Ansley Almonor (15) pretends to be using a broom to sweep along with teammate Brandon Garrison after the Cats swept Tennessee Tuesday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Ansley Almonor came to Kentucky from Fairleigh Dickinson because he wanted a chance to play in big-time games with maximum national exposure on a regular basis.
He was the lowest rated player in Kentucky’s transfer portal class but that didn’t bother him. He was willing to accept whatever role coach Mark Pope had for him and was a productive, and happy, player coming off the bench.
However, when Andrew Carr started having back issues, that elevated Almonor to a starting role and he hit four 3-pointers in UK’s upset win at Tennessee in January. But last week in UK’s loss at Ole Miss, he had nothing but zeroes on the stat sheet for the 15 minutes he played.
Almonor exorcised those Ole Miss demons Tuesday when he again helped the Wildcats beat No. 4 Tennessee. He went 4-for-5 from the field, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range. He scored on a follow basket and on a rare drive into the lane. He also went 3-for-3 at the foul line in a game where every point mattered.
“Ansley Almonor, guys, come on. I know I told you all that he was going to win some games before the season … I didn’t even expect he would win us this many,” Pope said after the game. “I honestly did not recruit him to be a downhill, Euro-step, through contact finisher in the crucial moment of the game against the best defensive team in the country, but he did it.
“He’s been so good. Man, he’s just super fun. He’s just, you love having him in the locker room. He came here for all the right reasons. He’s reaping the rewards beyond his wildest imagination right now. Like this is super cool. How fun for him. I love every second of it.”
Almonor has a simple approach to his play.
“I just go out there and try to help the team as much as I can. Sometimes it (his shot) goes down, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
He didn’t make a big deal out of his surprising Euro-step and finish at the rim like Pope did.
“We are all basketball players, so it’s in our game, or something like that,” Almonor said. “I just felt like that was, you know, we needed a bucket at that time, so I got a little bit creative.”
With starter Jaxson Robinson out with a wrist injury, Carr playing limited and ineffective minutes and then starting point guard Lamont Butler going out when he re-injured his shoulder with 8:40 to play, Almonor had to shine to help the Cats win.
“We had to go out there and try to get a W, especially after last game. We looked at what we did well, and what we didn’t do well, trying to focus on those things. And we went out there today and executed that,” Almonor said.
Pope had called Tennessee the best defensive team in the country but the Cats made 12 3-pointers against them for the second straight time. Pope said it was just two games against the Vols but his players understood the challenge.
“It’s a great defensive team. No two ways about it. They’re great. I think our guys look forward to the challenge. We had some guys that made some big plays,” Pope said. “They exert so much pressure. Kind of the way we play is almost more functional against intense, intense pressure if you can just survive. And so it’s not a terrible fit for how we play but it’s an incredible challenge for sure.”
One Response
We have to get everyone engaged. When Almonor has a good game, Carr doesn’t and vice versa. When Williams has a good game, Garrison doesn’t and vice versa. This is just one of the challenges of having a Frankenstein team put together at the last minute. Maybe this won’t be as much of an issue in year 2.