Nick Richards keeping it real keeps Kentucky contending
Friday saw John Calipari suggest yet another reason to appreciate Nick Richards this season. The Kentucky coach essentially said the big man from Jamaica is a reality-based player.
“He’s not delusional,” Calipari said in saluting Richards’ accurate self-image.
Of course, Richards is only human. Like anyone, he can be tempted by delusion.
“Anytime he starts to slip, he’s got a whole staff all over him,” said Calipari, who then offered a scenario that illustrated the point.
“I’m walking into the gym and he’s on the treadmill,” the UK coach said. “And I’m thinking, ‘Wow, isn’t that great? He’s out there conditioning.’”
Uh, no. In this ironic instance, Calipari was being delusional.
“No!” he said of re-evaluating the sight of Richards on a treadmill just off Kentucky’s practice court. “He came in half-speed, and Kenny (Payne, UK’s associate head coach) put him on the treadmill. ‘All right, you don’t want to do this? Get on the treadmill.’ So, we’re not letting up on him.”
Richards has reason to be taken with himself. He has scored 10-plus points in 12 of the last 13 games, and in all but five games all season. He has also crashing the boards, which has led to 10 double-doubles this season. He had the fifth-best shooting percentage in Division I (66.3 percent).
Yet, Richards did not strut his stuff verbally Friday as part of an interview session previewing Saturday’s game against Ole Miss.
“I wouldn’t say I’m the man on this team,” he said. “We have a lot of good players.”
Richards saluted Immanuel Quickley’s basketball smarts, Ashton Hagans’ skill as a point guard, EJ Montgomery’s versatility and Nate Sestina’s shooting ability.
Of Tyrese Maxey, Richards said, “You never know when he’s going to go off for 30.” Never mind that Maxey’s season high is the 27 points he scored against Louisville. The freshman has flirted with 30 more than once.
Richards attributed keeping a humble attitude to lessons he learned growing up.
“My mom always would say, ‘You’re going to have a lot of accomplishments in life. How you react to them will tell whether you keep them or not …,’” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to keep in mind.”
Kentucky’s victory at Vanderbilt on Tuesday could have tested his resolve. After UK fell behind 36-27 at halftime (the largest such deficit of the season), Calipari ordered the players to go through Richards in the second half.
When asked if this suggested that Calipari considered Richards “the man” for UK, he smiled and said, “I think he was just trying to try something new.”
That’s not how Calipari described his decision to go through Richards in the second half. The UK coach said he did not think Richards got the ball enough in the first half.
That raised an obvious question: How could his teammates get away from making a player as productive as Richards a central figure of the offense?
Calipari offered a pointed possibility.
“There’s one thing they don’t forget: their own opportunities to shoot the ball,” he said. “They don’t forget those. But, sometimes you’ll forget other guys’ opportunities.”
Ole Miss hasn’t forgotten Richards.
“Richards and Quickley may be the two most improved players in our league,” Ole Miss Coach Kermit Davis said, “and two of the most improved players in college basketball.”
In Southeastern Conference play, Richards ranks in the top 10 in scoring (ninth at 16.3 points per game), rebounding (third at 8.8), blocks (third at 2.0) and shooting accuracy (64.2 percent).
And maybe most telling, there’s this: He played 44 seconds in UK’s loss to Auburn in the Elite Eight last year. He’s averaging 30.2 minutes in league play this season.
Richards is on the watch list for the Naismith Award, which the Atlanta Tipoff Club gives to its National Player of the Year. He called possibly winning the award a “complete blessing.”
Richards suggested his success was a matter of gaining the trust of his teammates.
“It’s all about trust, to be honest … ,” he said. “They have more trust in me. That’s why I’m having as much success as I’m having.”
Saturday
Mississippi at No. 12 Kentucky
When: 2 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: UK 19-5, 9-2 SEC; Mississippi 13-11, 4-7 SEC
Series: UK leads 107-13
Last meeting: UK won 80-76 on March 5, 2019, in Oxford, Miss.
