by Paul Jordan
It’s the “elbow heard around the Bluegrass”. We are referring of course to the DeMarcus Cousins “flagrant” elbow (which was actually a forearm and will be referred to here as a forearm from now on) to Jared Swopshire that has been the talk of college basketball the past 24 hours or so. Yes, Cousin’s move was sudden and shocking, but as the picture above clearly shows, Cousins did take a knee to head an instant before delivering the forearm. It should be called “A Knee to the head, a forearm strikes back” but Swopshire’s role in this is being ignored.
Not to condone the move, but I see it as more of a kneejerk reaction rather than a blatant attempt to injure Swopshire. An eye for an eye, so to speak. Was it right? No. But neither was Swopshire’s knee to the head which no one is talking about today.
Did the officials make the right call? I have to say yes. And if a player were to be tossed, both Cousins and Swopshire should have been tossed, just not one of the combatants. From several accounts, the Cardinals were guilty of pre-game taunting and the referees knew what kind of fireworks were likely. After the opening minutes, the tensions eased (a bit), and it would have been wrong to toss just one player.
But this also paints a huge target on the back of DeMarcus Cousins for the rest of the season. Opposing fans and players are going to try their best to get under Cousin’s’ skin and his anger management skills will be tested to the maximum. Like we all know, Cousin’s keeping his cool can be the key to a Final Four run. The Cardinal player made a conscious effort to egg Cousins on from the beginning by walking up against him and “brushing their shoulders” up against him, which earned a shove from Cousins.
In defense of Cousins, he did handle himself very well after the opening minute of the game. He was pushed, shoved, hacked, and thrown to the floor on a few occasions, but he did his talking with a 18 point, 18 rebound game. UK actually had an “oh crap” moment in the first half of the game when Daniel Orton got his second foul and you just knew the Dirty Cards were going to go after Cousins and he passed the test. And the same goes for the season so far. This season could be called “the maturation” of DeMarcus Cousins.
Cousins’ Kentucky career go off to a shaky start as he fouled out of his very first game as a Wildcat. His first 10 games as a Wildcat saw him foul out twice, and have at least four fouls in six of those games. After 10 games, Cousins was averaging an alarmingly high 3.6 fouls a game. In the last five games, we have seen a more control Cousins. He got in foul trouble in just one game (Long Beach State with four) and his foul per game average the last five games has been just 2.4.
You have to give Cousin’s credit for the improvement he has made. I think that he is learning how important he is to this team and how his actions can sink the ship. He also knows that players come out of college into the NBA with a reputation and a testy demeanor by a player can drop him a few draft picks. DeMarcus has a lot to work towards the rest of the season and here is hoping he has the demeanor to pass the test and as a result, lead the Cats to postseason glory.
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