This coverage of UK Basketball appears courtesy RCN partner KY Forward and is written by Jon Hale.
UK head coach John Calipari was not as complementary of his team’s performance as one might expect following a 52-point win Friday, but there was one player who Calipari had no trouble praising.
“The energy that Nerlens (Noel)plays with, if I can get all my guys playing with that kind of energy, think about what we’d become as a team,” he said.
Noel filled up the box score Friday with 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block in 28 minutes.
While the statistics were impressive, it was the plays where Noel dived on the floor for loosed balls and exhibited the type of hustle more commonly associated with a spark-plug reserve than the No. 1 recruit in the country, that impressed his coach and teammates.
“I was telling the team, give him a hand,” Calipari said. “The guy’s diving on the floor, playing with energy. Would the rest of you please look at him and try to do what he’s doing?”
“He wants to win so bad,” said sophomore forward Kyle Wiltjer of Noel. “He’s diving on the floor, he’s a great hustle player. Not only is he blocking shots, he does other things, get steals and stuff like that. If we can just really play with that intensity we can really be a great defensive team because he’s pretty much flying all over the place out there.”
Noel said he has always been a high-energy player, but he has tried to elevate that energy upon arriving in college.
“Since I’m at a high level, I think I’ve just got to bring it every night,” he said. “Just always being active for my team and just making opportunities for the fast break, just getting steals on the floor and just real throwing it out so my teammates can get going.”
Calipari hopes Noel’s energy rubs off on some of his other players, especially freshman forward Alex Poythress.
“I can’t get Alex right now to buy into that,” Calipari said.
Poythress scored 22 points Friday, making nine of 10 field goals, and grabbed five rebounds, but Calipari thinks those stats are just a glimpse of what Poythress can be.
“Alex goes nine for 10, and he played (hard) about 60 percent of the game,” Calipari said. “The rest of the game, he kind of jogged around and looked around. Look at Nerlens, play like him, and you become ridiculous.”
Asked if Poythress would be “ridiculous” if he played with his intensity level, Noel smiled in agreement.
“Yeah, he would,” Noel said. “We’ve seen spurts of it: him getting his energy up. Throughout the season I think it will definitely come through. When it does, other teams ain’t going to like it.”
Poythress isn’t the only Wildcat who Calipari thinks could take lessons from Noel playing with high energy. He also pointed to Wiltjer, junior point guardJarrod Polson, freshman guard Archie Goodwin and senior guard Julius Mays as having lapses in effort Friday.
Calipari is confident Noel’s example will rub off on his teammates.
“I told Nerlens, ‘Just keep doing it, and they’ll get it,” Calipari said. “Because it becomes embarrassing when he’s diving and you’re jogging or you’re standing straight up and get beat on the back door.”
PHOTO: Nerlens Noel runs down the court against Lafayette Friday/Jon Hale