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It turns out that the man that might be Kentucky’s most talented scorer this coming year is actually a huge fan of a former Kentucky great.
Keldon Johnson revealed on CoachCal.com’s Meet the Wildcats series that he was a huge fan of Kentucky, and Jodie Meeks’ 54-point game against the Tennessee Volunteers was one of the first college basketball games he ever watched.
“I watched Kentucky for a long time, and I always liked Kentucky, and i mean it just kind of fell in the right spot for me to be here,” Johnson said.
Johnson even said he used Kentucky and Meeks in college basketball video games. In addition to that, Johnson touched on a number of other topics, including what he thinks this Kentucky team needs to do to accomplish its goals.
“Just keep fighting,” Johnson said. “Everybody knows we’re young, everybody’s going to come at us because we’re Kentucky, but we just have to come every day to win. We can’t take any days off, we’ve got to come with that mentality that we’re going to go in there and we’re going to win. We’re going to beat them down every game.”
Johnson noted that being Kentucky means opponents will look at this team differently. He also talked about a different kind of attention that he gets at Kentucky, but in a good way. He described meeting UK fans as a “once in a lifetime experience.”
“You could’ve never told me it was going to be that many fans, that many kids at the camp,” Johnson said. “And even when we rode the train back to midway, I know I had to sign at least like 1,000-2,000 autographs but it wasn’t that bad because it felt like it was more than that. All these people came out here, some people were like ‘We were waiting since 3:00 and it’s almost 6:00 and we’re just getting here,’ so that’s crazy.”
Johnson also noted that the day-to-day as a member of the Kentucky basketball team is different and special, especially at practice.
“It’s busy,” Johnson said. “It’s amazing, but also i feel like its the best of the best. Day in and day out, competing, working out and just everything against the top players that you want to play against every day.”
That work against other top players has allowed Johnson go see what he can work into his game from other players.
“Everybody’s different,” Johnson said of this year’s teammates. “There’s not really two players that are the same. Everybody has their different style, their different swagger to the game, so being around so many different players, you have to expand your game more. It makes you want to work harder.”
After noting that everyone’s different, Johnson said that what makes him unique on this team is his competitiveness.
“I’m a dog,” Johnson said, laughing. “I do whatever it takes to win. I’m the ultimate competitor, I score the basketball very well, I lock up on defense, my shot is improving a lot. I’m starting to hit that more consistently.”