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BASKETBALL

As 6th Ranked Duke, 19th Ranked Kentucky Are Opposing Each Other In State Farm Champions Classic Tuesday Night In Atlanta Jai Lucus Is Opposing Former Team He Was Assistant Coach For

Jai Lucas is former McDonald’s High School All American and now a highly-respected coach, Jai Lucas joined John Calipari’s Kentucky men’s basketball staff as a recruiting coordinator in August of 2020 and was quickly transitioned into a full-time assistant coaching role for the 2020-21 season.

As an Assistant Coach for Head Coach John Caipari at Kentucky Jal Lucas was tasked with taking a lead role in Kentucky's recruiting efforts while filling the traditional on-court roles of an assistant, including helping with game and practice preparation and playing a key role in player development through practice and individual workouts. Additionally, as recruiting coordinator, he manages official and unofficial visits and is responsible for the recruiting strategy for the program.

Jai Lucas helped the Wildcats haul in five players who appeared in either the McDonald's All-American or Jordan Brand Classic games and a No. 1 overall prospect in Shaedon Sharpe. He was also an integral part in the development of Sahvir Wheeler who was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award and led the Southeastern Conference in assists per game, as well as TyTy Washington Jr. who set the UK single-game record with 17 assists against Georgia.

Jai Lucas is known in basketball circles for his high-level player development and a penchant for formulating strong relationships
”according to Jai Lucas’s biography on ukathletics.com”

As 6th ranked Duke, 19th ranked Kentucky are opposing each other in State Farm Champions Classic Tuesday Night in Atlanta Jai Lucus is opposing former team he was an Assistant Coach for who?

John Calipari who is now Head Coach of Arkansas!

Duke is ranked 6th in week 2 AP Top 25 Poll is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference comes into the State Farm Champions Classic Tuesday in Atlanta with record of 2-0 because they beat Army 100 -58 six players scored in double figures. Khaman Maluach was 4-7 on field goals , 0-1 on 3 pointers to go along with 14 rebounds , 11 points . Cooper Flagg was 5-10 on field goals 2-4 on field goals to go along with 11 rebounds , 3 assists , 13 points. Kon Knueppel was 5-9 on field goals , 4-6 on 3 pointers to go along with 2 rebounds, 2 assists . 15 points . Tyrese Proctor was 5-12 on field goals , 4-9 on field goals to go along with 5 rebounds , 3 assists, 14 points . Caleb Foster was 5-10 on field goals , 1-3 on 3 pointers to go along with 1 rebound, 3 rebounds , 11 points. Sion James was 3-8 on field goals , 1-4 on 3 pointers to go along with 1 rebound, 4 assists , 12 points.

Following 7th ranked Duke’s 100 -58 win over Army Friday Cooper Flagg who 5-10 on field goals 2-4 on field goals to go along with 11 rebounds , 3 assists , 13 points had this to say about his cramping issues!

I’m good,”It’s a new thing for me. I haven’t really dealt with that. We’ve got a plan in place. We’re gonna follow it, figure it out. We’ll figure it out for sure.”

Following 7th ranked Duke’s 100 -58 win over Army Friday in Durham Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer had this to say about freshman guard, forward Cooper Flagg who has been dealing with cramping issues!

Yeah we’ve got to help him,”before repeating for emphasis, “We’ve got to help him. I’m not happy about it for him. We’ve got to help him, and we will. Right after this, I can promise you I’m gonna be meeting. I don’t care if it’s all night, we can’t have that happening. Bottom line.”

It’s all of us,”“It’s me. It’s our coaches. It’s our medical team and sports performance. It’s all of us. We got to help him, because he’s doing everything that he needs to in preparation. It’s not like there’s something that he’s not doing. He prepares his butt off. He drinks. He’s eating the right way. He does everything he needs to. We gotta help him take care of this now. Now.”

According to Stephen Wiseman’s News & Observer article https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/duke/article295001529.html

Kentucky is ranked 19th in week 2 AP Top 25 Poll because like Duke Kentucky comes into the State Farm Champions Classic with record of 2-0 because they beat Bucknell 100-72 because 5 players scored in double figures. Andrew Carr was 5-6 on field goals to go along with 3 assists , 11 points. Amari Williams was 5-8 on field goals to go along with 14 rebounds , 2 assists , 13 points. Otega Oweh was 4-11 on field goals , 0-4 on 3 pointers to go along with 5 rebounds , 1 assists 10 points. Jaxson Robinson was 6-14 on field goals, 2-8 on 3 pointers to go along with 4 rebounds , 1 assists , 14 points. Koby Brea was 7-11 on field goals 6-8 on 3 pointers to go along 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 20 points.

