Kentucky's Towns has new haircut, angrier attitude
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky freshman Karl-Anthony Towns played well enough in a win over Texas on Friday night, but as a projected top-five NBA draft pick, it wasn't up to his own high standards.
While he had 10 points and three rebounds in 16 minutes, the 6-foot-11 Towns made just 2-of-5 shots and had no blocks against a big, physical Longhorns team that tried to push him around. So before Kentucky's game against Eastern Kentucky on Sunday, Towns tweeted to his 36,000-plus followers: "Be ready to see a different KAT tomorrow."
Then he came out with a fresh, close-cropped haircut and a mean-mugging new attitude and dropped a career-high 19 points — on 8-of-9 shooting, including his first collegiate 3-pointer — to go with nine rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal in just 23 minutes.
Assistant coach John Robic said Towns was "more aggressive" against the Colonels, "much more vocal on the court," and "probably the best he's been, defensively, as far as talking."
In other words, the Wildcats like this new look for their star rookie.
"It was supposed to be just for the hair, but I did come out with a different mentality," he said. "I think was playing too much like a freshman. I played a little timid sometimes. Sometimes I didn't play. I just wanted to come out (Sunday) and act like I was a junior, like Willie (Cauley-Stein), and play with the experience I have, play a little harder, do what I can do and just try not to play like everything is so smiley and stuff. I don't think I smiled one time in the game."
Teammates took care of that for him, giving Towns a hard time about his self-imposed scowl.
"It's something we'll definitely make fun of him for," said sophomore forward Marcus Lee, who acknowledged seeing a difference in Towns' performance. "When he tweeted about 'new KAT,' we bugged him so much (Sunday) about it, he just wanted to actually show us what he was talking about."
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Towns, who is averaging 9.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in just 18.8 minutes this season, isn't worried about losing sight of the fact that basketball is supposed to be fun. Kentucky's No. 1 ranking and 9-0 record and his personal pursuit of the top spot in next summer's draft are all quite enjoyable.
"This is a blast. I'm having a blast every time I'm on the court. But, you know, we're also very competitive. We have to have that mentality if we want to go far," Towns said. "I came in really focused, came in with a killer mentality, just tried to do stuff differently. I just tried to grow up, I guess you could say. Just didn't want to be a freshman no more."
Kyle Tucker writes for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, a Gannett affiliate.
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