Kentucky-South Carolina notes: Latest injury setback has not dampened Poythress’s spirits

While he can only sit and watch for a second straight season, Alex Poythress remains in good spirits, his Kentucky teammates said Friday.

“He’s fine,” Isaac Humphries said. “His spirits are very high, as usual.”

Dominique Hawkins said much the same thing.

“He’s great,” Hawkins said. “He’s doing good.

“I went to his room. Nothing wrong with him at all. I had a good conversation with him.”

Of course, Poythress tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December 2014 and missed the rest of the season.

This season’s injury to his right knee is not considered as serious. He injured the knee before Kentucky’s game against Florida on Feb. 2. UK Coach John Calipari said he expected Poythress to be sidelined for about two weeks.

Redshirt for Wynyard?

Freshman Tai Wynyard joined the UK team at the end of the fall semester. He has not played and might not play.

When asked if Wynyard might sit out this season as a redshirt, Calipari said, “I don’t know yet. We’ll probably sit and talk here on the way to South Carolina. I’m not sure he wants to redshirt. I think he does, but we haven’t really talked about it.”

Calipari said Wynyard might believe he’s behind Humphries, so no better than sixth on the team’s depth chart of “bigs” behind Marcus Lee, Derek Willis, Skal Labissiere, Poythress and Humphries.

So, Wynyard may think of the option of playing, “Why do it?” Calipari said. “But so many things can happen.”

Crazy games

Despite the lack of basketball tradition, South Carolina has had memorable victories against Kentucky in the last 20 years.

In 1997, the Gamecocks beat UK on Senior Day to win the SEC regular-season title. A victory would have allowed Kentucky to be co-champs. It was Kentucky’s first loss on Senior Day since 1964.

In 2010, South Carolina beat No. 1 UK. Fans stormed the court. One fan said that DeMarcus Cousins roughed him up.

In 2014, last-place South Carolina beat Kentucky 72-67. Calipari was ejected after two technical fouls. Afterward Aaron Harrison stunned a postgame news conference audience by saying of UK’s season, “It’s going to be a great story.”

He backed up that declaration with action, making three game-winning shots in Kentucky’s advancement to the national championship game.

Looking back, Martin considers that victory a turning point for South Carolina.

“That’s when I think it really started to really, really instill confidence in our freshmen and sophomores,” he said.

Slow and steady

No quick fixes explain South Carolina’s rise in the SEC. Coach Frank Martin cited the team’s maturity (seniors and juniors lead the team) and wealth of experience.

Looking back on his first season at South Carolina (2012-13), Martin said, “We didn’t have anybody in the locker room who understood me. I didn’t understand the locker room yet.”

The slow, steady climb of the last three seasons “galvanized them,” Martin said. “They have an unbelievable amount of respect for each other because when things were real difficult, they didn’t run away from each other. They didn’t blame each other. They figured out a way to trust one another. And that’s where we are.”

No gender bias

South Carolina has a chance to win both the men’s and women’s SEC championships.

That’s happened only three times. The last school to win both basketball titles was Kentucky in 2012.

‘Pretty powerful’

The game against Kentucky caps a week that could be called a basketball bonanza for South Carolina.

Its No. 2-rated women’s team played No. 1 Connecticut on Monday and No. 16 Florida on Thursday.

The men beat Ben Simmons-led LSU on Wednesday.

With the game against Kentucky a sellout, South Carolina could say the four games drew a total of nearly 70,000 fans.

“When you take into consideration no NCAA (tournament) win since 1973, that’s pretty powerful,” Martin said.

South Carolina led the nation in combined attendance for men’s and women’s basketball last season, Martin said.

Etc.

▪ Jamal Murray missed Thursday’s practice after banging knees in the victory over Georgia. But Calipari said he expected Murray to play at South Carolina.

▪ SEC opponents have made 103 three-point shots against South Carolina. That’s an average of 9.4 per game.

▪ Tom Hart, Kara Lawson and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung will call the game for ESPN.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Kentucky-South Carolina notes: Latest injury setback has not dampened Poythress’s spirits."