Page 12, The Estill County Tribune, February 24, 2016

Larry Vaught

Kentucky freshman IsaacHumphries grew up playingrugby in Australia -- and hethinksthathashelpedhimbea more physical basketballplayer. One thing Humphries candoisplayphysical,somethingthatUK’sotherbigmenhavenotdoneconsistentlythisyear.Humphries joked that whathedidbest inrugbywasrundown the field with the balldraggingsixorsevenplayerswithhimbecausehewasbig-gerthanthemall. KentuckycoachJohnCali-pari said he might have an-otherplayer thatneeds to tryrugby. “Ifthat’swhathelpedhim,thenwe’regoing todosomerugby with Skal,” Caliparisaid noting Skal Labissiere’slackofphysicalplaythissea-son. Calipari likes the wayHumphriesisplaying. “He’s not afraid. He’s inthere.He’sfighting,”Caliparisaid. The coachwenton to ex-plain that Humphries playswith an intense look, not ascaredlook. “Hemakesmistakes.He’ll

say, ‘Myfault.’Butproudofhim,”Caliparisaid. That didn’t change whenHumphriesgotthelatetechni-cal foul inovertimeatTexasA&M when UK had a one-point lead with less than 10seconds in agame it eventu-allylost. Teammates and CalipariinsistedHumphrieshadnoth-ing to apologize for becausehedidnothingwrong.

Kentucky in NCAA Where will Kentucky endup starting NCAA Tourna-mentplay?That’s aquestionmoreandmoreUKfanshavebeen asking since the Catsstarting showing they couldbeafactorinMarchMadnessagainthisyear. FromUK’spoint, the ide-al seeding would have UKplaced in the South Regionwhereifitwontwogames,itwouldplayattheYumCenterinLouisvilleintheSweetSix-teen. The first-round sites areProvidence,R.I.;DesMoines,Iowa;Raleigh,N.C.;Denver;Brooklyn; St Louis; Oklaho-maCity;andSpokane,Wash.Other regional sites areAna-heim, Philadelphia and Chi-cago. It’s still hard to imaginetheNCAAselectioncommit-tee putting UK in the SouthRegion if it is not at least athreeseed,andprobablyatwoseed.Thatisgoingtobealotmore difficult after the bitterlossatTexasA&M, too.Butwhoknows?TheNCAAdoesnotalwaysmakelogicaldeci-sions. AsforwhereUKwillstarttournament play, don’t lookfor it to be Raleigh. DukeandNorthCarolinabothwill

Nothing To Apologize probably get to play there.Kentucky would be fine go-ingtoSt.Louis—rememberthewinoverWichitaStatein2014.

SEC Player of Year WhoshouldbeSoutheast-ernConferencePlayerof theYear?ShoulditbesensationalLSUfreshmanBenSimmons,the likely No. 1 pick in theJuneNBAdraft,orUKsopho-morepointguardTylerUlis? MostSECcoachesconcedeit is a two-player race and itseemsthatthewinnerwillbedeterminedbywhetherUKorLSUwinstheleaguetitle. “I mean, you’d be hard-pressedtofindanybodywho’sbeen any more impactful,”said Vanderbilt coach KevinStallings, who will see UlisagainSaturdaynightinNash-ville. Simmons, obviously,has been impactful for LSU.(Jamal)Murrayhasbeenim-pactful for Kentucky, obvi-ously.Butnobody’sbeenanymoreimpactfulfortheirteam,inmyopinion,thanTylerUlishasbeen.Becausehe’sa ter-rificplayer.Hehasanincred-iblebasketballIQ. “Hemakesvery,veryfewmistakes and he controls thegameinawayveryfewguyscancontrolit.Hecancontrolit offensively, he can controlitdefensively,andhe’s justaguythatplaysthegameexact-lyhowitshouldbeplayedandrarely, if ever, deviates fromthat,andthat’sjustararecom-modity tohave inyourpointguard.” Alabama coach AveryJohnson,aformerNBAguard,thinksUlisandSimmonscanbe1Aand1B. “I loveTyler. I love pointguards. The job that he didwhen Cal got thrown out ofthe game at South Carolina,that was a textbook exampleof his great leadership andwhyhecouldbe in the talksforbestplayerinthecountry.IfforsomereasonTylerUlisisthebestplayerinthecountryandBenSimmons issecond,Ithinkthat’sstillgreatforourconference,”Johnsonsaid. FloridacoachMikeWhitewasaUlisfanbeforehisteamplayed in RuppArena.Afterthatgame,hebecameanevenbiggerUlisfan. “He’s unbelievable in theway that he affects everyfacet of the game. I appreci-ated him watching him onTVandstudyinghimonfilm,but I appreciated Tyler at anentirely different level whenwe competed live in RuppArena.Ithoughtthathecom-pletely dominated the gameoffensivelyanddefensively.Ithought thathewas theiren-gine,”Whitesaid. “Leadership qualitiesjumpedout.Hismotorjumpedout.Iknewhewasfastandhewasquick,butheplayedun-believablyhardeverysecondhewasonthefloor.Hedidn’tallow our guards to get intoballscreens.Hepressuredourguardsintoturnovers.Youseehimonfilm,it’samazingthenumber of times he’s beenmismatched in the post withopposing teams bigs and he

