Anthony Davis is having a season-long block party.
The likely No. 1 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Davis scored 27 points and blocked seven shots Tuesday night to set a new single-season school blocks record as No. 2 Kentucky beat Arkansas, 86-63, at Rupp Arena.
“I know they’re definitely thinking about it when they come in the hole and they’ve got to shoot the ball,” said Davis, who had 14 rebounds. “It’s definitely in their mind – where’s Anthony Davis?
Davis blocked his 84th shot with just under 5 minutes left in the first half when he turned away freshman B.J. Young’s layup to set the record previously held by Melvin Turpin and matched by Andre Riddick. He now has 89 blocks on the season.
Davis has blocked at least two shots in every game this season. He entered the game leading the nation with 4.6 blocks per game.
“I didn’t even know how many blocks I had,” Davis said. “I can’t keep up, the game goes so fast. I just want to block every shot.”
Davis finished 10 of 12 from the field, his best game with at least 10 attempts of his 19-game career and went 7 for 8 from the free throw line. He got a standing ovation with 4:23 left with his seventh and final block, an emphatic swat of Julysses Nobles’ shot into the front row.
“I remember one time he just told his guys, ‘Just bring him in here, I’m going to block everything,”‘ Arkansas guard Mardracus Wade said.
With his ability to not only block shots, but re-direct them in Russell-esque fashion and then catch the rebound, it’s not hard to understand why NBA scouts are salivating over Davis, who only a couple of a years ago was a 6-2 guard before shooting up eight inches.
Now, it appears only a matter of time before NBA Commissioner David Stern announces his name as the first pick in the Draft.
(The AP contributed)
BostonCat / January 18, 2012
player of the year
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mikemiller13 / January 18, 2012
davis is a great freshman. not sure on his nba game yet other than a awesome defensive presence. poy in my opinion though is thomas.
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fearthephog25 / January 18, 2012
“Thomas Robinson to me is my choice today as the Player of the Year,” and ““Kansas was great. I said this on the air: ‘This is probably the least talented team one through eight he (Bill Self) has had since he’s been at Kansas, but as a team they really believe in each other and really are playing as a unit.”
Dickie V <—–this from a tar hole/dookie east coast lover. LMAO Priceless…
He (Robinson) also took part in perhaps the best play of the season, lobbing a pass to Robinson, who threw down a one-handed slam over Perry Jones III for KU’s second basket of the game.“He pressed the up button and went up,” Taylor said.Robinson admitted the vicious dunk might have been the best of his career.
Doesn't T-Rob lead the Nation in Double/Doubles?? LOL Terrence Jones…what coulda been under the wings of Danny Manning. Instead has to settle for mediocre numbers at uk and be in the shadows of point guards. haha
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BostonCat / January 18, 2012
of course robinson has the better numbers he has too for ku to have a chance of winning.
robinson is taking 4.5 more shots per game then davis. ku has just 3 double digit scores on the team, uk has 6!!!!! no one else on ku gets a rebound….davis has jones and gilchrist inside getting tons of boards. uk has so much team balance and still davis stands out.
robinson 17.8 ppg, 12.3 rpg 1.1 bpg
davis 13.8 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 4.7 bpg
robinson shooting 54% from the floor
davis shooting 66% from the floor
seems pretty clear cut to me. give davis more shots per game, put him on a lesser team that is dependent on him to do more and his stats would probably be more then robinson’s.
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fearthephog25 / January 18, 2012
Wow! with all that balance and scoring….you would have to think uk should be blowing all these lesser teams out fairly easily. cal’s dribble drive (a glorified name for street ball) doesn’t fit big men into the offense style of play. LOL All big men recruits should see that also, its plain as day.
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mikemiller13 / January 18, 2012
i don’t think davis has the offensive game yet to put him in the same category. he scores off easy baskets because uk is much more balanced. if davis as a freshman played the role thomas does as the main focal point, and is without the supporting cast he currently has, he wouldn’t thrive on the offensive end. i hope that make sense and isn’t too homerish. 2 great players, 1 is just more polished overall today and does what he does without the support and balance of multiple top recruits.
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kungpaochicken / January 18, 2012
@BostonCat, did you major in English at UK?
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mikemiller13 / January 18, 2012
I respect uk and the fanbase. On another note, what happened to all the bear down ua fan’s and how the west is rising trash? Did they finally figure out that w’s on the court mean more than recruits and rankings?
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BostonCat / January 19, 2012
@kungpao…..nope computer science. i’m a sr software engineer at a r&d company. what about you?
not blowing people out enough for you phog? thats funny stuff. uk is 16th in the nation in scoring. unc is first….a lot of good that does them when they lost by 30 to fsu. uk is 3rd in the nation in scoring margin. but also 20th in the nation in scoring defense and 3rd in the nation in shooting defense. uk gets it done on both ends. and what makes it more impressive…6 out of the 7 guys in the rotation are only FR and SO. wow!!!!
but you arent “impressed”. you never will be because you are jealous and bitter. it does not seem you have adjusted well to losing to uk…its been months…let it go. you have a nice team and its doing well in the big-whatever it is these days. you should be proud of that!
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