October 2, 2023 • 28 mins
Get to know this season's Kentucky Basketball team with one on on interviews recorded during the team's picture day.
On this episode hear from freshman DJ Wagner and sophomore Ugonna Onyenso and senior Kareem Watkins.
Find out how DJ Wagner deals with the pressure of having a Father and Grandfather play not only in college basketball but also the NBA. Ugonna Onyenso shares how his mindset helps his confidence. And Kareem Watkins shares what DJ is like as brother and tells us what he's learned during his time at Kentucky.
Hosted by two time Nation Champion Cameron Mills.
On this episode hear from freshman DJ Wagner and sophomore Ugonna Onyenso and senior Kareem Watkins.
Find out how DJ Wagner deals with the pressure of having a Father and Grandfather play not only in college basketball but also the NBA. Ugonna Onyenso shares how his mindset helps his confidence. And Kareem Watkins shares what DJ is like as brother and tells us what he's learned during his time at Kentucky.
Hosted by two time Nation Champion Cameron Mills.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to Behind Kentucky Basketball. I'mCameron Mills. A few weeks ago I
had the chance to sit out andhave some conversations with each member of this
coming year's Kentucky basketball team. Ifyou'd like to see video of the podcast,
check out the UK Sports Network socialmedia. We're on Facebook, Instagram,
and x and hopefully this chat willallow you to get to know these
(00:29):
guys a little bit better than youalready do. I truly hope you enjoyed
these conversations. All right, Well, we're here with again yet another phenomenal
freshman of this recruiting class. Itstarted out as five and somehow has grown
to seven in the last few months. DJ, Is there any added pressure
You've got a family, You've gota grandfather that played at Louisville, a
(00:54):
dad that played at Memphis, andthen now you're at Kentucky. Is there
an added pressure coming from that kindof legacy that you put on yourself or
that maybe granddad or dad put onyou. Yeah? Nah, not at
all. You know, they myfamily and my supporters, and they make
sure like I just have fun nomatter what. So they do a great
job helped me with that and noteven looking at it as that, like
(01:15):
people on the outside of me lookat it as yeah, something different.
But to me, I'm just doingsomething I love to do. So I'm
really just having fun. Okay,But you can have fun playing basketball,
right because honestly, the people wholove playing basketball typically are going to be
the best because they do it allthe time. Right, But it isn't
always easy, right, I mean, practice gets hard, especially at this
(01:36):
level. Right, there's a leapbetween high school and college. Has you
has your granddad, your dad theytalked to you about because I mean again,
your dad played for cow so heknows what CAW's like. You now
know because you played for him fora few months. If we throw in
Canada, are you, i mean, are you shocked by anything about making
the leap from high school to college? Is there anything that's surprised you so
(01:59):
far? I wouldn't really say itlike surprise me, but definitely like,
well, in a way, yeah, you I could say surprise me just
like you said, just the workoutsand just the amount of work we gotta
put in, like even being inthe weight room a lot, even more,
just just the smaller things really justto help take our games to the
next level. But my people,like my cultures and like you said,
my family, they help, theyhelped prepare me well for it. Just
(02:22):
and they told you it was definitelyhigh school was for fun. Yeah,
colleges work, right. Yeah,so I kind of I kind of like
expected it already, but it stillsurprised me a little bit bit. I
was able to expect it just fromlistening to them and hearing from them.
All. Right, first time youwere in the weight room, right,
first left? Yeah, you throwup? N come on, come on,
(02:42):
I threw up like my first threetimes in the way right. Well,
we started living in high school,so it's here, right, that's
different a together you obviously you knowyou were ranked one of the one up,
if not the number one overall recruitcoming into the season. Yeah,
you could have gone anywhere in thecountry. Yeah, why here, just
(03:06):
you know, just here. Itfeels like home for me, just coming
on the visits, just hearing howthe atmosphere is. It reminded me a
lot of my high school and alot of being at home. And just
from talking to coach, I knowI could trust him a lot. I
know I could trust in my teammatesa lot. So I feel very at
home here, and I feel likeI'm close for you to the guys like
the incoming freshman class, right,I mean you were, you were fairly
close to some of these guys beforeyou all got to Kentucky. Yeah.
