By LARRY VAUGHT

Donnie Tyndall knows Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall is an elite player, maybe even the nation’s top freshman player.

What the Morehead State coach didn’t realize was just how good freshman Eric Bledsoe was as well until Bledsoe had 24 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots Friday to lead the Wildcats over Morehead.

“If John Wall is better than him, then wow. He is something else, and when he started making jump shots in the second half, he completely took the game over. We were sprinting back to the zone and doing what we call building a wall or cupping the basketball to keep him in front,” said Tyndall. “He was still driving the ball between two and three guys.

“He was making teammates better and getting fouled. He turned it over a little bit (seven times), but with a guy like that, coach (John) Calipari is brilliant letting him play so he can make his teammates better.”

Bledsoe was the first UK player since Sam Bowie in 1979 to score 20 or more points in his UK debut. His 24-point outing was more than any Wildcat had scored since Patrick Patterson got 28 against LSU Feb. 28. And by going 9-for-10 at the foul line, he proved fouling him in close games could be a big mistake for opponents.

“I love him. I love his courage on the floor, and I think he’s a very intelligent player, even though he had seven turnovers without John Wall on the floor and I tried to play him every minute,” Calipari said. “What I expect from him is six and two — that is six assists and two turnovers and 10, 12, 15 points a game. What about the blocked shots he made with one ankle? He blocked guys with one ankle.”

Bledsoe had missed UK’s second exhibition game with a tweaked ankle. He hurt the same ankle again in the first half, but that didn’t stop him from playing a brilliant second half.

“I just had to stop worrying about my ankle. I worried about it in the first half and Coach said I had to come out with a mentality that I just had to go for it. There was an emphasis to start playing faster in the second half. Coach told me to push it, that Morehead was getting tired, so I needed to push it,” Bledsoe said.

“I couldn’t let my ankle get to me. I had to go play my game. That is what happened (in the second half). My ankle was real bad. It kind of popped and hurt, but I couldn’t let Coach know or he would have taken me out. I had to play through it, and I did.”

That didn’t surprise Calipari and Bledsoe could prove to be the same type warrior as Patterson has been for two years.

“He’s just a gamer,” Calipari said. “I said to the team,  ‘Who on this team takes the game winner and knows it’s going in,’ and I pointed right to Eric. Some guys hope it goes in and he knows it goes in. One of the guys said to me, ‘He’s tired,’ and I said, ‘I know but he’s better than most guys that are fresh so I’ll leave him in.’”

Bledsoe played 37 minutes because Wall had to sit out his final game as part of his NCAA suspension. He’ll be back Monday when the Cats host Miami of Ohio.

“It’ll be great. Both of us our point guards that know the game, so it will take pressure off of us individually. I didn’t expect us to both start but it worked out good so far,” Bledsoe said.

Freshman Daniel Orton said the Cats are anxious to have both freshmen guards in the game together, too — something that has not happened yet because of Wall’s two-game suspension and Bledsoe’s injury.

“The only difference is John is bigger. Eric plays as hard as John. The do push one another hard in games and it wasn’t surprising  to us that Eric played well. Just think what it will be like now when they are together in a game. They play together in practice and you better be running to stay with them,” Orton said.

Calipari says he does not want Bledsoe to defer to the more highly-touted Wall.

“He and John Wall are so close you will see two guys flying up and down the court. I don’t want him to defer. I want him to play how he plays and John play how he plays and let’s do this together,” Calipari said.

19 Responses to “Bledsoe and Wall? Now that will be fun”