According to espn app

Following Kentucky’s 100-72 win over Bucknell Saturday in Lexington Kentucky Kentucky Head Coach Mark Pope had this to say!

Is that true? 100 rebounds? Oh, man. I’m usually really good at being hyperbolic. Apparently, I wasn’t even close. Well, I was kind of being sarcastic about 100. Maybe that needs to be our goal. Nonetheless, I’m really proud of our guys man. The very first possession, we missed two jumpers in a row and got two offensive rebounds. Just as twisted as I am, I was almost like – yes, we missed. Because it gave us an opportunity to kind of set that marker from the beginning. I thought our guys were really good throughout the game being super aggressive. You think about our fours and fives. We had four guys that are playing the bulk of the minutes, the four and the five. They all have three or more offensive rebounds. And that’s pretty cool. Really a tremendous effort by those guys.I knew, I have to be careful. I think I knew exactly who I was getting. I’ve been recruiting Kerr for I think, I don’t know, seven years or something. I’m telling you, he’s a real special player. He’s a real special young man. It’s super special for him too. Because his mom is here in town and she’s been here the last few days. For him to kind of bring that kind of juice and panache and skill and excitement and unselfishness and kind of magic to the floor. The emotion that he brings to the floor. He’s calling timeouts for our team and the other team. Heaven help us, but I love him. I love him. And our guys love him. You love him as a teammate. He’s just a special person. You talk about great teams are built on a group of guys where they embrace kind of their space on the roster and they make it bigger than you can
possibly imagine. He is trying to do that. He is trying to take his space on this team and try to make it bigger and be the greatest – that’s what he said. He said that this summer. He said that was his commitment to the team is I’m going to be the best pace guy in the country. And he is committed to doing that. And he’s brilliant to watch. He’s fun to watch, yes? It’s fun. All the mayhem. I’m really proud of him.

es, the game is – when you have guys that’s about winning you have the luxury of letting the game, of reading the game and figuring out what the game is telling you and how you are going to actually attack the game. You don’t walk in and try to force and impose your will stubbornly on the game and try to twist it into knots to try to get where you are going. You actually get to go see how a team is guarding and say, okay, great, let’s go. Or see what’s cooking tonight and say – okay, we certainly have a team of unselfish guys. I don’t like unselfish, actually. That’s not the right way to describe it. We have a group of guys that love each other and they love walking in this gym in front of BBN. They love putting out Kentucky jersey on their chest. They love making each other look good. They love cheering for each other. And when you have a group like that it can be really fun. I think our fan base is going to feel that more and more from this team and that’s pretty special.

Hopefully we don’t or never ratcheting up and down. Meaning – you’re right. We have to ratchet up and down to get to the same space every single game. Right? That is way more artistic than scientific. I would love for it to be scientific. I’m not that smart enough – I’m not quite smart enough or that. So yes, we are paying very much attention to the energy we are feeling from our guys and where it is coming from and how it gets there. We are trying to manage our pregame and our walk-through to kind of compensate to where we might be at energy wise to get to the same place every time is really important. We are an energy team. Energy is massively important to us. There were times tonight where we were dealing with loads of frustration actually. We had an onslaught of frustration which was really good for us. And I thought we had some guys deal with it well over time. Eventually we will be able to deal with it quicker. But we had frustrations from the staff and frustration on the floor. The game is going to give you so much frustration. That was really helpful for us tonight. Also, Bucknell’s physicality from minutes 12 to 4 in the second half. Their physicality was tremendous. That is going to be really important for us going forward. To feel that and understand how we respond energy wise to that. We are managing it great and hopefully we will do it well.

According to Jack Pilgram article https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-wildcats/news/everything-mark-pope-said-following-kentuckys-win-over-bucknell/

Tip off is set for 9:00pm Eastern Time from State Farm Arena that is home of the Atlanta Hawks Of NBA!

The game is going to be televised on ESPN with Jay Bilas, Dan Shulman, Jess Sims commentating!

Jay Bilas is a former Duke center who played for former Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski from 1982 -1986 playing 127 games averaging 8.4 points 5.4 rebounds, 0.4 assists before drafted 5th round of 1986 15th pick 108th pick overall in the 1986 NBA Draft. Though, Jay Bilas would never set foot on the hardwood for Dallas because he instead he would play professionally in Italy where he was among the leagues top scores in 1987-1988 seasons before playing professionally in Spain for part of the 1989 season before returning to Duke in 1990 to serve as an assistant coach on Krzyzewski’s staff, while also earning his law degree from Duke Law School. While Bilas was an assistant coach under Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Championship Gem three times, winning back-to-back National Championships in 1991 and 1992.

According to https://espnpressroom.com/us/bios/bilas_jay/