Towns National Player of the Week, Kentucky Basketball Notebook

By: LARRY VAUGHT


Photo: Martin Ray Vaughan

Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns was tabbed the NBCSports.com National Player of the Week after averaging 17 points and 10.5 rebounds in two victories last week for No. 1 UK.

Towns led the Wildcats in scoring, rebounds, field-goal percentage (.571), free throws (10 of 10) and blocks (four) in victories at Florida and at home against Georgia.

Towns said the honor is a reward the "great work" he has put in.

“All those extra hours in the gym I’ve been putting in have been paying off. I’ve been trying to go through this process step by step and never rush it, and I think that the biggest thing is that, it takes time," Towns said.

He began the week by earning his third career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds against Georgia. Towns was 6-for-11 from the field and also had three assists and had a game-high two blocks.

At Florida, Towns had a career-high tying 19 points and added a game-high eight rebounds. He was 6-for-10 from the field and a perfect 7-for-7 at the line. He dished out three more assists and had two blocked shots.

NBC called Towns’ play this week as “the best basketball since he arrived in Lexington.”

LSU coach Johnny Jones said Towns was a "phenomenal player" who could step away from the basket and score with mid-range shots or score with his back to the basket. LSU will host Kentucky Tuesday night.

"It's really challenging when he is taking it to the rim. He has great size and is a physical specimen. He can go either way and that makes him very difficult to defend," Jones said.

Kentucky assistant coach John Robic said Towns is playing with more confidence.

"The thing that impresses us most is he is coming up with second chance points and being strong in the post," Robic said. "He had it going at Florida and also knocked down his free throws."

Towns expects another Super Bowl type atmosphere at LSU, which has a rare sellout for the game.

"Every game is a big game for the opposing side. They’re always going to come at us — it’s their Super Bowl. We gotta come out and play hard, play with energy, play the way we know how to play and we’ll be fine," he said.

Towns said before Monday's practice that he had not seen the scouting report on LSU, but insisted the Cats would be ready.

"We had a great warm-up game, you could say, at Florida. The crowd was amazing there and we just have to come today, we have to be mentally focused, we have to do what we have to do," Towns said.

Familiar foes: Kentucky's Andrew Harrison says he knows LSU sophomores Jarrell Martin and Jordan Mickey well.
“They’re great inside. I grew up playing against those guys. It’s going to be a tough matchup for us. They play really hard and they have some pretty good guards too. We’re going to have our hands full," he said Monday.

“Jordan has gotten so much better over the years. He’s very athletic. I think he’s leading the country in blocks or something like that. It’s going to be a tough game. And then Jarell, no one really knows how good Jarell is. Jarell can really play inside and out, so it’s going to be a tough matchup for us.”

Any back and forth with the two LSU players leading up to the game?
“Oh, no. It’s not like that, no," Harrison said.
Harrison remembers last year's game at LSU.

“I remember we lost (last year at LSU). I remember it was an ice storm and it wasn’t that packed, but I heard it was sold out tomorrow. So it’ll be fun, definitely," Harrison said. “As long as our bigs are focused and stuff like that, I think collectively they don’t really have any matchup problems. But if we don’t come to play as a team, they’ll beat us. So we gotta come ready.”

Kansas-like: Robic says Martin and Mickey remind him size-wise of what Kansas had with one difference — shooting.
"These two kids can shoot the ball. They are very, very effective from 17 feet and in. Not prolific 3-point shooters. Martin will shoot a couple a game, but from 17 and in they are really, really good. They are really effective and shoot a high percentage at that range. So that’s different," Robic said.

"I mean, they can play high-low and play some post-up game, but yet they can catch, turn, and face out on the perimeter and be able to shoot the basketball.”

Mickey also makes one other major impact blocking shots. He has 81 this year.
“Well, it’s a little bit like us. We’re just not blocking as many shots as we had been all year. We don’t know why that is but we need to get back to it. But one thing you can’t do against a shot-blocker is change your game," Robic said.

"You have to be aggressive in taking it to the basket and play through contact, but he has an extraordinary talent, you can tell. Not only does he block shots but he keeps them in play for the most part too.”

Game time changed: Tipoff for Kentucky’s game against Auburn on Feb. 21 has been moved to a 7 p.m. start to accommodate for television. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Prior to the game, UK will retire Tony Delk’s jersey. Delk, who was elected to the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008, lettered at UK from 1993-96. The Most Outstanding Player of the 1996 NCAA Final Four and the Midwest Regional, Delk led UK to the 1996 national championship. The first-team All-American and 1996 SEC Player of the Year ranks fifth on UK’s career scoring list with 1,890 points.