(03:29):
Yeah, we all annoy each otherbefore, just from playing with each other
and against each other. Yeah,we all anew each other pretty well before
coming here. And did that haveany like is that why it felt like
family? Because you knew, allright, guys, we're all going to
Kentucky, We're gonna keep this familytogether kind of thing. Yeah, that
was a factor most definitely. Youknow, I got a brother here as
well. Yeah, that's my brother. So I had a brother here as
(03:51):
well. And just from even talkingto the coaches, the other coaches,
coach Ten, coach Oh, coachbro just from talking to them, it
just felt like at home. Andjust from talking to them, I just
like I was talking to Famine,I was able to be comfortable around them.
Now. I talked to Kareem alreadyand he said, y'all used to
have some knocked down, drag outyeah one one? Yeah, what was
definitely? Yeah, definitely, hesaid, he said, you throw hands.
He wouldn't yeah, yeah, sure, yeah fast. When he was
(04:13):
like younger coming up, you know, he my older brother, so he
you know, I get into myskin and stuff like that. I know
I get under his skin too,But it's just different when you're the younger
siblings. Suits. I used toget mad, throw a tantrum, try
to find him and stuff. Olderbrothers. Sure hold himself back. They
say some legendary one on ones wehad. Did do you ever have any
(04:33):
good one on ones with dad?Uh? We didn't really played like serious,
but we played like a couple oftimes just to just to but we
didn't really played like serious. Yeah. Yeah, we shot. We had
shooting games though. We used toplay I'll play a shooting game against each
other. Yeah, So that's that'swhat I can say. Yeah, you've
obviously got a lot of well howdo I say this, You've got a
(04:55):
lot of pressure on you because you'reyou Okay, I mean all of you
freshmen. I mean, well elsewith this way, you don't come to
Kentucky without that pressure, right,just because you're only gonna come here if
you're good. Then you've got thelegacy, you got the family, and
then I imagine because of how goodyou are DJ. You've put a lot
of pressure on yourself, so you'vegot that, right. I'm gonna assume
(05:17):
you know how to deal with itso far as best you can, and
you'll learn even more as you getolder. But what personal goals do you
have for yourself this year? Andyou and you don't even throw in for
the team, But how do youwant to improve your game over the next
seven eight months? Right? Really? Just mentally? Okay, that's that's
the biggest thing to me. Justbeing the same way mentally, no matter
(05:40):
I have a bad game, Ihave a good game. Just keeping the
same head space because a lot oftime, that's what it is. Just
not getting frustrated with myself. Yes, keeping a positive mindset no matter what,
no matter I make a shot,miss a shot, treated the same
way, no matter what. Whenit comes to team goes, just the
same thing. Yeah, you know, we're gonna face some adversity as players
and as a team, so justpush it through that and they am being
(06:01):
successful as a who. It's funnybecause you all have the Kentucky has an
advantage, is one of your teammatessaid earlier, Correctly, when you play
Kentucky, you get everybody's best game. Everybody wants to beat you, right,
And because everybody wants to beat you, they get up, they get
hyped to play Kentucky. Right.There's a problem there, right, because
(06:23):
if you want an even kill allyear, then somebody's getting up to play
you. Right. The response isall right, we're gonna show them,
right when the reality is you wantto just even kill it all year,
so the same way exactly? Howhard is that? Though? I mean
when because when you're when you're playingKansas, when you're playing Michigan State,
(06:43):
Missigan, when you're playing one ofthe blue Blood's, like like, we
are right, how hard is it? Or let's play Louisville, especially for
you for crying out loud because yourgranddad. When we play Louisville, how
hard is it going to be foryou to say, Okay, we're treating
Louisville the same way we treat youknow whoever, we play an exhibition this
year, how difficult you think that'sgonna be? Uh? I don't think
it's going to really be too difficultfor us, you know, Just like
(07:03):
I said, just having that mindset, we all competitors, like especially in
practice and stuff like that, weall like to go at it like sometimes
the practice you would think were ondifferent teams, But that's just our competitive
nature and that's how we try tomake each the better. So I feel
like just from feeding off each otherand just from being good teammates to each
other, that we could help motivateeach other and help like get each other
(07:25):
excited for them games, even likeone game I might not be feeling like
I might not be ex excited.I feel like one of my teammates one
of my buzzes, they going tellme like, oh, like come on,
like let's go. But I feellike coach is gonna do a great
job as that of that as well. But we all natural competitors, so
I feel like that's just going tobe just from being able to step on
the court. And that's one ofthe best things about a team. Right.
