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Breaking: DeMarcus Cousins Nearly ABANDONED Kentucky Wildcats After Just ONE Practice
The Kentucky Wildcats boasted some of the top collegiate basketball teams during the first 20 years of the twenty-first century. From the acquisition of Anthony Davis in 2012 to the combination of DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall a few seasons earlier, the Cats, guided by John Calipari, had become a force in the recruiting ranks.
But Cousins’ time at Kentucky nearly ended before he could become one of the most dominant big men in the world. In a recent episode of The OGs podcast, Wall went down memory lane and discussed his distaste for the sprints that Coach Calipari made the team perform.
In 20 minutes, we had 20 suicides. We had 28, 30 seconds to complete as guards. The larger guys had 38. His (Cousins’) feet were scorching in the first seven or eight minutes, so he threw off his shoes and went to sit in the corner.
“I ain’t doing this no more,” he is saying as he sits. “If you would have finished, I would have given y’all tomorrow off,” approaches him (John Calipari). You are aware of his lies. Wall recalled that he remarked, “If you can’t finish this, you’ll play now for five, ten, or fifteen minutes, but you’ll never start for me.”
He then positioned him at half court for the remainder of the day, telling him that if he got into trouble and did nothing, he would have to sit there while the other players ran. We then turned to face him and said, “Man, we wanna fight him.”
However, we aren’t battling Boogie one-on-one unless we are all jumping him. So he eventually finished them the following day. He had burning feet. He gave his mother a call. He said something like, “Dude, I’m considering moving.” I want to return home. “I ain’t leaving, Imma figure this out,” I replied.
Two of the top three recruits in their class, Wall and Cousins, both left after their first season. As freshmen, they both scored more over 15 points per game on average.
After falling in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional Final, the team finished second in the AP Poll with a record of 35-3. Even though they were not the champions, the team was extremely successful in starting a new chapter in Kentucky basketball history, and BBN members will never forget it.
