By Jon Hale
Babe Ruth may have been the ‘Sultan of Swat’ on the baseball diamond, but University of Kentucky freshman forward Anthony Davis could probably borrow the nickname.
After blocking four shots against Auburn Wednesday, Davis is just five blocks from tying the UK single-season record. If Davis matches his 4.5 block per game average Saturday versus Tennessee, he could tie the record in just 18 games. The current record holders — Andre Riddick and Melvin Turpin — accomplished the feat in 34 and 31 games respectively.
“It tells you he’s a pretty good shot blocker,” said UK head coach John Calipari. “He goes after balls. The best shot blockers I’ve seen are the ones that let people release the ball and then go get it, and that’s what he does.”
Davis maintains he doesn’t pay attention to his statistics, but he admitted in a conversation with reporters Friday that breaking the record this quickly would be impressive.
“I wasn’t aware of it, but it would be a great accomplishment, especially for a freshman,” he said.
“You lose focus if you’re looking at statistics, so I just try to keep my focus on the court.”
It would be easy to lose focus by looking at Davis’s block statistics. Through Thursday’s games, Davis had more blocks than 286 Division I teams. He has just one fewer block than Tennessee’s entire team — UK’s opponent Saturday.
“He does a lot of things,” Calipari said. “You don’t get layups that you think you have. You think you’re going to get one off, but you just hear all week about this guy blocking shots and he comes flying at you and you shoot one high.”
Davis’s attitude has impressed Calipari.
“Here’s a kid blocking shots, rebounding — leading rebounder, leading shot blocker — and these dudes want to shoot all the balls,” Calipari said of Davis’s teammates. “He doesn’t say anything. It’s probably why we’re where we are right now.
“If he was a normal person, he would be saying, ‘Look, I’m not blocking every ball and rebounding every ball and then you shoot every ball. You get in here and rebound and block some balls.’”
For Davis, his shot-blocking ability has come naturally.
“It just grew on me,” he said. “I really didn’t work at it. I just have to use the best of my ability, my length. When guys go up, I try to go block their shot. There’s no way you can really work on it.”
Calipari agreed.
“He went from 6-3 to 6-11,” Calipari said. “A lot of times those bigger guys that have always been bigger don’t have that (instinct). But those guys that grew from 6-3 to 6-10 have guard instincts and guard reactions to things.”
Regardless of the possible records, Davis said the number of shots he blocks has one simple meaning.
“(I’m) playing defense,” he said. “Doing my job on the defensive end to help my team win.”
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Originally Posted by Vinny
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