With what he’s been through, Humphries shrugs at Vandy’s odd arena

Freshman Isaac Humphries should feel right at home Saturday in the basketball fun house that is Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium. The oddity of benches behind the baselines, seats below court level and a good 10 yards between sidelines and front rows of spectators can’t seem especially strange compared with what he’s experienced in the last week.

First there was the sure-to-be-remembered flinging of the ball to the court with 9.4 seconds left at Texas A&M. The resulting technical foul shocked him. His opening of the door for the Aggies to beat Kentucky depressed him.

When asked Friday how long it took him to get over shock and depression, Humphries said, “It was about a good, solid 24 hours.”

Why did he slam the ball down? “I was just so excited,” he said. “I was so pumped up. Honestly, I don’t know why I did it. I was so happy. It was the first thing I thought of, really.”

A native of Sydney, Australia, Humphries was an innocent abroad in a strange basketball land. The technical foul and the resulting horror that unfolded caught him by surprise.

“Like I didn’t know you could not do that because it’s not an automatic tech foul if you throw the ball in Australia,” he said. “If you’re swearing and all that stuff and you throw it, yeah, it’s a tech foul.”

One ill-timed mistake overshadowed the best performance of his young UK career. Humphries had career-highs in points (six) and rebounds (12) in the game.

“It was just surreal,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

With Humphries crestfallen after the game, his teammates and UK Coach John Calipari came to his defense. He appreciated their understanding.

“The support from the guys and the coaches, it was awesome,” he said. “Because I did feel terrible.”

Before Kentucky played Alabama three nights later, Isaiah Briscoe tried to lighten the mood by slamming a ball to the court as the players gathered near the end of warm-ups.

The memory brought a wry smile to Humphries’ face.

“‘Zay,’ he would do something like that,” he said. “He does it before every game. But, just that game, it was too soon.”

Briscoe was not the only UK teammate that used jocularity to lighten the mood. Tyler Ulis got into the act.

Calipari put Humphries into the starting lineup against Alabama. “It just reassures me that he has my back,” Humphries said.

But the move surely was not a simply sentimental gesture.

With Derek Willis sidelined because of a sprained ankle and Alex Poythress returning after missing five games because of a knee injury, Humphries starting had practical value.

“I just thought my hard work paid off,” Humphries said.

Because he was starting for the first time, Humphries was unsure of the procedure involved in the introduction of UK’s lineup. Ulis playfully told Humphries that the starting center sat at the end of the bench.

Humphries noticed that the other four starters were at the other end of the bench.

“I’m sitting there like an idiot . . . ,” he said with a smile. “Lucky it was blacked out at that point. No one could see it.”

Humphries contributed four points and four rebounds to Kentucky’s victory over Alabama.

Calipari dismissed the possibility of a lingering effect from the episode at A&M or good-natured kidding before the Alabama game.

“He’s fine,” he said of Humphries. “We’re so far by that.”

Humphries gives Kentucky the semblance of a presence around the basket. As UK fans know, the Cats have been searching all season for such a presence. Kentucky has tried and re-tried Skal Labissiere, Marcus Lee and Poythress in that role. Freshman Tai Wynyard, who seems destined for a redshirt season, was the subject of speculation for a while.

Vanderbilt’s size suggests another opportunity for Humphries to assert himself. The Commodores rotate three 7-footers in their front line: Damian Jones (7-0, 245) is the traditional post-up man; Luke Kornet (7-1, 240) is the “stretch four” with three-point range; and Josh Henderson (7-0, 237) can bang and clog the lane.

Calipari downplayed the notion of Humphries being called up solely to combat that size.

“Other than Jones, their size is jump shooters,” the UK coach said.

Putting on his ever demanding-never satisfied coaching hat, Calipari said of Humphries, “Last game, he had a chance to get six rebounds, and he got two. And that’s not going to keep him on the floor, especially with Alex back. . . .

“He’s got to be able to play a guy out on the floor. If he can do that, then you can leave him in the game. Just be in help position and make sure he’s not getting off threes.”

For his part, Humphries looked forward to competing against Vandy’s big men.

“It’s a lot of fun playing against someone your size,” he said. “It’ll be like old times playing against bigger people.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "With what he’s been through, Humphries shrugs at Vandy’s odd arena."