‘Way to play, kid!’ Calipari’s glad to see Juzang step up for Kentucky.
With Kentucky holding a tenuous eight-point lead early in the second half and a crowd eager to see Tennessee rally to victory, freshman Johnny Juzang found himself with the ball in transition. It was decision time under pressure.
UK Coach John Calipari was thinking cautiously.
“Easy, easy, easy,” he said he thought. Then Juzang made a smart bounce pass through traffic that Nick Richards converted for a dunk.
“Ahh,” Calipari said he thought. “Great pass, Johnny! Way to play, kid!”
Nine minutes later, Kentucky’s lead had shrunk to four points. That crowd’s cheers sounded like expectation.
Richards missed a free throw, which turned up the volume.
But there was Juzang again, winning a scrap for the rebound.
“I said, ‘Pull it out!’” Calipari said.
Instead, Juzang made a short baseline drive and made a contested shot.
Again, Calipari confessed that he could be, uh, flexible in his thinking.
“Great shot, Johnny!” he said in the postgame press conference, quoting his immediate reaction.
Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Juzang’s big plays contributed to a 77-64 victory at Tennessee.
Calipari translated his before-and-after reaction to Juzang’s clutch plays.
“So, you know, he’s building my confidence in him,” the UK coach said. “You guys are saying, ‘Where did this come from?’ When I’m watching it, and I haven’t seen it, you kind of have a little bit of, OK.”
Juzang did not miss a shot in scoring a career-high 13 points. To put that in perspective, he had scored only 25 points since Dec. 7 before his blossoming helped UK snap a four-game losing streak against Tennessee in Knoxville.
Juzang had made only five three-point shots (in 25 attempts) all season before going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. He hadn’t made a free throw since Dec. 7. He made two of two on Saturday.
Juzang downplayed his performance.
“Really, just a good night,” he said. “My teammates were looking for me.”
When asked how prominently Juzang figured in Tennessee’s game plan, Coach Rick Barnes said, “We don’t leave any of them out of the game plan because we felt like we’d get them in foul trouble. We felt they’d have to go to some of those players.”
UK, 18-5 overall and 8-2 in the Southeastern Conference, did have to overcome foul trouble. The Cats committed 14 fouls in the first half alone, or just four shy of the season average of 18.3.
Ashton Hagans’ continuing rash of turnovers (four in the first half, five in the game) also made contributions from Juzang even more timely.
Juzang played only five minutes in UK’s victory over Mississippi State on Tuesday. That was the ninth time this season he logged single-digit minutes.
“You just keep pushing,” Juzang said when asked about his perseverance. “I’m definitely not saying it’s easy. But, you just keep going.”
Teammate Tyrese Maxey used the cliché about first in the gym-last to leave to describe Juzang’s work ethic.
“He’s probably going to the gym tomorrow morning,” Maxey said. “Maybe the gym tonight, knowing Johnny.”
Calipari saluted Juzang’s “great attitude.” The UK coach said the freshman had taken responsibility for his previous lack of production rather than make excuses or look for someone else to blame.
The bounce pass to Richards — which any point guard would be happy to claim — caught Maxey’s attention.
“I didn’t know you passed, bro,” he teased Juzang as they sat side by side in the postgame news conference.
To which, Juzang replied, “I’ve been working on it.”
Juzang’s rebound and purposeful drive in converting a second-chance opportunity impressed Calipari.
“That’s a real skill,” the UK coach said sarcastically before making a serious point. “It’s just an effort. It’s just energy. And that’s why we left him in.”
Juzang’s 23-plus minutes were a season high.
That suggested that Juzang — and fellow freshman Keion Brooks, who grabbed a career-high nine rebounds — answered Calipari’s call for more contributions from more players.
“If Johnny does what he does, we’ve got a nice little rotation,” Calipari said.
Next game
No. 15 Kentucky at Vanderbilt
7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 5:17 PM.
