Kentucky Basketball: Is Terrence Jones Back?

because he was out of position or didn’t hustle enough? Or that were not in his area or rebounds a team mate snagged? Just curious if those are even tracked.

It’s time, perhaps past time, for this discussion. The question of Darius Miller’s on-again, off-again on-court performance has been in the back of mind for a while now, longer than just this season. Today’s column by Jerry Tipton (whatever your opinion of Tipton shouldn’t, I believe, diminish the importance of the subject) on another “invisible” performance (4 points, one made shot, 1 rebound, 3 turnovers and only 19 minutes) by the senior wingman. A performance that brought this:

“Ech, ech, ech,” Calipari said before regaining his verbal footing. “Every once in a while, that’s what he is. Just passive.”

We who follow the Cats are by now quite familiar but not necessarily comfortable with the Miller sobriquets: Disappearious and Deferential. They may not be totally fair (I detest the word) but they are certainly apt.

All of which brings to my mind the difficulty of explaining the difference in performance levels between two athletes of similar (not identical by any means but near enough to provide comparative data) physical attributes: both ≈6-7, ≈230, vertical 30+, etc. Whatever other physical characteristics where K-G might have an edge: quickness,
speed, et al, would seem to be offset by the difference in experience, i.e. 4 years vs 1 year.

Accepting that the performance differential is not primarily physical, one is left with the obvious, call it what you might: attitude, confidence, aggression, courage, will, temperament, disposition, or the loaded and often misused term, heart. But it is obvious that the two players have very different mental and emotional traits. Why? Who’s to say? Without getting bogged down in the whole nature vs nurture debate I think it is safe to say that for whatever reason Miller and Kidd-Gilchrist are two individuals with quite different ego developments and that development is not likely to be substantially altered at this point in their lives.

Two final questions for me: Is it possible, or even desirable, for a coach to influence a player to become something different than his/her basic self? And for us fans, do we accept that player as he or she is and hope that their performance is enough for the team to reach its potential. Or do we hope, and pray for the more passionate, that there will be a psychological transformation and the player reaches his/her our perceived potential. For me the acquiescence to the reality of Darius Miller came sometime last year and now I recognize that as far as I know he is a good student, good citizen, due to graduate and a good player who contributes in accordance with his physical, mental and emotional abilities. In other words, comparison is worthless and worse, pernicious to all concerned.

Poythress And Goodwin Light Up Lexington. Future Cats score 42 and 37 respectively.

PF Anthony Bennett cut his list of schools to 5 including UK.

Mitchell’s Minxes remain perfect in SEC with 88-40 win over MSU. In victory 2 records: biggest margin of victory and 14 3-pointers.

My first time posting oh here. I love the site and after about a year I finally signed up to comment. I think Jones is fine. If we wanted we could find something that a player didnt do so well in any certain game, aside from MKG and Davis. The effort is there from Jones. Yes he did not rebound good yesterday but it happens. Its just that Jones has that " label" that he doesnt try hard all the time. While this is true, its also true of almost any player in college hoops. It happens. I think as fans we get selfish in what we want from these players and part of that is unreal expectations. While I would say almost every fan wants the absolute best for these guys, sometimes we are to demanding. Jones is and will be fine. I have faith in him, Cal, and the rest of the team. GOD BLESS

I think we lose sight of the age of the players we are talking about. Jones is just a sophomore, the first year a player could hope to play in the old days, But on today’s squad with all it’s one-and-dones we view him as a “veteran” .

Jones seems to be a mercurial sort of person and player. Despite his great size and formidable skill, he appears to lack a bit of self-confidence that is, quite frankly, hard to understand.

This may be exactly what he needs to learn at UK for his future, how to believe in himself, and quite honestly not everyone does learn this lesson, whether they are an athlete or not. And as for it being hard to understand, well consider that one of the icons of feminine beauty in the last century, Marilyn Monroe never came to terms with either her beauty or her talent (she was one of the great comedians of her day). Garland evidently was the same, and constantly sought reassurance. And the lists goes on and on.

Those who write know the terror of the blank page. When you sit down and …nothing comes out. Or nothing we feel we can put out before others to see. We have come to the dreaded writer’s block . Salesmen have the same thing happen, when suddenly instead of seeing your way through to the close of the sale, all you can see are the obstacles, and you find yourself just going through the motions.

But when a basketball player hits that wall, and is just going through the motions, no matter how hard they are trying and how hard they want to do so successfully, everyone can see that the spark isn’t there. And in this day and age it isn’t just the reporters who comment on it, but everyone and their brother (or sister) is adding their 2 cents here or even directly to the player on FB or their twitter account..

When TJ’s belief in his abilities catches up with our perception of them, then he will be ready to make the jump, in the meantime we get to enjoy his playing for our team. Some players take a little longer than others, but when the switch is flipped then we get the benefit and so do they. And no, it does not just rely on the talent, it is in large part the belief in one’s talent. If it isn’t against the NCAA rules, maybe someone should get TJ a pair of “jorts”. LOL there is a great example of what a positive self image does to maximizing the use of one’s talents.

Unfortunately I usually don’t get around to reading these postings until well after my comments could have any effect. But, I really take issue with this particular post.

I’m tired of the Jones-bashing on this blog. If he scores, his rebuilding is weak. If he rebounds, he isn’t scoring. Or, he should get over his injury, since we all know that a dislocated finger on a shooting hand is minor. Blah, blah, blah. Only the Leverenz defensive analyses recognize his excellent defensive play.

One point I haven’t seen anyone make is that defenses are double and triple teaming Jones in large part because Anthony Davis has no post moves aside from alley oop dunks. That is what Indiana and lesser teams since have done to lower Jones’ offensive impact. Also, no one seems to remember that he was considered a 3-4 in HS who has been converted to an everyday 4.

I also find the psedo-psychological comments about his body language or attitude based on facial expressions like something out of Psychology Today. Most of that is like a substance found in many Fayette County barns. During the Indiana game, Dick Vitale, whom I normally like, went out of his way to lambast Jones based on some view of his attitude. We have no idea what is going on in his head. He’s a 20-year-old male. I used to be one of those and had three sons, and I still can’t figure it out.

Finally, I don’t remember this much negative todo when Demarcus Cousins had bad games or demonstrated “bad” body language, and no one, including the Maloof brothers, has figured him out yet.