‘That could have been my best sport.’ Hagans explains why he gave up football for hoops.
The latest in a long line of standout Kentucky point guards can be summed up as football’s loss was basketball’s gain.
Ashton Hagans chose basketball rather than football as the athletic path he wanted to follow. He said Tuesday that he made the right choice.
“I was real good at football,” he said. “That could have been my best sport.”
Yet, he chose as a ninth-grader to concentrate on basketball rather than continue playing quarterback.
“The true story behind that is, OK, my freshman year, I was working out,” he said of preseason football. “I was going through all the training.”
It became apparent to Hagans that he would not start. A senior would be the starting quarterback.
This player “wasn’t better than me,” Hagans said. “He just knew everything. He knew all the plays. So, like, I’m not sitting behind someone I’m better than. I’m going to stick to basketball. And that was just that.”
Something to prove
Last week, UK Coach John Calipari said grad transfer Nate Sestina needed a change of mindset. Sestina came wanting to prove he was good enough to play for Kentucky, Calipari said. And more recently Sestina had seemed distracted by wanting to continue playing at a certain level.
Sestina needed to be a “hungry man” again, Calipari said.
Sestina agreed, citing his 17-point performance against Ohio State which included 5-for-8 three-point shooting.
“You have a good game coming off an injury, you feel you have to play to that level every single time on the court … ,” he said. “So, I think the past couple weeks of practice, probably the last week and a half, I’ve tried to just prove myself like I did before.
“It’s not so much living up to the hype as it is just every day proving why I’m here.”
Need blowout?
Thirteen of UK’s 19 games so far this season have had a margin of seven or fewer points going into the final seven minutes.
When asked if the Cats needed a stress release that would come with a blowout victory, Hagans said, “You know, these games happen. You know, it’s a dog fight all 40 (minutes).” In the 76-74 overtime victory at Texas Tech, UK was twice on the brink of easing to a comfortable victory. The Cats led 59-50 with less than seven minutes left in regulation and 72-66 with barely three minutes left in overtime.
UK dodged defeat thanks, in part, to Davide Moretti, who shot free throws with a 91.5-percent accuracy, missing one with 18.4 seconds left in the second half and Nick Richards making two with 10.3 seconds left in overtime.
“A lot of it is all of us have to be disciplined,” Sestina said. “You might have an open shot with 15 seconds left on the shot clock. But we want to run the clock a little bit more.”
Coaching losing
Bryce Drew had the task of coaching Vanderbilt during last season’s 0-18 regular-season SEC record.
“I tried to coach more their hearts,” he said. “Try to put them in a good place where they took the court or even outside the court. So, working a lot on character development.”
Unlucky scheduling
Drew cited a coincidence of bad scheduling contributing to Vandy’s losing streak of 24 straight regular-season SEC games.
Vandy, which finished in last place last season, did not have a home game with the teams that finished 11th (Texas A&M at 6-12), 12th (Missouri 5-13) and 13th (Georgia at 2-16). The Commodores played all three in away games.
“You get a win here or there, it builds confidence, and maybe you win some more,” Drew said. “So, the unbalanced schedule was definitely not in our favor.”
Empathy, apathy
Former Vandy player (and Lexington native) Frank Kornet said that his alma mater’s basketball losing streak made him feel empathy for the players.
“I feel for the kids,” he said. “You don’t want to see anybody go through that kind of stretch.”
When asked how other former Vandy players had reacted to the losing streak, Kornet said, “I’m sure some of them will be embarrassed by it. To me, it’s not something you can be embarrassed by. It’s just horrible.”
Barry Booker played with Kornet for Vandy in the late 1980s. His reaction to the streak?
“I think disappointed,” he said. “But I think we’re at a stage in society where there’s so many things to pay attention to. … What’s going on with the Super Bowl? What’s happening on social media? Politics. Plenty of things to distract you these days.
“I think it’s apathy when it gets to this stage because, man, it is sad. Sad to see.”
Etc.
Roy Philpott and Mark Wise will call the game for the SEC Network.
