West Virginia trash talking into matchup with Kentucky

By LARRY VAUGHT

CLEVELAND — Andrew Harrison was stunned when he heard what West Virginia freshman Daxter Miles had to say about No. 1 Kentucky here Wednesday.

“I give them them their props. Salute them to getting to 36-0. But tomorrow they’re gonna be 36-1,” said Miles, who averages 7.5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

However, he didn’t stop there.

"They don't play hard,” Miles said.

Harrison shook his head in disbelief when told what had been said.

“Maybe we should lose more,” he said. “That is kind of hurtful. We will see tomorrow.”

Kentucky freshman Karl-Anthony Towns was not amused.

“It’s usually the people who are the best who say the least. We take it like that,” Towns said. “We are just going to play the game we know how to play. We have to play Kentucky basketball, stick to the game plan, stay mentally sharp and hit some shots.

“Everyone has an opinion. Just take it as you get. We have always been criticized for everything. It’s okay.”

The two teams play Thursday night in the Midwest Region for the right to advance to a Saturday matchup with the Notre Dame-Wichita State survivor.

All week UK players have seen or heard that West Virginia, with nine losses, is a bad matchup for them becasue of its style and press. Last year a nine-loss Kentucky ousted unbeaten Wichita State in the round of 32.

“We are going to shock the world,” West Virginia junior Jaysean Paige, who averages 5.8 points per game, said.

Again, Harrison just shook his head.

“I guess that’s part of basketball. Maybe they are a bad matchup. We will find out tomorrow,” Harrison said. “At this point, all teams are trying to beat you. We just focus on our next game and play.”

Junior Alex Poythress has been hurt since mid-December and out for the year. However, he was amused to hear what West Virginia players were saying about Kentucky, too.

“Everybody talks. People have been talking all year. It’s just chitter-chatter to us. We just go play as hard as we can and leave it all out there and let them talk,” Poythress said. “I guess that is what people want to do is poke us. But we have not broken all year. I guess they have to find some way not to take us down. We don’t talk trash. We just ball.”

Paig said it had been “kind of annoying” all week to hear that Kentucky could not be beat.

“Anybody can be beat. We are just going to play harder and put a lot of pressure on them,” Paige said. “UConn beat them last year (in the national title game) by speeding up their guards. We want to take the ball out of the guards’ hands and see if their other guys can make plays.

“UK is undefeated. All credit to them. They have had a great year, but they have not played a team like us. Great coach, great team at UK but we can compete and beat them.”

Kentucky senior walk-on Tod Lanter sees what the Wildcats can do daily. He was perplexed why anybody would want to antagonize the Wildcats.

“You don’t want to wake up a sleeping dog and you don’t want to make promises when it comes to a game, especially for another team. If you want to make a promise about the intensity you will come out with or how you have prepared, that’s fine. I don’t know that going at the other guy is the right approach,” Laner said.

“To say we don’t play hard is kind of insane. That’s what these guys have prided themselves on all year long. Every possession trying not to let the other team score and then score on offense. To say we don’t play hard sounds kind of ridiculous and hopefully we respond the right way, and I am pretty sure these guys will because they have all year.”