(07:46):
You can have a down game,right Rob, maybe he has his
best game right right? I mean, I mean, I mean, that's
what makes it great. It's okay, And that's what to me, it's
always special about Kentucky is that there'salways so much talent here. Who are
you gonna stop you? Who areyou gonna game playing? To stop this?
Team. And that's not saying wewon't get beat you said it earlier.
I mean we'll have down games,but it's about like, how are
(08:07):
you going to scout this team becausethere's so much talent, But it's because
y'all beat up on each other inpractice, and I don't think that's what
people realize so much so is thatit's a warring practice. Yeah, that's
what I'm saying, so that thatwe played for that adversity. So in
the game, a team might Iain't even saying just losing, Like I
ain't saying we're gonna lose, butI'm saying we're gonna face some a verset
light. Yeah, we might bein the game and a team going to
(08:28):
run and now in their crowd goingcrazy out of away game, they going
to run now we're down. That'sjust a part of the game. So
just practicing for moments like that,just being able to keep the same positive
mindset no matter we up, twentydown, twenty up, one down,
one, just keep fighting no matterwhat because matters in the end. It
end it getting so important, especiallythat the freshman y'all, y'all understand that
(08:50):
because you'll learn it about your sophomorehere, but you to know it now
matters, all right? I gotfive quick quick questions, right, what
do you like to do for fun? And you can't say gaming? I
don't want to hear Xbox PlayStation five? What do you want to do outside
of gaming? I don't even ifyou're into it or not. What's how
does DJ Wagner relax when he wantsto get away from basketball if I ain't
(09:11):
sleeping? Yeah? Fishing? Fishing? Yeah, I like to fish.
So I came out here. Istarted to get into fishing a little bit.
I think I do. I dosay the same thing. Yeah,
that's a lot of people with himKorean? Yeah I do. I love
it, all right, you juststarted since you got here. I fished
before, but not as much,not as much as us other than basketball.
(09:31):
Okay. At one point, nomatter how far you go, your
career is gonna end, right,you know that, all right? So
after that happens, whenever that happens, what do you want to do besides
basketball? What's your life going tobe about? Oh no, I can't
even tell you that. Okay,that's a hard question. It's a it
is hard. Maybe own the businessor something, ok Fair, enough.
(09:52):
Do you want it to be inbasketball at all, even if you're not
playing. I mean, it's dowith sports, okay, athletics, So
okay, all right. I lovethis question because it makes you think about
your teammates. What's what's a skillthat one of your teammates has that you
are so glad they have when youlook at when you look at your team,
like you're thinking, man, I'mso glad we got that dude that
(10:13):
can do that? Right? Whois that? And it may be it
may be more. Obviously it probablyis more than one. But what someone
stands out to you, it gotto be more than one. But yeah,
like Tom, he could shoot realgood. Read too. We got
a couple of people that shoot theball great, so I'm glad about that.
And then we got other players likeRob you know do they can handle
the bar? So it's just everybodygot their own certain skill with special skill
(10:39):
bottom special part of our game andbottom yep. Last question. You've obviously
done so much and what are youreighteen Yeah, what are you the most
proud of so far in your eighteenyears? It can be basketball related,
it can be personal. What areyou most proud of? Uh, I'm
(11:00):
wanna to say, not specific ifprobably high school, maybe like winning the
state championship. Good, not specific, just being able to make my family,
probably being able to get to college. Yeah, that's what I could
say. Good yew DJ, Thankyou man, Thank you for being here.
Appreciate appreciate it. Actually you don'tknow this if you're one of my
favorite players from last year, reallyfor one reason, because and this and
(11:20):
this may embarrass you, and Idon't want to embarrass you, but but
I want to I want to remindyou of a story that I was told
about you at the very beginning oflast year that I loved, and that
was apparently you were questioning, andI'm talking at very beginning season for the
Blue White game, you were questioningwhether or not you were good enough to
play here. Do you remember that? Remember that? Did you? Is
(11:41):
that really how you felt? Didyou feel like you just have the talent?
