Kentucky’s Herro: Don’t judge my basketball talent by ‘my skin color’

As Associate coach Kenny Payne recalled it on Monday, the way Tyler Herro punctuated a play during one of Kentucky’s August exhibitions in the Bahamas revealed something significant.

Herro drove with his off hand to the basket. “Didn’t touch it with his right hand,” Payne said. “Laid it off the glass, and winked at me. I tried to ignore it. And after the game, the referee said, ‘Kenny Payne, did you see what he did? He winked at you.’

“So he has a confidence, a way about himself that’s pretty good.”

Perhaps another Herro-Payne exchange, this time verbal, explained the meaning of the wink.

“K.P., I’m a dog,” Payne recalled Herro telling him. “And we love that because we need a team full of dogs.”

When asked to define “dog” in the basketball context, Payne said, “In my dictionary, it means an alpha, that ‘I will fight you for everything you get. I’m not just a white kid who can shoot. I can play.’”

Herro, who described the wink as “a funny joke,” did not dispute Payne’s view that the freshman guard brought an agenda into this season.

“I guess I don’t want to be labeled just because I’m white that I’m a shooter,” Herro said. “If you don’t look at my skin color and we just go and play basketball, you’re not going to say I’m a white kid that can just shoot.”

Herro’s skill beyond shooting has been on display in recent games. The label of defensive stopper seemed appropriate after watching UK assign Herro to Auburn’s leading scorer, Bryce Brown, and Kansas’ primary perimeter scorer, Lagerald Vick, in recent games.

“At the beginning of the season, I don’t think I could have made the impact that I did in that game,” he said, “because I feel I’m not the same player that I was. I think you could say I’m 100 percent better. Still, there’s obviously room for improvement.”

As with all Kentucky players, Herro got off to a slow start as a defender. His man, Cam Reddish, scored 22 points in Duke’s 118-84 victory over Kentucky on opening night.

“They didn’t miss a shot that whole game,” Herro said of Duke’s 54.4-percent shooting accuracy.

Then the dog came out in Herro. “If we had shot that well . . . , we could have beaten them by that (margin), too . . . ,” he said. “We’re looking forward to going in and hopefully making a run at them” in the NCAA Tournament.

Herro sounded well versed in how assumptions about players can be made based on race.

“I don’t know if players we play against (make assumptions),” he said. “I think they know I’m more than a shooter.”

However, “when you see a white kid, that’s just the label that we get,” he said.

Herro said that one reason his defense has improved is because he typically guards Brad Calipari in practice. He said people should not think the younger Calipari personifies the stereotype of the white player who can only shoot.

“Brad, actually, he’s crafty,” Herro said. “Brad scores a lot in practice. He actually does make me better. He moves without the ball.

“No, Brad can do more than shoot.”

Herro suggested the stereotyping of a white player extends beyond shooting. A type of villainy can be part of the package.

“I feel people didn’t like Grayson Allen (of Duke),” he said. “They don’t like good white players, I guess. I guess you could say that’s about it.”

For example, Herro recalled a taunt he saw on his Instagram account after UK’s victory over Kansas.

“Someone asked me when I was going to start tripping people,” he said.

The idea of Herro as villain began when he de-committed from his home-state school, Wisconsin. While he recoiled from the label of being merely a shooter, he said he shrugged off the criticism that came with the de-commitment.

“They’re just all people whose opinions don’t matter,” he said.

Herro embraced being called a dog. He defined it as meaning a player who can contribute in multiple ways and loves to compete.

“I just like saying I’m a dog,” he said.

Tuesday

No. 7 Kentucky at Vanderbilt

When: 9 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 16-3 (5-1 SEC), Vanderbilt 9-10 (0-6)

Series: Kentucky leads 146-47

Last meeting: Kentucky won 56-47 on Jan. 12 in Lexington