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The Big Heart of Karl-Anthony Towns

By Brian Smith

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Top 5 Kentucky Wildcats basketball stories making headlines for Thursday, April 2, 2015.

Karl-Anthony Towns may very well be the number 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft. But wherever he ends up being drafted, an NBA team isn’t just getting a pretty darn good basketball player, they’re getting a pretty darn good human being. Ian O’Conner writes:

"“‘He’s the nicest kid on and off the floor that I’ve ever met or played with,’ Brix said. A lot of people have said that, or things like that, about Karl-Anthony Towns, the Kentucky freshman whose career-high 25 points against Notre Dame saved the Wildcats’ perfect season and sent them back to the Final Four. One NBA scout with a lottery-bound team called Towns ‘an off-the-charts sweetheart.’ John Calipari’s assistant, Barry ‘Slice’ Rohrssen, said he told scouts representing the franchises most likely to land the No. 1 pick in the draft the following:‘He’s one of the best young men I’ve coached in twenty-plus years of doing this. When you bring Karl in for the pre-draft workout and interview, and then you drop him off at the hotel after taking him to dinner with your owner, that owner is going to turn around and ask you, ‘How do we not take this guy?’”"

Perhaps no Kentucky player has the personality of Willie Cauley-Stein. Kentucky fans and its beat writers who have covered the team all year knew this already. But, with the Final Four just a few days away, the national media seem to finally be taking notice. Chuck Culpepper writes:

"“They’re the writers and broadcasters who cover Kentucky basketball, and they will face a unique void come springtime. The 7-foot human Willie Cauley-Stein will make off for the NBA after three seasons at Kentucky, and no longer may they stand at his locker and listen to him routinely. They tend to sigh about that.‘I’ll miss covering him tremendously, and this is the rare instance when I think I can speak for everybody on the beat,’ said Brett Dawson of rivals.com. ‘I’ve never covered anyone quite like him anywhere, and I doubt anyone’s ever covered anyone like him at Kentucky,’ after which Dawson referred to Cauley-Stein as ‘a true individual,’ ‘genuinely funny,’ ‘thoughtful’ with ‘no place’ for cliches, a player who ‘rarely, if ever, fails to consider a question carefully before he answers it.’”"

Kentucky fans are known to be pretty particular when it comes to “Kentucky” blue. After all, remember the uproar in 1996 with the Denim jerseys that might have been a little too “Carolina” blue for some? Interestingly, “Duke” blue is a pretty close match to “Kentucky” blue. But there is a difference, even if it’s ever so slight. Victor Mather writes:

"“If Duke and Kentucky meet in college basketball’s national championship game, will you root for Pantone 286 or Pantone 287?The official color for each school is blue. But there is a difference, however slight.”"

Wisconsin is likely to be Kentucky’s toughest game thus far in the Tournament, which makes sense considering they’re a number 1 seed and it’s the Final Four. But the Badgers aren’t unbeatable (something we hear about Kentucky all the time) and, in fact, they’ve been beaten (something Kentucky, so far, has not). So how can the Wildcats do what 3 other teams have done already this season? David Harten writes:

"“While unbeaten and favored Kentucky is snagging much of the attention entering this week’s Final Four, the Wildcats’ semifinal opponent Wisconsin is in the midst of the best season in its own history as well.These Badgers are 35-3. They’ve won 10 games in a row (second time this season for that).They haven’t lost much. But they have been beaten.Duke (80-70 on Dec. 3), Rutgers (67-62 on Jan. 11) and Maryland (59-53 on Feb. 24) each bested the Badgers during the regular season and did so with different game plans.How? What aspects were the same? What was different?With those games as a guide, here’s a look at five ways for Kentucky to beat Wisconsin on Saturday night.”"

Should Kentucky beat Wisconsin Saturday night and then win Monday night to cap off a historic “40-0” season, there promises to be a lot of money to be made with what could likely end up being its own standalone brand. And Kentucky is already taking steps to limit how others might profit on what the schools sees as a mark belonging to them. Darren Rovell writes:

"“Kentucky is two games away from a 40-0 season, but the school already is trying to stop other people from using the mark.Last week, it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Louisville lawyer David Son, whose company is selling blue-and-white “40-0” T-shirts on his website, 40and0.com.”"

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