If you have followed University of Kentucky basketball during coach John Calipari’s two seasons, then you have heard the following statement from one of his players:
“I know how Coach Cal coaches. He lets his guys go up and down the floor and play, and that’s how I like to play.”
John Wall, yes. Brandon Knight, yes. Marquis Teague, yes. All point guards, and all predictable given the coach’s penchant for turning out elite NBA playmakers.
Only this quote comes from Anthony Davis, the team’s 6-foot-10 freshman big man, who projects to be a starter from day one. The reason he is so happy is because Calipari announced recently that he is not going to wedge Davis into the slough-like existence of a typical college post player.
“If I told him, ‘You're playing center and you're going to have to slug it out,’ he would say, ‘OK,’” Calipari said. “But the reason we changed our break is I keep watching our team and saying, ‘I don't want to run him to the rim because that's not what he is.’”
Calipari had a different message for Davis: “Get out there and run and make plays, and then slide in there if you need to.”
Davis is a slender big man at 220 pounds, but there is much more to the story. Incredibly, the Chicago native grew 10 inches from the end of his sophomore year until the beginning of his senior season.
“It was crazy,” Davis said. “I wasn’t expecting it because my immediate family is not tall at all. I’ve got two people, two cousins, who are tall at all. It just happened.”
Davis went from an unheralded 6-foot point guard to a 6-10 power forward regarded as the No. 2 rated player in the nation. What he was, in fact, was a 6-10 point guard, possessing small man skills in a suddenly new big man body.
“Nothing changed for me in high school,” Davis said. “I always had to bring the ball up, shoot and score. I always did that as a guard so it didn’t change even though I grew.
“Then when I got here, Coach Cal said he wanted me to play some three and four and do some of the same stuff,” he added. “I was excited because I’m used to being on the perimeter. But at the same time, you have to go in the post sometimes, but I can play like I like to play.”
Over the summer, Davis was able to work on both aspects of his game.
To improve his post play, Davis matched skill sets with Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger during camps in Chicago and Akron.
“Sully is real big. He’s got a lot of post moves and a soft touch around the rim,” Davis said. “He was one of the top big men in college basketball last year so going up against him helped me out a lot. He was also coaching me as well saying, ‘This is how you do this.’
To improve his versatility, Davis was able to go against the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant as several NBA standouts made their way to Lexington during the lockout.
“There were of a lot of NBA players through here every day,” Davis said. “We would come to play pick up every day and there is nothing better than playing pick up with some of the guys in the league, some of the best guys in the league – Kevin Durant, LeBron, Rajon Rondo, James Harding. It was a great experience.
“It also helped because I’ve been working out with DeMarcus Cousins and Nazr Mohammed,” Davis said. “They’ve been showing me a lot of hook shots and post moves. So in practice, I try to incorporate those some times and see what I can do.”
Davis’ versatility will blend nicely with his new teammates at Kentucky where several players will be able to defend multiple positions.
“That’s a great advantage,” Davis said. “We have a lot of guys who can dribble, pass, shoot, rebound, block shots. That’s going to help us going against other teams that might only have solid bigs who can post up. To be able to bring them out and go past them is going to help us a lot.”
