Worlds colliding: UK’s ‘Stanford Man’ adjusting to BBN’s obsession

A few seconds of video showing PJ Washington’s feet taking steps on a carpet goes viral. Welcome to Kentucky basketball.

“I didn’t think it was going to blow up like that,” Washington said Thursday. “Everybody’s been hitting me up on Instagram and Twitter. . . . People are DM-ing (direct messaging) on Twitter. And they’ve been DM-ing me the past couple weeks. It’s just crazy.”

Washington’s sprained left foot made him a social media superstar. Will he return?! When will he return?! Does he want to return?!

Reid Travis, a denizen of the Big Blue Nation only since last summer, was not surprised.

“At this point, I expect everything out of Kentucky basketball,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything can undermine (it), even a video like that. A lot of people care. They want to see him healthy. They want to see him play. It’s pretty cool to see that.”

But it requires an adjustment for someone who has lived in a non-Kentucky basketball world. A native of Minneapolis, Travis came to UK last summer as a graduate transfer with a degree from Stanford.

When asked as a self-described Stanford Man what he made of the Big Blue Nation, Travis smiled and said, “I don’t know if the two worlds coincide. I don’t know if being a Stanford Man helps me rationalize it any more than anyone else.”

This prompted a hypothetical question: If Travis was writing a thesis on Kentucky basketball, what would be the summary statement?

“You just have to see it to believe it,” he said. “You can have someone explain it to you in great detail. But until you’re there every day living and breathing it, it really doesn’t do it justice.”

Underdogs?

Houston played the underdog card.

“Out of 352 schools, everybody can be beaten,” forward Breaon Brady said. “And they (UK’s Wildcats) are just another team. We’re not playing ‘Kentucky.’ We’re playing (Ashton) Hagans, Reid Travis and (PJ) Washington. At the end of the day, if we stick to our principles, it’s going to be a good game, and the world’s going to see what’s going to happen.”

When asked about Houston as an underdog, Nick Richards shrugged. “For every game, a team always is trying to beat us because of the history of the school,” he said.

It should be noted that of the four teams in the Midwest Region, Houston had the best NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rating entering the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars were No. 4. Kentucky was No. 6, North Carolina No. 7 and Auburn No. 18.

‘Old school’

Houston ranks first in the nation in field goal defense (opponents shooting 36.6 percent) and first in three-point defense (27.8 percent).

Immanuel Quickley spoke of the game not being for the faint of heart. He described Houston’s style as “old school, push and shove, rough you up, see if you want to play.”

Brady described Houston’s approach to basketball in a similar way.

“We play super hard, super aggressive,” he said. “We are going to win most of our games with defense and rebounding. That’s our biggest strength.”

‘Can we slow down?’

As of Thursday, four of the 14 Southeastern Conference programs were in the midst of a coaching change.

“I’m upset about all the coaching changes,” Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl said. “I understand that it’s a high risk-high reward profession. But I can tell you almost all of us coaches got into this business because we love the game. We love to teach. . . .

“But I know we’re judged based on our winning. But there’s so much more to what we have to do on a daily basis. It’s a ministry of graduating kids and serving the community and doing all those things. . . . Can we just slow down? Can Board of Trustees or presidents and athletic directors in leadership positions somehow get a handle on this?”

Casting call

A reporter playfully asked Travis how it felt to see PJ Washington’s left foot for the first time in several days. The foot had been inside a protective boot, then a hard cast as a precaution.

“It’s a relief,” Travis told reporters before adding, “I don’t think I stay up at night thinking about it as much as you guys do.”

Etc.

Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and sideline reporter Jamie Erdahl will call the game for TBS.

Kentucky-Houston history

UK leads series 3-1

Dec. 18, 2007, at Houston: Houston 83, Kentucky 69 (regular-season game)

Jan. 3, 2007, at Rupp Arena: Kentucky 77, Houston 70 (regular-season game)

Jan. 22, 1984, at Rupp Arena: Kentucky 74, Houston 67 (regular-season game)

Dec. 29, 1956, at New Orleans: Kentucky 111, Houston 76 (Sugar Bowl Tournament)

This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 7:48 PM.