Anthony Davis spoke with Nicole Auerbach of USA today recently. They touched on how his growth spurt affected his personal life, what its like being under the bright lights of the Kentucky Basketball program, and the ‘art’ of blocking a shot. Here’s an excerpt[LEFT][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Georgia][I][B]
You mentioned not bringing the ball up and outside shooting as ways this changed your game. Did your post play come naturally or did you have to learn it all?[/B][/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Georgia][I]It was new. It didn’t come naturally. I definitely had to work on it. In high school, I still brought up the ball and shot the outside shot — things that guards would do. When I got here (at Kentucky), we had guys who brought up the ball for us. And it fits in Coach (John Calipari)’s system. I definitely had to get accustomed to the post and figure out how to use my height to my advantage, how to work on post moves, how to incorporate post moves and big man drills into my workouts.
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Particularly in recent years, Kentucky’s been known for having talented freshmen. You and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are teammates and both finalists for national freshman of the year. Is it nice having other talented young players around you?[/B][/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Georgia][I]It’s always good to have other great players on your team who can do the same thing you can do — score the ball, rebound, block shots, make free throws, whatever the case may be. It’s always good. It takes the pressure off you.[/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Georgia][I]When you’re on a team like ours, everyone can contribute and it doesn’t matter who starts. It makes the game a lot easier and a lot of fun.
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Do you guys feel pressure being ranked No. 1 right now? How do you guys handle attention — just last week, your practice was televised and shown on ESPNU.[/B][/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Georgia][I]We like the attention, but at the same time, we know we have to get out there and focus to win ballgames. There are always a lot of people at our practices. We don’t get bothered by it. (Calipari) always tells us, like when we had practice on ESPNU, ‘It’s just practice. We’re still running through all we do like it’s a normal practice. There’s no point in trying to do anything fancy or out of character just because there’s a crowd here.’
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For the rest of the Article, click [URL=”http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2012/02/holding-court-q-and-a-with-kentuckys-anthony-davis/1#.T0QCY4dukfV”]here[/URL].[/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]
