CATS ‘DON’T PLAY HARD’
On eve of Sweet 16 battle, WVU guard says Kentucky will fall:
CLEVELAND — Daxter Miles Jr. is either very smart or very stupid. The one thing he definitely is, however, is confident. With the whole world counting the days until undefeated Kentucky is anointed king of college basketball, the West Virginia freshman threw down the gauntlet and gave the Wildcats reams of bulletin-board material Wednesday, boldly predicting they are going down.
“I give them props,” Miles said Wednesday. “I salute them for being 36-0. But tomorrow they’re going to be 36-1.”
OK, it was a bold prediction, but then Miles got personal, questioning Kentucky’s game — and heart.
“The Cats don’t play hard. They should be more intimidated. Because they’re the ones who have the high standard, and we’re coming for them.”
Miles is the first player to call out Kentucky, and according to 7-0 junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein, that’s fine with him.
“That’s good. It adds fuel to the fire.”
The back and forth, which will certainly add an edge to Thursday’s proceedings, is just more residue from the John Calipari-Bob Huggins border war.
Both coaches, who grew up in the Western Pennsylvania/Ohio border area, have a healthy respect for each other. Huggins is one of just two coaches — along with Mike Jarvis — to have a winning record against Calipari. Huggins has beaten Cal eight of the 10 times the two have met — including a victory over a Kentucky team that had five future NBA first-round picks in their rotation.
That came in the 2010 East Regional final at the Carrier Dome when Kentucky missed 20 straight threepoint shots against an extended 1-3-1 zone. The Cats returned the favor the next year in a Round of 32 game.
The Cal-Huggins relationship hit folklore status back in 2002 on the day Huggins, who was coaching Cincinnati at the time, suffered a heart attack at the Pittsburgh airport.
“To make a long story short, they scooped me up, put me in an ambulance and I’m in and out of consciousness, and they’re pumping morphine into me and there’s a guy in the back with me,” said Huggins, “I’m passing out and coming back. . ..So I came to and I was fairly coherent at the time and he said, ‘Coach, listen, I can’t let you die. I’m John Calipari’s cousin and you can’t die until we beat you at least once.’ Abbreviated version, but that’s the stor y.”
Calipari was actually one of the first people to visit Huggins in the hospital, sneaking into the ICU.
It was a nice gesture, but Thursday both will be looking to knock the other one out.
Huggins has won 765 career games in 28 years. Calipari, who coached UMass, Memphis and Kentucky to Final Fours, has established himself as a Naismith Hall of Fame finalist after taking Kentucky to three Final Fours in five years. Still Huggins, like former UConn coach
I give them props. I salute them for being 36-0. But tomorrow they’re going to be 36-1.
DAXTER MILES JR.
Jim Cahoun, is playing mind games with his head. And Huggins and his team are going to play that card, pushing the fact they have changed their style, forcing Maryland into 20 turnovers in a Round of 32 game.
The Mountaineers feel they have the potential to do the same to Kentucky with consistent court pressure and double-teams.
“Why wouldn’t we?” West Virginia guard Juwan Staten said. “We’ve been playing this way all year, we’ve had success against everybody no matter what style or what type of players they have. That’s the only way we play and it’s just up to us to make it work.”
“I got people from back home asking me how good is the press,” West Virginia guard Gary Browne said. “I tell them, it’s good because we press every day, we press at practice, we press at shootaround and that’s because we have 13 guys. We might not have the best five guys, like coach said, but we have the best 13 guys that’s why it’s hard for us to get tired.”
Calipari has watched West Virginia morph into a completely different team defensively since it joined the Big 12 three years ago.
“You know, the thing I would tell you, I’ve seen Bobby’s teams over the years, obviously we’ve been friends for a long time, but he’s doing stuff this year I’ve not seen him do and that tells you the kind of coach he is,” Calipari said. “They’re playing very physical, they’re coming in and letting you know it’s going to be body-to-body, you had Wbetter be ready.” est Virginia knows the power of Blue Nation, and Staten understands his team will be an underdog. But there is still something about people from those country roads that inspires confidence.
“There are 1.85 million folks in West Virginia who are rooting for us and think we can win,” he said. “They are tweeting us, and just telling us how much they appreciate us, win or lose, but they’re just behind us.”