Kentucky’s EJ Montgomery: ‘I think I’m breaking out of my shell’
Kentucky Coach John Calipari speaks of EJ Montgomery being a monstrous presence on the court. The sophomore forward acknowledged Saturday that he frets about doing everything right on the court.
Thus, the dynamic of an ever-demanding coach and, perhaps, an overly-conscientious player is at play this UK basketball season.
After Montgomery contributed eight points and six rebounds to Kentucky’s victory over Alabama on Saturday, the player said he had “had a talk” with Calipari recently.
“He just wants me to go out there, not think, and have fun,” Montgomery said. “That’s what I tried to do today.”
Montgomery identified his “main problem” as “thinking too much.”
When asked why he was thinking too much, he said, “I just try to be perfect. You can’t be perfect.”
According to 247Sports, Montgomery was the highest-rated recruit in Kentucky’s freshman class last season. He admitted that he has felt pressure to live up to the hype.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “I go out there and try to have everything perfect.”
Montgomery played only 4:39 of the second half at Georgia on Tuesday. After the game, Calipari said he went with players he believed could win the game.
“It was OK,” Montgomery said. “The guys that were playing well played. I just continued to be a teammate and cheer on the team.”
Calipari dismissed a question about that second-half lineup, which included Nick Richards and Nate Sestina, forming a foundation of a rotation.
“EJ may step up and be the monster we want him to be,” the UK coach said.
Montgomery defined “monster” as competing every possession, get rebounds and defend.
Immanuel Quickley said UK players see a different Montgomery in pickup games.
“He does a lot of different stuff that nobody gets to see …, “Quickley said. “We’ve just got to get him to loosen up a little bit. Just play free.”
Montgomery said he is progressing.
“I think I’m breaking out of my shell,” he said.
Triple-double flirtation
Ashton Hagans nearly had what would have been only the fourth triple-double in UK basketball history Saturday. He scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and got credit for nine assists.
Calipari, who seems to fixate on players not resting on their laurels, said, “You’re a triple-double, and I’m saying, ‘You’re better.’”
Hagans smiled when asked about his numbers.
“It makes me feel a lot better knowing I could have had a triple-dub,” he said. “And hearing your coach say I could have played even better, that just shows he has a lot of faith in me.”
Calipari returned to the familiar theme of Hagans not always being disciplined in his play. Hagans pleaded guilty.
“That’s what he’s been preaching,” he said. “I got beat off the dribble a couple times. Got beat backdoor. Got screened instead of fighting it.”
The three triple-doubles in UK history belong to Chris Mills (19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists against Austin Peay in 1988-89), De’Aaron Fox (14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Arizona State in 2016-17) and Isaiah Briscoe (19 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists at Ole Miss in 2016-17).
Cal on Whitney
Calipari said he liked what he saw in Kahlil Whitney on Saturday. The freshman, who did not play in the second half at Georgia, played eight-plus minutes against Alabama.
“I was so happy for Kahlil today,” Calipari said. “Now, you may have looked and said, ‘Well, he missed shots.’”
Whitney ended up 0-for-3 and went scoreless for a fourth straight game.
“They were all shots we want him to take,” Calipari said. “Instead of passing that up and trying to throw a ball, just shoot it.”
Morning person?
After saying he considered Hagans the best point guard in the country, Calipari said he did not think Hagans played to that level.
“He doesn’t think I’m a morning person,” Hagans said before adding, “I’m not really a morning person. But we got through it today.”
1,000 victories
By defeating Alabama, Kentucky increased its total of regular-season SEC victories to 1,000.
For comparison sake, Kansas won its 1,100th conference game last March 2 against Oklahoma State.
With a loss to Baylor on Saturday, Kansas’ total of conference victories remained 1,102.
Going into Saturday, the three Big Ten teams with the most conference victories were Purdue (970), Illinois (937) and Indiana (934).
UCLA had 963 regular-season conference victories going into a game Saturday night.
Kentucky improved its all-time regular-season SEC record to 1,000-281. No other SEC team has more than 750 regular-season league victories.
Next game
No. 10 Kentucky at South Carolina
6:30 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 6:02 PM.
