Kentucky launched a promotional campaign last week touting junior center Nick Richards’ All-American qualities — and it’s certainly well deserved based on what Richards has done this season where he’s leading the Cats in rebounding (8.0 per game) and blocked shots (60).
It’s probably also the hope that the “Pick Nick” video/promotion will help Richards when it comes to Southeastern Conference Player of the Year voting.
However, if I was voting today for SEC Player of the Year it would be for another Kentucky player — sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley. No, it’s not just because he scored 26 points, including 22 in the second half, of Saturday’s win over Florida. It’s because Quickley simply has emerged as UK’s best player.
Quickley leads UK in scoring (15.7 points per game). He leads in free throws made (130), free throws taken (142) and free throw percentage (91.5). He leads in 3-pointers made (49) and 3-point percentage (40.5).
He’s not worried about a competition with Richards for any individual honor and had no problem with UK doing the promotional campaign for Richards and not one for him.
“He plays great for us so hopefully he can keep doing great stuff,” Quickley said. “It’s not my decision to have a video of my own like that so, I’d be just as happy for my team to win a national championship. That’s really what we’re trying to accomplish this season and try to continue to build as a team.”
Quickley has had seven 20-point games this season, all in the last 15 games. He has five 20-point games in the last nine games. He’s also averaged 15.5 points in the second half of UK’s last six games. Quickley has now scored in double figures in 16 straight games. Those are the kind of things a player of the year does at the biggest times and he keeps consistently doing that.
Kentucky teammate Tyrese Maxey calls Quickley a “different breed” of player.
“I think it’s just a testimony to his work,” Maxey said.
Just ask the Gators about Quickley’s work.
“Big-time player, going to make a lot of money playing this game,” Florida senior Kerry Blackshear said. “We understood he was a big-time player and we keyed in on him, he just made big shots.”
Keyed on him and he made big shots — isn’t that what a team’s most valuable player does?
Need more?
“He was fantastic. He was the best player on the floor,” Florida coach Mike White said. “I thought he did a great job finding space, searching. They did a good job finding him. Hit huge shots and complimented that with terrific defense on the perimeter.”
That defense went unnoticed for a long time before Quickley helped shut down Louisville All-American candidate Jordan Nwora. He did it again Saturday against Florida guard Noah Locke and even tied a career-high with three steals.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said a few weeks ago that Quickley was “bothering people” with his defensive prowess. He might not be quite the disruptor that teammate Ashton Hagans, the SEC co-defensive player of the year last season, is but he’s become almost that good.
Quickley’s demeanor doesn’t change, one reason he seems unfazed by pressure in late-game situations. He’s got that “demonstrated performance” that Calipari says builds a player’s confidence like nothing else can.
“My confidence has been great for a while now. My teammates have been doing a great job of getting me open looks but when you see a couple shots go down that helps. So just to be able to get my confidence higher than it’s been, great,” Quickley said.
Richards certainly appreciates what Quickley is doing now that teams are paying a lot more attention to the junior center inside than they did when the season started because of the numbers he’s had.
“He played amazing tonight,” Richards said after the Florida win. “He made every shot and if you needed a basket, you just ran to him. He made really tough 3’s. He just overall played amazing.”
Which is what the SEC Player of the Year should do.
