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By LARRY VAUGHT
When Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne said Friday that sophomore center Dakari Johnson could be the X factor for No. 1 UK in postseason play, Johnson did not disagree.
“I think he’s right. If I’m engaged it’s just going to help my team and make our team better. I have to keep on doing what the coaching staff wants me to do and then we’ll be fine,” said Johnson after Saturday’s 110-75 win over Auburn when he had 13 points of 6-for-7 shooting and six rebounds in only 16 minutes of play.
He didn’t even mind that teammate Marcus Lee basically took an offensive rebound away from him and dunked over him in the second half.
“I tried to get the offensive rebound and then somebody just came over the back. I was mad at first because it was my offensive rebound, then I saw Marcus. So it was crazy,” Johnson said. “He’s a good energy guy. That’s what he brings to the table, great energy and intensity.”
Johnson said he’s got more comfortable in the post again after going through a slump a few weeks ago that had coach John Calipari threatening to reduce his playing time.
“It’s about getting deeper position. That’s what Coach (Caiparil) has been telling me, so I won’t have to take as many dribbles and stuff. I can take one or two dribbles then go right up. That’s what we’ve been trying to focus on the last couple of games,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the Cats take pride in being physical, something Auburn coach Bruce Pearl praised after his team was dominated inside by UK.
“We know the refs are going to call — if we play physical some games they’re going to call it, some games they’re not. Teams are going to try to outwork us and we just try to be physical with them,” Johnson said. “Every game we just have to go into the game with a mentality to be physical.”
“Coach (Calipari), he’s been telling me they’re going to double-team us and they have been double-teaming us the whole season. Just get deeper position so I don’t have to take as many dribbles. Take one dribble and then go straight up. That’s what we’ve been working on the past couple of days.”
Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns had 19 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks Saturday but he said Johnson was “fabulous” in the game as well.
“Dakari did everything great. Played with energy, when he was around the basket he was unstoppable, did a great job,” Towns said.
Calipari felt the same way about Johnson and UK’s other bigs.
“What happens is it forces them to make choices (when the bigs play well). So are they going to try to front the post? Are they going to try to trap? If they do trap, are they trapping from a big guy? Are they trapping from a guard? Are they just going to dig?” Calipari said.
“And then we had to play off of it, and we played well off of it. We kicked it out for 3’ss. We kicked it out for drives. We posted the ball when the court was spread. Dakari, instead of slowly — he was do you know when he caught it, so he could just raise up and shoot the ball. He rebounded and kept the ball above his head. And I thought Karl was doing the same things.”
Marcus Lee had six points, eight rebounds, one block and one steal while Willie Cauley-Stein had nine points, four rebounds and one block. That gave UK’s four inside players a combined 47 points, 28 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“That’s something we’ve really been focusing on lately. We’ve been doing that for a while because for a while, as a big team, we knew we were struggling getting stuff done,” Lee said. “So we kind of just made sure we did more than we needed to do as the time went on.”
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