John Wall

By LARRY VAUGHT

John Calipari he’ll have 100 or more friends connected with Clarion, his alma mater, at tonight’s exhibition game against his first Kentucky team.

However, the UK coach also knows why many of the other fans will be at Rupp Arena tonight.

“I imagine there will be 24,000 there to say I was at John Wall’s first game,” said Calipari.

Wall, UK’s highly-touted freshman point guard, will play his first game after being required by the NCAA to sit out the Cats’ first exhibition game — and he must also sit out the regular-season opener next week against Morehead.

But tonight the player some are already projecting as the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA draft will be on the floor to put more sizzle in a Kentucky offense that was stagnant at times against Campbellsville University Monday.

“He and Patrick (Patterson) are our hardest workers. He is a verbal leader, and Patrick leads more by example,” Calipari said. “I would have loved to play half of the game with him and Eric (Bledsoe) on the floor together. We all want to see that. But I don’t think that will happen.”

That’s because Bledsoe, UK’s other freshman point guard, tweaked his ankle while running the point in Wall’s absence against Campbellsville. Knowing Wall can’t play against Morehead, Calipari doesn’t plan to take any chances with Bledsoe’s health.

“I don’t think we’ll play Eric Bledsoe tomorrow because of his ankle,” Calipari said Thursday. “We really need him (in the season opener), so I may not play him. He is tentative and we don’t want him to do something more.”

Besides, tonight could be Wall’s night to showcase all his extraordinary skills for the hometown fans.

Calipari says Wall has improved more as a leader because the team needed him to do that.

“He is young too, but he is taking it (leadership) on. He looked at the team and said this team needs me. We need somebody to speak because we have a lot of guys who are very quiet. The major issue we have defensively is getting players to talk. It’s not just being physical and fighting screens, it’s talking. That is one of the things I’ll continue to raise the bar on,” the Kentucky coach said.

Teammates seemed convinced just having Wall on the court will raise the bar for everyone.

“This is going to be our first time playing together. John changes the game. I’m excited and I’m excited for him to play in his first game,” freshman DeMarcus Cousins said.

The players might be excited just not to have to practice based on what Calipari has been putting them through two practices daily since Monday’s exhibition game when he felt his team got fatigued.

“They will either catch up with it or be drug through the glass. We have good kids and they’re trying, but we’re not where we need to be. I don’t like what it looks like and that can go for each player. I know it’s about me, it’s not about them,” Calipari said.

“These kids will do whatever I ask them to do. I told them that we have to get better conditioned and tougher. If you accept that, you will do whatever I tell you, and they do. It’s hard because they go to class, tutoring, study sessions and morning practice. This weekend will be rough and it’s what they need to set the tone.

“Coming in, everything was positive and upbeat. Now we need to get to the next level. I tried to be the same guy and get them to the next level, but it didn’t work. Now they have the other guy. All I’m doing is holding the bar higher and they need to get that bar. If they don’t get it, then we do it again and again. There are some peer pressure things we do and I get louder. I love my team, I just don’t love where we are right now, but we have to be patient.”

12 Responses to “Wall gets his chance to shine tonight”