UK basketball notebook: Ulis as Kentucky’s low-post scorer an intriguing thought

Shooter. Passer. Thinker. Defender. Leader. Tyler Ulis plays many roles. So maybe Kentucky’s do-everything point guard can be the solution to the team’s season-long search for a low-post presence.

Of course, we’re kidding. Even Ulis smiled last week when asked why UK doesn’t post him up on offense?

“Because I’m 5-foot tall,” he said with a chuckle.

Yes, he’s 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, which is small even for a point guard, let alone the typical space-eater around the basket. But, after watching Ulis impose his will elsewhere on the court the past two seasons, who would immediately dismiss the notion that he could be effective in the low post?

The job description for post player on offense reads something like this: Be territorial (establish your space and refuse to be moved); be assertive (demand the ball); be creative (master moves and counter moves); be willing to share the ball (don’t be a so-called black hole).

And on defense: fight for position, hold your position until help can arrive, make opponent work for points.

While Ulis remains a mystery as a low-post scorer, he proved again in Tuesday’s game against Alabama that he can defend in the post. You almost feel sorry for the poor opponent trying to get into position against such a tenacious, unsparing defender. Think Gulliver tied to the ground in Lilliput.

“I’m trying to get coach (John Calipari) to understand that I haven’t been posted all year,” Ulis said. “He acts like he doesn’t know. But I just try to front the post and fight. Use my quickness to my advantage.”

Ulis stopped short of saying that winning low-post standoffs was fun. “But, it’s something I expect to do,” he said.

Mike Taylor, who coached Ulis in high school, said the lack of size works as something of a cloak of invisibility. “People don’t know where he is,” Taylor said. “So it’s tough to get the ball in there.”

Taylor also sees willpower as a factor. After Ulis denies easy access to post position, “then the kids (on offense) won’t work that hard to go back in the post,” Taylor said.

There’s also the almost palpable sense of stubborn pride Ulis exudes. James Ulis said his son knows opponents think he can be exploited around the basket. This fuels his competitive fire to prove otherwise.

While it’s entertaining to watch him defend around the basket, imagining Ulis as a low-post scorer is even more intriguing.

“I really have post moves,” Ulis said after Kentucky beat Alabama. “But I don’t think they’re going to do that.”

Ulis said that in a recent practice he successfully posted up taller teammates like Jamal Murray, Mychal Mulder and Charles Matthews. “I didn’t get to Isaiah (Briscoe),” he said.

On occasion, Ulis operated as a low-post player in high school.

“We had a little set where it was just said, ‘Get big,’” Taylor said. “We sent him down there and he’d get big and he’d get wide.”

Of course, Ulis did not simply overpower the defender. He would rely on his wiles and basketball savvy to find a way to be effective, usually by passing to open teammates on the perimeter.

“That intelligence, it translates from the perimeter to the post,” Taylor said. “He’s just so damn smart out there.”

When asked about his low-post moves, Ulis said he might spin to the baseline to free himself for a shot. He also gets space to shoot by stepping away from the defender before launching.

James Ulis called this maneuver his son’s “Dirk shot.” It’s named for Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, who is 15 inches taller and 85 pounds heavier than Ulis.

“He’s actually worked on that,” the elder Ulis said.

Whether Kentucky ever calls for Ulis to post an opponent remains to be seen. But the smart money says that if and when UK asks him to play with his back to the basket, he would be prepared to succeed.

“It’s really not hard to coach him because he’s thinking ahead and ahead and ahead,” Taylor said. “‘What if they do this to me? What am I going to do?’

“Once he gets his hands on the ball, whether in the post or on the perimeter, he’s pretty darn creative with it.”

Paler shade of blue?

Rick Music, the fan who decided to spend money on a trip to Chicago to watch UK play Duke rather than buy season tickets, remains a bargain hunter.

Music has decided not to buy tickets for this year’s SEC Tournament because he couldn’t find anyone else willing to go with him.

“No one is interested in my circle!” he wrote in an email. “I am guessing that Nashville will be a paler shade of blue this year.”

Ticket sales are slower this year than last. Kentucky seeking college basketball’s first undefeated season since 1975-76 generated excitement and ticket sales for the 2015 SEC Tournament.

In this season of many good — if not great — teams, demand for SEC Tournament tickets was up at Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Georgia.

Compared to last year, ticket sales were down at Kentucky as of last week. But Music, who has attended two SEC tournaments, hasn’t ruled out a trip to Nashville.

