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LEXINGTON — Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns had his second double-double of his Kentucky career in Tuesday’s 86-37 victory over Missouri.
He had 12 points and 10 rebounds along with five steals, one steal and one assist in just 21 minutes, numbers that would make most players happy. But not Towns.
“It’s one of those things where you have to keep working. There are a lot of things I messed up on today, a lot of mistakes I made, personally. I have to fix them. Tomorrow is a new day. I have to get back in the gym and keep progressing in my career,” said Towns.
Kentucky coach John Calipari was happy with what Towns did, but also saw flaws.
“I thought he fought like crazy and I thought it was the best game he's played in weeks. Best game he's played in weeks. And the reason is he sustained effort,” Calipari said. “Now he still broke down and I let him know every time he did.
“His breakdowns were standing straight up and down, not being in the stance, not being alert to move, getting caught in a mud wrestling match with a big because you won't bend your legs. And then the ball comes to you and you can't even rebound it because you're in a mud wrestling, it hits you, you can't get it. Its things like that that I've gotten on him about.”
There’s one miscue that earns Towns a quick seat on the bench.
“If Karl (steps back to shoot a 3, he's coming out. So he stepped back to shoot a 3, you're out.I told him that and that's what he did,” Calipari said.
Towns said Calipari was always on him about everything — and that was fine with him.
“He expects a lot out of me and just as much as he expects from myself, I expect about three times (that). I’m just trying to make sure every time I make him proud, but I also do what he needs me to do and what this team needs me to do to have a great chance at winning,” Towns said. “Don’t let the numbers fool you, I didn’t have a great game in my perspective. I have a lot of things to work on and I’m going to go out tomorrow and start again. Start the process of taking that next step.”
Here’s more of what Towns had to say after Tuesday’s win raised UK’s record to 16-0, the fouth best start in school history.
Question: How important was this game to the team?
Towns: “This game was important to us — very much (so). It was very important for us just morally and just knowing we can do what we can do on a nightly basis, and also get back to the staples that made us Kentucky basketball.”
Question: How frustrating were the past two games?
Towns: “It was frustrating because we weren’t doing what we normally know we can do. It was the biggest thing knowing that defensively when we put our feet on every time we know we can do (what) wasn’t working for us right there. We went back and had some great days at practice, really talked it out and we came out tonight and did what we wanted to do.”
Question: Why weren’t they playing as well?
Towns: “We just needed to get back to what we were. We looked ourselves in the mirror and said we aren’t playing the way we normally play. We did that and did a great job with that tonight.”
Question: What things weren’t they doing the past few games that they did in this game?
Towns: “I think for us it was just everything. We had the rebound, we were missing certain screens, and we weren’t doing the little things. We weren’t listening well to the game plan. We just had to follow the game plan defensively. It’s about focus. Defense is all about focus with us. We have the length. We always have the wingspan. We have the feet, the quickness, it’s all about the focus. We had to make sure we focused and zeroed in on what we wanted to do and we did that tonight.”
Question: Did they make a step toward regaining their swagger?
Towns: “We took a real good step, but it’s always been there. We just have to revive it I think. We always had that defensive swagger, all the times we said before it was offensively we struggled. Now defensively we’re getting back to what we are, and offensively we’re getting better every day. It’s a process. We’re taking every step possible right now so we can be the best team we can be.”
Question: How important was it to have seven different players have an assist?
Towns: ““It’s just everyone looking for each other. Everyone looking for each other. We constantly do that. We didn’t rush any shots. We really took our time. That’s what I realized today. We did a really good job of not letting go of a good shot and then getting a great shot with the shot clock winding down. We did a great job of that. Everyone’s just looking for each other. We all want each other to do well so we’re all trying to look for each other.”
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