we have got to be a more efficient team offensively, and that means we even have to be a better team defensively, so we're not in a position to have to have that play. Because it's not there any more."

Calipari had Poythress say the team's pregame prayer Saturday and then he sat the first end in the end zone before moving to the UK bench for the second half. But no matter where he was, UK players kept up with him.

"Well, I get emotional prior to the game just thinking about -- like I was looking, where is he sitting, where is he? And then the thought of, 'he's missing this whole season' hit me. And I had to gather myself before I went in that first timeout," Calipari said.

"It's kind of like on senior night when it really hits you as a coach that this is the last home game that you're going to coach this guy. Haven't had many of those as of late, but, you know, that feeling is the same way.”

Julius Randle, Poythress’ UK teammate last year, was at Saturday’s game. The Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round draft pick saw his first professional season end in the first game when he broke his leg.

“The great thing, Julius talked to him, Julius is going to stay in touch. He talked to him between now and the surgery, what he had to do, how to think, and then after the surgery what he needed to do. So Julius is going to be a good partner for him as he walks through this,” Calipari said.

Former Wildcat Derek Anderson, who suffered the same injury during the 1996-97 season, also talked to Poythress over the weekend.

Kentucky players wore “Roar for 22” blue T-shirts in pregame warmups to honor Poythress. The Kentucky dance team did the same for its halftime routine. Towns even put a special message for Poythress on his shoes.

Devin Booker, who had 15 points Saturday, said there was no way Kentucky “played better” without Poythress.

“Everyone has to step it up more, I’d say. With Alex’s absence, he does things that no one else do. All those blocked shots that he gets, all those dunks, no one else can do that. So everyone else has to up their game, I would say,” Booker said.

Willie Cauley-Stein also had 15 points Saturday and dominated the game with his all-around play that he said was in honor of Poythress, his teammate for three years.

“There are still plays that you get used to somebody else making. Now you have to train yourself to, ‘Oh he’s not there anymore to make those plays,’ some rebounds or a blocked shot where you can just stand on the other side and get the blocked shot, instead of maybe having to go get it yourself,” Cauley-Stein said. “There’s just an empty spot out there.”

Freshman guard Tyler Ulis, who had eight assists Saturday, said losing Poythress “hurt everybody” on the team.

“He’s a great guy. We’re all really close with him, and just knowing how he feels — if I tore my ACL I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d be in my room crying and stuff like that, so we’re just trying to be there for him and just help him out,” Ulis said. “We just want to play for him because, his season, he’s a great player. Like I said, we need him. He makes big plays and with him being out, we want to help build his confidence still and just keep up and don’t let him hit that dark point.”

North Carolina coach Roy Williams said there’s no way losing Poythress can do anything but hurt Kentucky.

“(Former North Carolina) Coach (Dean) Smith used to say if you lose a guy, that the next game you’re going to be so much better because everybody is going to try to pull forward a little more effort and play better, but in the long run nobody is going to be better if you lose one of your better players,” Williams said Saturday.

“But from reading all the comments in the paper, he’s the kind of kid I think he is. So it had to hurt everybody and at the same time the comments they made about him would make me think that he might have been challenging their rear ends in the locker room before the game. It’s a loss because he really is a gifted player, they got some depth which is going to help them get through some things.”