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Landon Young, center, and Drake Jackson, right, will get a chance to compete for starting spots in UK’s offensive line as freshmen. Kash Daniel, left, also figures to be in the mix at linebacker as a freshman. (U.S. Army All-American Bowl Photo)

fightsthemlikehe’sabig.”SEC Legend Conley

ReaderJosephFast—whoseesmycolumnintheBour-bon County Citizen — ap-proved of Kentucky pickingLarry Conley to be its SECLegendthisyear.HeenjoyedlisteningtohisTVworkwithTomHammondandsaysmanyoftoday’sTVannouncersbe-lievefanswantto“watchtheiranticsandnotthegame.” Conley was a starter onRupp’s Runts in 1965-66when the Cats lost to TexasWestern in the national titlegame. “I worked at the DairyQueen in Lexington on NewCircle Road near EastlandBowling Alley. Larry camebythereonmanySundayaf-ternoonstobuyalargemilk-shake,” Fast recalled. “Hewas always by himself, verypoliteandcourteous.Ialwaysthankedhimandwishedhimgoodluck. “I truly believe his flu (atthe Final Four) was a hugefactor in the loss to TexasWestern.Heplayedwhilebe-ing very weak, courage per-sonified.” Agreeonallcounts.

A Hidden Gem Looking for a name thatcouldbeahiddengeminKen-tucky’s2016 football recruit-ingclassastheCatsgetclosertothestartofspringpractice. Defensive end T.J. Carterof Georgia was basically notrated when he got his Ken-tucky offer and signed withtheCats.The6-4,245-poundCarterhad68tackles,includ-ing 10 for loss, as a senior.Healsoledhisteaminquar-terbacksacksasa juniorandsophomore. HisotherofferswereSam-fordandWyoming,butStoopsis convinced he has what itwilltaketohelpUK’sdefen-sivefront. “T.J. is a guy that’s justa solid football player. Verygood,”Stoopssaid.“Ifeltlikehewas toogoodofaplayer,toosolidofaperson,toomuchofoneofthosegluedevelop-mentguys,he’sgoingtobeaheck of a football player wecouldn’tpassupon.” Andwhatdidrecruitingco-ordinatorVinceMarrowthinkof him? “When he came inonthevisit,Isaid,‘Wow,thiskidisdefinitelyunderrated,’”Marrowsaid.

