If Kentucky needs a tough guy, this freshman is willing to do ‘the dirty work.’
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Preseason interviews with University of Kentucky men’s basketball players and coaches are underway. Click below to see a full menu of stories published to date by the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com looking ahead to the 2020-21 season.
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You could say Kentucky freshman Lance Ware was not born to play basketball. As a child, he was on the swim team and played baseball.
“Then I stopped, really, doing anything (athletic),” he said during a video teleconference Wednesday. “I played a lot of video games. Like, all the time. I never wanted to go outside. Was just kind of stuck in the house for hours at a time. Just playing video games with my friends all day.”
Basketball was not foreign to Ware. “I’m not going to say I never picked up a basketball,” he said. If friends suggested going to a court and shooting, he went. He suspected he might be good at it.
“I’m the tallest kid, so I might be a little bit better than anybody else,” he recalled thinking.
Ware recalled basketball becoming more important when he was in about the seventh grade. His father, Stephen, and one of his father’s friends took him to see former Louisville star Pervis Ellison. Ellison became a mentor.
Ware said he was already 6-foot-3 or 6-4. He quickly learned that height isn’t everything in basketball.
“I was decent size,” he said, “but probably, like super uncoordinated. . . . I really wasn’t any good.”
He did not recall making a single layup that first day.
Why did he stick with basketball?
“Honestly, I saw myself get better the next day,” he said before adding that he made about four layups on Day 2. “And I kept on seeing myself get better. And then I was just, like, wow, this is fun. This is kind of, like, better than playing video games.”
Ware, now a 6-9, 223-pound freshman for Kentucky, continued to develop in his three seasons playing for the New York Rens on the AAU circuit.
Rens Coach Andy Borman described Ware in his first season as “extremely skilled, but was still trying to figure it out.”
By the third season, how Ware had figured it out “was awesome,” Borman said. “Like, you don’t always get to see that. And with Lance, you did.”
What Ware figured out was about consistency, Borman said.
“He was always a ranked kid,” Borman added. “But I think he was one of those guys that if you went to watch him one day, you’re saying, ‘Holy cow. He can play anywhere in the country.’ Then you watched him that afternoon and, like, ‘What just happened? Like, ‘Is this the same guy?’”
Ware credited his high school coach, Rick Brunson, with insisting on maximum effort.
“If (the effort was ) 98 percent, Rick would call me on it,” he said. “‘That’s not all you have.’ That kind of made me into a better person.”
UK teammates have spoken about Ware bringing toughness and energy to practices.
“He’s strong and he makes me more physical,” Cam’Ron Fletcher said.
Added Jacob Toppin: “He’s definitely a tough guy. Loves to compete in the post. . . . So he’s definitely going to be a big factor. He brings energy not most people bring.”
In an interview with Blue Ribbon Yearbook, former UK associate coach Kenny Payne described Ware as a “glue guy” and a player willing to do “the dirty work” in games. “He will bring that fighting mentality every time he’s on the court,” Payne said.
Ware embraced this perception.
“Sometimes that’s half the battle,” he said. “Just try to get your team going. If somebody doesn’t bring the energy, if they see me playing hard, chasing loose rebounds and doing all the little stuff, it just rubs off in a positive way. So, that’s kind of what I do.”
Ware shares Camden, N.J., as a hometown with freshman walk-on Kareem Watkins. As Ware told it, the two also share an unyielding approach to basketball.
“He’s going to play hard,” Ware said of Watkins, who apparently brings determination in a smaller (5-8) package. “He’s going to fight. He’s never going to back down from nothing.”
Ware said he had been working on his jump shot this preseason. He hopes to show an ability to shoot during UK’s “Pro Day” for NBA personnel and an SEC Network audience Thursday night.
Coming Sunday
Be sure to pick up a copy of Sunday’s Lexington Herald-Leader print edition. It will include an 18-page special section previewing the 2020-21 college basketball season.
Important upcoming dates
Thursday: Pro Day, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
Nov. 20: Big Blue Madness, 9 p.m. (SEC Network)
Nov. 25: Season opener vs. Morehead State in Rupp Arena
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 12:50 PM.
