Kentucky freshman point guard De’Aaron Fox made history on Monday night.
Or did he?
Fox was credited with just the second triple-double in the school’s storied history, putting up 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in No. 1 Kentucky’s 115-69 destruction of Arizona State in the Bahamas.
Chris Mills had Kentucky’s first triple-double on Dec. 27, 1988 against Austin Peay.
“I didn’t even know it had been that long. But it felt good,” said Fox, the projected No. 10 pick in the NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com.
On Tuesday morning, SportsCenter showed that Fox was credited with his seventh assist on a jump shot by Malik Monk (23 points) that wasn’t an actual assist.
SportsCenter shows one of De’Aaron Fox’s assists wasn’t an actual assist in triple-double. pic.twitter.com/O2yedghOza
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) November 29, 2016
Kentucky is deferring the matter to the official scorer.
“We are aware of the statistic in question and informed the official scorers,” Kentucky spokesman Eric Lindsey said in a statement. “We defer all decisions to the official scorer. Because of travel, they are currently working through the process now of evaluating the play in question.”
Count Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley among Fox’s fans.
“He’s a really, really, really talented guy,” said Hurley, who led Duke to back-to-back NCAA titles in the early 1990s. “I’m a big fan of his.”
Isaiah Briscoe added 20 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds and Bam Adebayo went for 12 points and 9 rebounds. Briscoe started after missing two games with what head coach John Calipari called a “butt bruise.”
“They were spectacular,” Hurley said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a faster team. As a competitor, you feel a little shell-shocked.”
He added: “We haven’t seen anything like that. We can’t simulate that.”
Hurley compared this Kentucky team to the 38-1 outfit that reached the Final Four in 2015.
“I saw their 38-1 team a couple years ago and I would certainly put them in same class,” he said.
“If anyone was watching that,” he added, “then I’m sure they feel that team has a chance to go the distance.”
Malik Monk hits the 3 to give De’Aaron Fox the second triple-double in UK history. #BBN pic.twitter.com/qEvvdNvCgG
— Scott Charlton (@Scott_Charlton) November 29, 2016
Photo: Kentucky Basketball