In-State Recruiting One reason head coachMarkStoopsand thenoffen-sive coordinator Neal Brownwanted John Schlarman ontheUKcoachingstaffwasforhisin-staterecruitingconnec-tions. “Coach Stoops has em-phasized fromday1 thatwehavetodoagoodjobwithin-state recruiting,” Schlarman,a former UK offensive line-man, said about UK’s 2016recruiting class. “Sometimesyou work really hard at thatand we’ve been working onthisclasssince2013.Thishasbeen a work in progress forthelasttwotothreeyears.” Kentucky signed two in-stateoffensivelinemen,DrakeJacksonofWoodfordCountyandLandonYoungofLafay-

ette. Other in-state signeeswere linebacker Kash Dan-iel of Paintsville, cornerbackDavonte Robinson of HenryClay and athlete Zy’AireHughesofMcCrackenCoun-ty. Schlarman said there’snothingbetterforaKentuckyhighschoolplayerthantoplayat UK, a message he hopeshighlytoutedLafayettejuniorlineman Jedrick Wills hearsandunderstands. “Thatwaspartof itwhenIstartedrecruitingDrakeandLandon. I understood howimportant it is being fromKentucky and playing at theUniversity of Kentucky andwe talked about that quite abit.Thentoseethemearnalltheaccoladestheydid(nation-ally)andstill stayUniversityofKentuckyguyswas reallyexciting,” Schlarman said.“Now we can get them hereandgo towork.Let’sgooutandwinmoregamesandgetafterit. “Whenyouhaveyourfam-ilyandfriendscomingtoev-erysinglegame,youwanttomake sure you are out thererepresentingthestateandrep-resenting your name also tothe best of your ability. It isimportanttoyou.Youwanttoshow the rest of the countrywe are doing special thingshere at Kentucky. I know itmeansalottotheseguysandI am looking forward to seewhattheyturninto.” Here’s more of whatSchlarman had to say aboutYoungandJackson. Question:CouldYoungandJacksonplayastruefreshmenoffensivelinemen,somethingthatdoesnothappenoftenatUKorintheSEC? Schlarman: “It definitelycouldhappen.Wehavesomeguys coming in that will beabletocompeteforjobs.Willtheystartgames?Wewillsee.Wewantthemtocompeteandeverythingwillsortitselfout.Ifaguywinsthejob,thenhewillbeouttherewhetherheisa freshman, junior, senior. Ifhe is the best player for thatposition,hewillbeoutthere.”

Question:Aretheoffseasonweight workouts a lot moredifficultforoffensivelinemennowasplayersaresayingtheyhavebeen? Schlarman: “It definitelymakesadifference in theof-fensive line.Youhave togetinthatweightroomandgrindandgotowork.Thisyearwearelookingtoturnuptheheatanothernotchandmakesuregettingbiggerandstronger.” Question: What are theplussesandminusforaplayerlike Young who plays threesports (football, wrestling,track) in high school com-pared to Jackson who didfootball only and is alreadyenrolledatKentucky? Schlarman:“AplusisIamanxious to see what he doeswhen he just concentrateson football. He has been athree-sport guy which keepshimfromgettingburntoutonfootballbutIamlookingfor-ward to see him concentrateontheweightroom365daysayearandjustconcentratesonfootball.Hehasatremendousupside. “Now with a guy likeDrake,concentratingonfoot-ball has helped him. He is atechnician. He is as polishedwith his technique as I haveseenoutofahighschoolse-nior. That part helped him.Surenegativestobothbutalsoplusses.” Question: Does wrestlinghelp Young’s football tough-ness(hewonthestateheavy-weightchampionshiplastSat-urday)? Schlarman: “Definitely.It is a tough sport. There isnowhere tohideon thatmat.Landon being a top wrestlerin heavyweight division hasdefinitelyhelpedhimwithle-verage.Heiscompetitive.Hewants towin every time andthatcarriesovertofootball.”

Contact Larry Rememberyoucancontactmeatlarryvau@gmail.comoronTwitterat@vaughtsviews.Youcanalsoseemoreofmywork at www.lex18.com andwww.vaughtsviews.com.

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Isaac Humphries has given UK a lift with his defense and rebounding in recent games, including last Sat-urday at Texas A&M where teammates told him not to worry about a late controversial technical foul against him. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Larry Conley, right, will be Kentucky’s SEC Legend this year. He worked many years as a TV color ana-lyst with Tom Hammond, left, and the two got togeth-er at a recent UK home game.