De’Aaron Fox sets a UK freshman scoring record

De’Aaron Fox is having himself one heck of an SEC Tournament.

After recording a 20-point performance against Georgia yesterday, Fox was far more impressive against Alabama today. He scored 28 points on 67% shooting, made one three, hit 11 free throws, and tacked on five rebounds, two assists and two steals. At one point, Fox recorded nine straight points for the Cats.

“It’s not the first game I’ve done something like that,” Fox said of the scoring outburst. “When it’s a close game, we’ll run something and if I score then we just keep going to it. The last two minutes of the game, they put the ball in my hands and I just had to take over, and I did that today.”

The scoring mark set a Kentucky record for most points in an SEC Tournament game by a freshman. 28 points in a tourney game is something that John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns or Jamal Murray never accomplished. For a school that has been blessed with so many outstanding freshmen, it’s amazing that Fox has surpassed them all in at least one aspect. That scoring performance was also a career-high for Fox.

Fox’ effort was a major factor in Kentucky pulling out a close 79-74 win over Alabama, a game in which Fox said Kentucky had to fight to stay ahead.

“We kinda went back to what we were doing the past couple games, we got down in the first half and we just started fighting,” Fox said. “The second half, I don’t think we ever lost the lead. We were just able to keep it on and finish out a close game.”

Yesterday I raved about how Fox looks healthy again. Now he’s not just looking healthy, but he might be playing his best basketball all year. And at the perfect time.

It was the De’Aaron Fox show in Nashville today. Hopefully we see another edition of it tomorrow.