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Darius Miller Not Listed As A Starter For Penn State

Posted: Nov 17, 2011 2:23 PM by Alan Cutler
Updated: Nov 17, 2011 2:24 PM

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Projected starters and who starts isn't always the same for Cal. But, for now, UK's notes has the same starting five going against Penn State on Saturday.

That means Darius Miller will be coming off the bench for the second game in a row.

"He played well," says Cal. "He did fine. What happened to us in the first half was we were not getting involved. When Doron (Lamb) is at point guard, you're trying to get everyone involved and what Darius did in the second half when they went zone, we put him in the slot and told him to let it fly kid and he took his shots and made them. Now defensively and rebounding, he needs to get those tough balls. Terrence (Jones) and Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist) got in there and got some tough rebounds too. I thought he did well though, he did well."

This is big with Cal. He believes you have to have this if you are going to make a serious run in March.

"I like our will to win, you know the first part of the game we shot all jumpers and I didn't want this to be that way. Most teams are going to do that to us, they want to get physical and not let us run up and down the court. We hope that they foul us, and be physical, which is the game plan against us."

When it comes to Marquis Teague who struggled in the first half against Kansas, Cal has no problem being patient.

"He has done everything a guard I have brought into the (Madison Square) Garden has done. You know it is like all of a sudden you forget about what you have to do for the team and you start to do your own thing. That happened to Derrick (Rose), John (Wall) and you think about Brandon (Knight) early who had eight turnovers against Washington and five against Connecticut. He averaged 13 in two games and so that was early in the season and that is going to happen when you play the way we play and that guy has his hands on the ball a lot."

To Penn State. They are led by Tim Frazier who is part of their three guard offense. He is averaging 20 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists.

"They're good. I mean they have won a bunch of games here. They do a good job at running their offense, as a matter of fact they run some stuff similar to what we are doing. They do a nice little job of throwing stuff at you, and they bring some press at you. We need to really perform to be able to do this. I had no idea how we would play against Kansas. I was right in what I thought and we came out the same way verses Marist. We need to understand that every opponent is a worthy opponent, especially because they are playing us and playing out of their minds."

Anthony Davis leads the Cats in points, rebounds and blocks with 18.5 points, 8 rebounds and 6 blocks a game. As far as teaching the art of blocking shots.

"Well it starts with being long-armed and you can't be a shot blocker by going up before he releases it. Marcus Camby texted me after the game, and I asked if he watched the game. He said ‘I watch every one of your games.' I asked if Anthony (Davis) looked like a young Camby and he laughed and said ‘yeah.' I then joked and said he shoots better though."

With all the complaining Cal does because the calendar says November, he admits that UK is a pretty good defensive team. By March, this could be a great defensive team.

Topics: John Calipari, Kentucky Basketball, Darius Miller, Terrence Jones

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