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By LARRY VAUGHT
LOUISVILLE — After Kentucky beat Cincinnati 64-51 here Saturday to advance to the Midwest Region Sweet Sixteen in Cleveland, coach John Calipari talked about history, not the win.
“We just talked about how we're going to grow old, we're going to get wrinkles and everything, and we'll be able to say we're 36-0. He left us with this. That we need to work hard so we can continue making even more history, and that's what we're looking forward to doing,” said freshman Karl-Anthony Towns on what Calipari said to the team after the win.
Towns had eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks. He said advancing was nice, but the team wants more after becoming the first college team to ever start a year 36-0.
“It's beautiful. But we feel like we have a lot more we feel like we can do. We just gotta keep continuing the process and growing the team and individuals,” Towns said.
Here’s more of what the UK freshman had to say about the game.
Question: How physical was the game?
Towns: “We just played hard. I mean, we wore them down, I think, with the platoon system, and we just did a better job of getting lower bases and working hard, especially in the second half. Every team plays with different strategies and different abilities and different offensive capabilities. Everyone has different things they try to do, and it's tournament, we don't get much time to really scout, and we just have to get in the groove while the game's going on. You just have to feel them out. That's how it always is. They came out really physical, and we just started getting used to it and getting better.”
“I think our identity was show, what was it, 2:44 left in the first half. We came in the huddle, we were really upset with ourselves, we just told ourselves we want to lock down. We wanted to get all stops and capitalize on our offensive ability. We went from, I think, a one-point to a seven or eight-point lead (actually a 10-0 run).
“We gave up a lot of shots, a lot of points, and we just weren't playing to our capabilities on defense. We weren't adding that two or three percent we needed, that coach Cal keeps talking about. We just needed to step up. We needed to look at each other in the huddle. He wants us to be empowered, and we did a great job of that at the end of the first half. We empowered ourselves. We told ourselves what we wanted to do and we went out there and just did it. This is a band of brothers, this is a family.”
“It was very physical. Very physical game. We just had to fight through it. We had to play physical also, but we had to be mindful of a lot of things, make sure we didn't play too physical and watch the foul calls and capitalize.”
Question: What about all the talking between teams?
Towns: “We were just competing. Both teams were competing. We wanted to win and they wanted to win.”
Question: What about scoring eight of UK’s first 10 points and then not scoring again?
Towns: “They did a great job after those first eight points, they just smothered me. Every time I caught the ball I was seeing two more bodies than usual. That's the thing, every game I'm not going to go for 21. They're not going to let me just go for 21. That's the beauty of this team. My brothers, everyone's just so talented. It doesn't matter if you get eight, but if he gets eight and he gets eight, and he gets 10 and he gets eight and he gets 10, it adds up to be a lot of points.”
Question: What about Willie Cauley-Stein’s dunk during the 10-0 run that energized the team?
Towns: “I saw it coming. I've been with him so long now you just knew it was coming. All I heard in my head was, I could see him jumping, and in my head was 'duh duh duh … duh duh dut (the ESPN SportsCenter theme). Doesn't it always seem he's always the one that changes the momentum with some sort, some fashion? It's one of those things, that's one of those things that he brings to the game. Any given time he can give us an energy boost when we're all down, and that's exactly what he did. “It was an amazing dunk. It's unfortunate it was also on my AAU teammate, but it was an amazing dunk. That's something Willie is capable of doing at any time.”
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