Wildcats roll through season opener by 50

By James Pennington
KyForward Contributor

It only took Darius Miller one game to figure out a useful tip for his senior season: “Just throw it up there anywhere near the rim,” Miller said. “Anthony will take whatever you give him and dunk it.”

He was referring to Anthony Davis, the 6-10 freshman who finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, leading Kentucky to a 108-58 win over Marist in his debut.

Davis showed off his sensational athleticism Friday; eight of his 10 made field goals were dunks, and six were on alley-oop passes. The lanky freshman also had five blocks, all in the second half when the Cats were finally able to separate from Marist.

The Red Foxes’ strategy was to start the game and go straight at the Kentucky interior defense and shoot high, lobbing shots. Davis said it frustrated him that he couldn’t get his hands on any shots in the first half.

It also helped Marist’s cause that it hit 5-of-8 of its first-half 3-pointers. The Cats held a 45-36 halftime lead, but Marist had been within four points with 4:04 left in the half.

But UK opened the second half on a 28-7 run, and the lead continued to grow from there. During the 28-7 run, Davis had four alley-oop dunks.

“Anthony’s a great player,” said Doron Lamb, who dished three of his eight assists as alley-oops to Davis. “He scores sometimes when the play isn’t even for him. It’s crazy. He’ll just jump up and grab a ball over the rim and dunk it. He scores a lot on alley oops. He blocks a lot of shots and makes fast breaks off of them. He can shoot the pick-and-pop, too. He didn’t tonight but he can.”

Davis has had to adjust his game since arriving to campus from Perspectives Charter High School in Chicago. In high school, he brought the ball up the court, shot jumpers, drove to the basket and whatever else his team needed. Now that he’s at UK, Davis said it’s nice knowing he can focus on a few areas of his game—all of which accent his size and athleticism—like playing in the post or blocking shots.

Kentucky coach John Calipari said Davis’ offensive game doesn’t revolve around the lob—even though Friday’s box score would suggest otherwise—but it is a tool they’ll turn to if they need a quick basket.

“What it does is kind of just demoralizes the other team,” Calipari said. “Think about it: You play great defense and the guy is falling out of bounds and throws it at the rim, and the guy dunks it and smashes it and the whole crowd goes nuts.”

No matter how Calipari classifies Davis’ offensive game, Miller said he’ll keep going to it whenever he sees Davis with an open lane to the basket.

Davis said he’ll play along.

“If they don’t lob it to me, then they’ll just finish,” Davis said. “We get to pick our poison. If they don’t shoot it, they know they can just throw it to me and I’ll dunk it. It’s kind of cool.”