Richards Mixes Hard Work, Relaxed Approach to Break Out
Growing pains have marked the start of Nick Richards’ college career, understandably.
Foul trouble and his adjustment to a new level of competition have kept him mostly quiet through five games, but Richards was awfully loud on Wednesday night.
“Nick’s our big guy, right?” John Calipari said, quite facetiously. “He was pretty good today.”
The 6-foot-11 freshman capitalized on every inch of his size advantage against Fort Wayne, playing his best game as a Wildcat in an 86-67 victory for No. 8/8 Kentucky (5-1). Richards had 25 points and 15 rebounds as UK overcame an early 3-point outburst by the Mastodons (3-2) and won going away.
“It was a good win for me and my team,” Richards said. “We just came out here trying to have a ball, trying to have fun, and I just happened to have 25 and 15.”
Richards is only the third player of the Calipari era to have that many points and rebounds in a game, joining DeMarcus Cousins and Terrence Jones.
After a 10-point performance in his debut, Richards had back-to-back-to-back two-point games and played no more than 13 minutes in any of them. His last time out on Monday, he showed signs of a coming breakout with eight points and eight rebounds against Troy. On Wednesday, the breakout came in a big way as Richards exceeded his point total (24) from his first five games combined.
The presence Richards provided in the post was a driving force behind a dominant rebounding effort, the Cats holding a 44-21 edge on the glass. It was the second straight effort of the kind for UK, coming on the heels of a 53-30 rebounding edge in Monday’s game.
“He was the game tonight,” Fort Wayne head coach Jon Coffman said of Richards. “We couldn’t keep him off the glass.”
Coffman said Fort Wayne came into the game concerned about the shooting of Sacha Killeya-Jones at the five position, but the Mastodons left Rupp Arena having been guests at Richards’ coming-out party. Richards’ teammates, however, weren’t surprised.
“I always knew he was capable of it,” Wenyen Gabriel said. “He works out every day. He’s a worker. He’s in there before practice, after practice. The shots he’s taking here are the same shots you see him making during practice. It was just a matter of getting it from him. His confidence came today. I feel like he had a little pressure applied over the last few games and practice and Nick just pulled through.”
Some of the pressure, though that word doesn’t quite fit, was applied by Bob Rotella, the famed sports psychologist and close friend of Coach Cal. Rotella spent 30 to 45 minutes with Richards this week and, not coincidentally, the conversation took place before the Troy game.
“He’s been watching me play and just said I’ve been playing timid, so he just told me to play a little more confident with a little more swag in my game, and don’t worry about the score, don’t worry about how your stats are looking,” Richards said. “Just go out and have fun.”
To lighten the mood, Rotella also suggested Richards take his mind off the game for just a bit beforehand. Richards followed the advice by checking out the Instagram of his favorite follow, Shiggy.
“We usually get here around two-and-a-half hours before the game, and he told me that could be a lot for somebody,” Richards said. “So, he just told me before the game do not think about basketball. Just don’t think about basketball. Find something else to keep your mind off basketball.”
Even with all the sage advice in the world about playing loose, Richards wouldn’t be able to execute if he weren’t putting in the work.
“This is the game of basketball,” Calipari said. “If you think you’re going to struggle, guess what? You’re struggling. The only way, though, that you can build confidence is working harder than everybody in practice.”
Gabriel said Richards has been doing exactly that of late, often with associate head coach Kenny Payne.
“Me and Kenny Payne have just been developing like hook shots, as you guys could see,” Richards said. “That’s basically my go-to move now. My free throws, my mid-range jumpers, how to read and react certain plays, pick-and-rolls, how to guard pick-and-rolls. That’s basically what we’ve doing. All the late nights, early morning, a lot of hours in the gym. It’s been paying off so far.”
For both Richards and his team.
“That’s the Nick that we know he can be,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We know he can give that to us night and night out. It’s great to have that presence and it makes it easy for us.”
