Isaiah Briscoe was voted the “biggest trash talker” in the country in a USA Today poll last spring.
In April, he told me he was ready to take on Carmelo Anthony in one-on-one.
The former Roselle (N.J.) Catholic guard will never lack for confidence, but don’t expect Kentucky coach John Calipari to endorse Briscoe’s trash-talking once he takes the court as a Kentucky freshman.
“He won’t play that way here,” Calipari told reporters in Kentucky. “I’m not worried about it. He’s going to be fine. This stuff that we do here, you don’t have to add any fuel to the fire. You don’t have to say anything. You talk with your game because every game you play is someone’s Super Bowl.”
Briscoe is one of three talented point guards on the Kentucky roster, sophomore Tyler Ulis and Canadian sensation Jamal Murray being the others.
Briscoe said he wasn’t a big fan of Murray’s when he first met him, but now they are becoming like brothers.
“We’re both point guards,” he told Alex Risen of WTVQ in Lexington. “It wasn’t like ‘I hate you. Don’t talk to me.’ It was like ‘That’s it. That’s all you get is the what’s up. Now go away.’”
Now, apparently through some bonding at a local establishment, the two are boys.
“It might have been Hooters,” Briscoe said. “It brought us together. Sure. The chicken. Blame it on the chicken.”
Briscoe has also been battling Ulis in games of one-on-one late into the night, where the trash talking remains strong.
On the court, Calipari seems highly impressed with what he’s seen from Ulis and Murray so far, but still wants to see more development from Briscoe, who led Roselle Catholic to the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title last season.
“Jamal is a playmaking, scoring kind of guard,” Calipari said. “Put the ball in his hands and something good is going to happen. Isaiah, again, learning to play north-south. East-west stuff ain’t happening here. It’s not And1 tape. It’s not what it is. He’s learning to play north and south, and his body is changing and he’s playing faster because his instincts are good. Jamal’s instincts are good. Tyler’s instincts – they’re instincts are so good. You’re always going to have two of them on the court, maybe three, which means it will make the game easy for everybody.”
Of course, only one of the guards can have the ball in his hands at a time, so expect some dribble-drive stuff like Calipari ran in Memphis and other things that allow multiple guards to handle the ball.
“Tyler Ulis, you don’t have to-give him space,” Calipari said. “He’s going to be unselfish. He’s going to be for his teammates. Jamal, when I watched him in Canada, that’s exactly what he is. So you got two guys like that. Now if we can get Isaiah like that, now you’re talking playing the dribble-drive stuff that I played in Memphis, where you really let go some of the ropes a coach and let them make decisions.”
Briscoe could have opted to play at a St. John’s or a UConn where he would have been more of the man, but picked Kentucky because he wanted to play alongside other great players.
“I am more unselfish than people think,” Briscoe told CoachCal.com this summer. “I love passing. I love seeing other people score.”
Briscoe knows about winning, that’s for sure.
In the last year-plus, he helped lead USA to a gold medal at the 2014 FIBA America’s U18 Championship, led the NJ Playaz to the Peach Jam title and won the New Jersey TOC title.
Now he wants to win a national title in what could be his only year at Kentucky. He’s projected as the No. 18 pick in the 2016 Draft by DraftExpress.com, while Murray is No. 6 and big man Skal Labissiere is No. 1.
“I would like to win a national championship,” Briscoe told CoachCal.com. “There’s no doubt about it. Individual goals will come as we achieve the team goals.”
Kentucky will have plenty of challengers this year, including Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina and Duke.
You can expect Briscoe to bring his innate competitiveness with him when Kentucky opens the season Nov. 13 against Albany.
But don’t expect Calipari to let him talk too much trash.
“I’m pretty happy with how he’s doing, but he’s got a ways to go,” Calipari said. “He’s never been in anything like this. You want him to be confident, but he’ll realize. He’s not a dumb kid.”
Photo: CoachCal.com
