Sister joins UK basketball brotherhood by advising EJ Montgomery
When asked about grabbing eight rebounds (or just four less than he’d had previously this season) in Friday’s victory over UAB, EJ Montgomery credited a critique from his older sister Brittni.
“My sister plays professionally (in Australia),” Montgomery said. “She texted me. ‘Try to find the ball first. And just move around the defender. Try your best.’”
Montgomery, who joined fellow “big” Nick Richards by scoring a team-high 16 points, said his sister communicates with him regularly.
“She was actually at the game today,” he said. “She just texts me before every game. … Gets me motivated about playing.”
On this night, Montgomery and Richards filled the vacuum created by Nate Sestina breaking his left wrist in Tuesday’s practice.
Montgomery rejected the suggestion that players get lost in the flow of game and forget that Sestina was missing.
“You notice it a lot,” he said. “Nate’s a great player. He talks every possession. He helps you out with defense, and things like that. Just another energy guy.”
It will take a group effort to fill in for Sestina, who is projected to be sidelined about four weeks.
Though confined to the bench, Sestina was not a silent observer of UK’s 69-58 victory over UAB.
“He was screaming, ‘We need one more stop!’ and things like that,” Montgomery said.
‘Throw me the ball’
Self-confidence has been an issue for Richards. And even though Richards has averaged nearly a double-double in the last four games (16.5 points and 9.5 rebounds), Calipari cited a way could show more swagger.
“I walked over to the bench at one point and said, ‘Nick, why aren’t you saying to me, ‘Coach, throw me the ball? Tell these guys to get me the ball,’” the UK coach said. “‘Why aren’t you saying that?’
“Like, confident players will come over and do that.”
Said Richards: “For a coach to have that much confidence in me, I should have a lot of confidence in myself scoring in the post.”
Richards offered a team-first reason he did not demand the ball.
“I felt EJ was scoring a lot in the post,” he said. “In my mindset, I was trying to keep feeding EJ and let him go to work.”
When it was suggested it would take gumption for a player to demand the ball, Richards said Calipari encourages such demonstrations.
“He demands us to go up to him and tell him what we want on the court,” Richards said. “He doesn’t always want to tell us what to do.”
Superiority complex
In announcing via Twitter Wednesday that Sestina had broken his left wrist, Calipari perhaps tried to snuff out self-pity among his players by saying that nobody would feel sorry for Kentucky. He added that some people would be happy to learn that UK lost another player to injury. Sestina joined Richards, Montgomery, Immanuel Quickley and Kahlil Whitney on a list UK players who have dealt with ailments.
Ashton Hagans echoed his coach later in the day. “Nobody wants to see Kentucky on top,” he said.
When asked why he imagined this kind of universal sentiment existed, Hagans said, “Hey, we got the best coaching staff. We got the best coach in the country. We get the best players. Best gear. We have the best facility. Things like that.”
A reporter suggested that maybe Calipari used the idea of a widespread anti-Kentucky sentiment as a tool to rally the players.
“Nah,” Hagans said. “Everybody knows everyone doesn’t want Kentucky winning.”
As Sestina rehabilitates in the next few weeks, UK players “just need to stay with each other,” Hagans said, “and keep fighting.”
Parting ways
After the game, Kentucky and UAB were going their separate ways in more ways than one.
UK’s next two games are at home against Fairleigh Dickinson and Georgia Tech. Stats savant Ken Pomeroy gave UK 99- and 86-percent chances of winning those games. As of Friday, he rated Fairleigh Dickinson at No. 260 and Georgia Tech at No. 63 nationally.
Meanwhile, UAB plays at Texas and at home against Memphis next week. Pomeroy rated Texas at No. 33 and Memphis at No. 39. He rated UAB’s chances of beating Texas at 11 percent and Memphis 25 percent.
Inter-nut?
When told that there’s a social media buzz questioning why Johnny Juzang does not get more playing time, Calipari said, “I don’t pay attention to social media. So it has no bearing on the decisions I make. Believe me.”
