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  • Noel considered coming back because of UK fans

    By: LARRY VAUGHT



    Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel said his injured knee is “doing good” and that his physical therapist tells him he’s ahead of schedule recovering from the torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in UK’s loss at Florida Feb. 12 that ended his season — and college career since he’s put his name into the NBA draft.

    Noel said he is trying to “take things slow” as he focuses on his therapy but being patient has not been easy.

    “It’s hard to be patient, especially during the season seeing my teammates out there playing and just wishing I was out there playing with them. There is nothing you can really do now, just stay focused on physical therapy and make sure I give it 100 percent,” said Noel.

    Noel averaged 10.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game before he was hurt and had 106 blocked shots in 24 games. He was named the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year as well as a freshman All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

    He even admitted Tuesday that he considered returning to UK for his sophomore season to play for coach John Calipari in part because of the UK fans.

    “Yeah, there was a consideration of coming back but anybody that gets injured you’re probably going to have considerations about coming back. But I sat down with my family and they saw the extent of my injury and they thought it wasn’t going to affect me too much in the draft, so I’ve been tackling the rehab and my family and my decision was the best for me,” he said.
    “I loved playing here. It’s one of the best experiences of my life. Great fans. Great atmosphere. Playing in Rupp Arena felt like a once in a lifetime thing, like I’d never get to do that again. It was a hard decision. I love the Big Blue Nation and coach Cal . That was one of the best things to do here.”

    He also knows how talented UK’s incoming recruiting class is since he was originally part of the 2013 class before reclassifying so he could play in college last season.

    “I played with a lot of those guys when I was in their class, before I reclassified, and I know how good they are. That would have been a real special team if I had stayed,” he said. “Those are great kids and they’re going to have a great team next year, even Alex (Poythress) and Willie (Cauley-Stein) coming back will give them good leadership like Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb did (for UK’s national title team). That was the key players they needed to win that championship, so I feel like they’ll be very good next year.”
    Comments 5 Comments
    1. uklandrn's Avatar
      uklandrn -
      Love Love Love me some Nerlens!!
    1. jazyd's Avatar
      jazyd -
      Great young man, but anyone notice when he talked about players coming back and being leaders he left off Kyle?.
    1. UKHistory's Avatar
      UKHistory -
      I won't read too much into that. But Willie led with effort. He especially let AT HOME after Nerlens went down.

      I didn't see a lot of consistent production or effort from enough guys. Which is why when we talk about being good and list returning players X, Y, Z...I say prove it.

      We need all the player doing their best playing as a team. Let's see what we can do.
    1. ebarbaau's Avatar
      ebarbaau -
      Awesome representative of UK !
    1. Edward100's Avatar
      Edward100 -
      Do the recruits see how players change from when they get to Kentucky to when they leave? There is so much love between the players and fans at Kentucky. Truly, once a cat; always a cat!
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