“If the Cats have some luck and get to the final game, I may drive down that day,” he wrote. “With the injuries starting to pile up, I may not be making the trip. ...

“To say that the hype this year versus last year is in the hopper is a gross understatement.”

Eject all coaches?

UK Coach John Calipari’s ejection from the game at South Carolina moved reader Ernie Henninger to send an email. Henninger, who lives in Harrodsburg, regularly shares his thoughts on current UK basketball events.

The ejection hit on one of Henninger’s familiar themes.

“Coaches SHOULD NOT BE ON THE BENCH AT ALL!” he wrote (capital letters his). “The job of the coach is to recruit and to teach, NOT to be an active participant in the games.

“Does a professor help the student answer the questions on the test? Does the professor rant and rave at his students in front of the rest of the class?”

Of course, students don’t have thousands of people watching and judging as they answer questions. Nor is there a culture of ranting and raving in the classroom.

Still, Henninger defined the coach’s job description as doing the best “to form and prepare his/her team.” Then, “it should be up to the team members to show what they can do,” he said.

Kentucky would figure to do well on such a basketball planet. This season’s UK team is blessed to have Tyler Ulis, whom Calipari has said might be the best floor general he’s coached. Coincidentally, Ulis got credit for directing the offense at South Carolina after Calipari was ejected less than three minutes into the game.

Plus, as assistant coach Tony Barbee said more recently, UK can get leadership, in word or deed, from several other players (Jamal Murray? Isaiah Briscoe? Marcus Lee? Alex Poythress? Derek Willis? Dominique Hawkins?).

With coaches removed from the scene, Henninger suggested that the TV cameras could key on the game, not on the “ranting, jumping, raging out-of-control coach.”

Said Henninger: “Wouldn’t that be better?”

Routine disruption

A shoot-around a few hours before the game is a long-standing ritual in college basketball. Or it used to be.

Players got familiar with the arena, the shooting background, the balls, etc. Coaches reminded players of key points in the game plan.

The shoot-around was part of a game-day routine, which is designed to create good habits and consistent play.

Now, it seems the shoot-around has joined long-standing rivalries (Kansas-Missouri, Texas-Texas A&M) as collateral damage as the sport becomes more of a made-for-TV money grab.

Georgia did not conduct the customary shoot-around before its game at Vanderbilt last weekend. That’s because the game’s made-for-TV 11 a.m. Central Time tip-off meant a shoot-around would have been at dawn.

When asked about the absence of a shoot-around disrupting the team’s routine, Georgia Coach Mark Fox said, “Well, there’s no routine anymore.”

For example, Georgia’s game against Florida four days earlier had a 9 p.m. start.

“Some days you get a shoot-around,” Fox said, “and some days you don’t. You just do the best you can. …

“I don’t think there is the routine that there used to be years ago because the game times, quite frankly, are so all over the map.”

Against the rules?

When he was Alabama’s coach, Wimp Sanderson once wryly said it was against the rules for Kentucky to lose in Rupp Arena.

Before UK’s game against Alabama on Tuesday, Sanderson was asked if that was a sly commentary about referees being unduly influenced by the Rupp Arena crowd and Kentucky’s mystique.

“It was,” he said.

Homeward bound

Kentucky’s game against Alabama came near the end of a marathon road trip for Sean Farnham, the color commentator for the SEC Network and various ESPN stations.

After working the Mississippi State-Texas A&M game Wednesday, Farnham planned to head home. He would have been on the road 19 straight days, and 29 of the last 30 days.

It wasn’t all work-work-work. Before ESPN’s telecast of UK’s game against visiting Tennessee on Feb. 18, Farnham and telecast partner Joe Tessitore visited horse farms. They posed for pictures with American Pharoah.

Happy birthday

To Joey Holland. He turned 61 on Thursday. … To Billy Packer. The former analyst for CBS turned 76 on Thursday. … To Joakim Noah. The former Florida “big” turned 31 on Thursday. … To former UK sports information director Chris Cameron. He turned 56 on Friday. … To Chuck Aleksinas. He turned 57 on Friday. … To Marquis Teague. He turns 23 on Sunday (today). … To Tayshaun Prince. He turns 36 on Sunday (today). … To Florida Coach Mike White. He turns 39 on Wednesday. … To former Louisville Coach Denny Crum. He turns 79 on Wednesday.

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 5:55 PM with the headline "UK basketball notebook: Ulis as Kentucky’s low-post scorer an intriguing thought."