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DeMarcus Cousins faced a lot of pressure being recruited from his Alabama high school. He had an ‘altercation’ with a teacher on a school bus as a sophomore, and was considered such an attitude problem as a senior that he wasn’t recruited by nearly as many schools as he should have been. Even in his only year as a Cat, DeMarcus was maligned for being a ‘problem child’ when he proved otherwise time and again (yes, there were a few entertaining moments, but generally he did very well considering the target on his back).
Now, Cousins has another target on his back – he’s going to be starting for the Sacramento Kings. Yahoo sports had a good [URL=”http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-cousinskings100810″]article[/URL] yesterday regarding the pressure Sacramento is placing on its rookie starters Tyreke Evans (last year’s Rookie of the Year) and DeMarcus Cousins. What pressure? Try banners spanning an entire side of the King’s arena with pictures of Evans and Cousins. And those are the small ones; there is another one 10 stories high and 65 feet wide gracing a downtown office building.
Cousins seems to react well to the pressure though. How is he doing so far? In the first pre-season game vs. the Suns, Cousins posted 16 points and 16 rebounds. In the second pre-season game vs. the Clippers, Cousins posted 15 points and 9 rebounds. Not too bad for a rookie, but he’s still mad that Derrick Favors was selected ahead of him in the draft. I would be too, Favors has posted a measly 4 points / 1 rebound and 3 points / 4 rebounds in his first two games. The real pressure will come October 29th, that’s when Cousins will face off against Favors in New Jersey. Go Cats.
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