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Junior Alex Poythress played in just eight games before his season-ending knee injury in practice. Now he’s back attending games, including the one Tuesday at Tennessee, and going to class.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said Monday “they just tell me when the bus leaves” when asked about Poythress’ rehabilitation.
“I’m not the physical therapist and the trainer and all that stuff. Now they tell me how far along he is. My thing to Alex all the time is, does it still hurt? Does it really hurt when you have to stretch?” said Calipari. “Because (my son) Brad went through it. I know how painful it is.
“And he says, ‘Yes, it’s killer.’ I said, ‘Lovely, it’s exactly what you need. It’s exactly the thing that’s going to get you to that next point in your career. Just saw him this morning, asked him how his knee was. He said, ‘I’m doing better, Coach.’ So, great kid.”
Calipari, and his players, try to make sure Poythress is included in as many things as possible, but the coach knows that is not the same as playing.
“He comes with the team and he’s at meetings and all those things. I mean, it’s hard. Ask Willie (Cauley-Stein),” Calipari said. “Last year when he gets hurt in the NCAA Tournament run, if you’re not in the fray, you’re in the back lines, you’re watching with binoculars, it’s hard.
“They come back, you don’t feel what they feel. You didn’t have the same emotion that they had. But he’s doing great.”
Maker in 2015: Seven-foot Thon Maker's decision to reclassify to the 2015 recruiting class this week was no surprise as he indicated at both the Marshall County Hoop Fest and McCracken County Mustang Madness he likely would make this move.
Maker is a five-star prospect with superb ball skills and a nice outside shooting touch even from 3-point range. He runs the court well, is a terrific shot blocker and is spending this season in Canada at Orangeville Prep.
Maker attended a game at Rupp Arena when he played in a Thanksgiving showcase in Lexington. He's made no secret of his interest in UK, but also has seemed to have Kansas high on his list of potential college choices.
One potential stumbling block for UK with Maker could be that coach John Calipari has already signed Skal Labissiere, considered the top post player in the 2015 recruiting class by some recruiting analysts,
Kentucky is also still actively recruiting post players Ivan Rabb, Stephen Zimmerman, Cheick Diallo and Caleb Swanigan. All are among the top 10 players in the 2015 recruiting class in some rankings.
There has been some speculation that Maker may opt to play professionally overseas next season for a year before going to the NBA rather than playing in college. Maker downplayed that possibility at Mustang Madness.
X factor: Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne works closely with UK’s interior players, including Dakari Johnson. Payne admits Johnson went through a period where he lost “some confidence” that he hopes is now over.
“Lost his fire, lost the fight part of the game, and it was a struggle for him to get it back. Conditioning-wise coach Rock (Oliver) has spent a lot of time with him getting him back to pushing the way he pushed earlier in the year,” Payne said. “And he went out and he performed.
“I’ll say it again. In order for us to be a great team, Dakari Johnson is the X-factor. He brings a physical play to the game that we sorely need. Hopefully he’s back for a while.”
Payne said he takes it “very personal” when UK’s interior players go through ups and downs.
“I spend a lot of time, not just with the bigs. All these kids coming into this program, they look to us for guidance. When they struggle, we struggle. It’s not just on them; it’s on us as well,” Payne said.
Towns named: Kentucky freshman Karl-Anthony Towns was named the United States Basketball Writers Association’s (USBWA) Wayman Tisdale National Freshman of the Week in conjunction with CBS Sports.
Towns leads UK in blocked shots (58) and is tied for the team high in rebounds per game (6.4).
However, he said the thought of an unbeaten season is not something the players worry about.
“No we don’t ever talk about it. We just really, we just focus ourselves mostly on being the best team we can be every night out and playing to the best of our abilities with a lot of energy every night," said freshman Karl-Anthony Towns.
"So for us it’s really never come to our mind. We’re just about making sure we grow individually and as a team, and also with veterans like Andrew, Aaron, Willie, they’re used to this chat. They’re telling us how to deal with it.”
Kansas No. 1: Even though Kentucky is undefeated and routed Kansas in November on a neutral court, the Jayhawks are still No. 1 in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI). The RPI has been used by the NCAA since 1981 to supplement the selection of at-large teams and the seeding of all teams for the NCAA Tournament.
The RPI is derived from three component factors: Division I winning percentage (25 percent), schedule strength (50 percent) and opponent's schedule strength (25 percent).
For games through Tuesday, Kansas is first followed by Kentucky, Virginia, Villanova and Duke in the top five. The rest of the top ten in order is Wisconsin, Arizona, Gonzaga, Utah and Maryland.
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