You didn't? What was that?I mean, I was in my
own head, you know, Yeah, I'm not, I know, I'm
really good. Yeah. Well it'sjust me, you know, thinking really
hard about the whole thing. ItWhat was it getting here? And all
of a sudden you're seeing your teammates and like you're like, oh man,
these guys are better than me.I mean, I'm not going to
(12:03):
say there, but I mean Ifeel like everybody dies playing like Kentucky is
really good. Yeah, I meancoach to you know, recruit you,
for him to, you know,bring you here. There's a reason for
that. Yeah. So if youplaying in Kentucky, I think you're pretty
good. So it's just me beingin my own head. Yeah, you
know the pace, you know howthey're playing here. You know. I
(12:24):
had to get used to that.Yeah, so that was the reason.
Well, I love the story becausefrom what I was told, you went
to the coaches. The coaches didwhat coaches should do, which was convince
you, dude, just what yousaid. You wouldn't be here if you
weren't good enough. And then,if you recall, the next day was
the Blue White game, you hadlike seven blocks and ten rebounds. Really,
(12:45):
yeah, but what do you mean, really? You don't you don't
remember your shats? No, it'sprobably good. It's probably good enough to
think about your stats. But Ijust love that story because I played here
wasn't good enough play. I reallywasn't as a walk on, but I
always had that doubt and I lovethe idea that you had that doubt with
all your talent, with as tallas you are, with the with the
ability you have to block shots anddominate games, and you struggled with doubt.
(13:09):
And so I feel like a lotof fans need to know that it's
not just you. It's a lotof these guys. Look y'all come in
with all the confidence in the world, but it's easy to get up there
on the court and see some ofthe talent and like you said, just
be in your head and start todoubt yourself. So other than the coaches
convincing you, what did you haveto do mentally to tell yourself that no,
(13:31):
no, no, I belong here. I just have to talk to
myself. So couse, God toldme your best Chelity does yourself. Yeah,
if you'll wake up on like it'sgoing to be a bad day today,
actually gonna be a bad day foryou. Yeah, But if you'll
tell yourself that you're going to haveyour grid there today. You know the
(13:52):
kind of person you are, Youknow the kind of things you can do.
If you think positive, you're goingto get a positive response. Yeah.
So they coaches can talk to mewhenever I then wants to like however
it wants to do. Yeah,but it up comes down to me.
Yeah, they can tell me.I mean I'm a great player. Yeah,
(14:13):
I'm good. I can do this. But if I don't believe in
myself, nothing's gonna happen. I'mkeeping myself on bent successful. So great
going from your freshman year to thisyear, because what I tell everybody all
the time is is that the biggestleaps that players make is from their freshman
(14:35):
to their sophomore year during the summer, right, because number one, you
know how to play here now,I mean, you know what a season
looks like. You know what thestretches like, the forty games you're gonna
play, you know how many oftenyou're gonna play. Then you got class,
you got to study all you gotall that stuff. You're used to.
The grind. Yeah, now yougot a summer with that the past,
and you know exactly what you gottawork on. So this summer,
(14:58):
what was in your mind for you? What was it you wanted to get
better at? Getting off my head? Just mentally, get what I mean,
I mean, nothing specifically related tobasketball, just being mentally being stronger.
Yes, so I feel like Icould do ever I can do,
Like I can't play basketball. Yeah, I'm a pretty good basketball player.
Yeah, so he she has gettingoff my head. Do you do you
(15:20):
still struggle with that doubt? No? Not as much? Good? No
good. So well, when wetalked about all this, I want to
talk about your confidence, but youtalk about let's let's talk about your mom.
You mentioned your mom in the littlemedia guide thing about it and how
much of an influence she is onyou. Why is your mom such an
(15:41):
influence, because moms are influences anyway, right you You don't have any of
your teammates talked about their moms,but you're just kind of stood out because
I'm assuming she's still She's still Nigeria. So let's talk about that first.
How hard is that for you tohave someone that you're so close to.
I know you left it like fourteenright home, but how often do you
get to see her talk to her? I mean I get to cuss off,
(16:03):
you know how my schedule is.Yeah, I only get to talk
to her on the weekends. Okay, my Sundays only, that's when I
got to talk to her because atthe time. Difference to right, they're
like five hours ahead. Okay,so when I'm done with classes and practice,
yeah, she should be sleeping.Okay. So when that's the only
time I got to talk to herwas on Sundays. Yeah, she's always
at home on Sundays. Yeah,that's the only time I got to talk
(16:26):
to her. When you and yourmom talk, what do y'all talk about?
You just tell her about your day. You tell her about what's going
on. Did she get to watchyou play? Did she get to watch
the games? No? Really?Noah? Can you I mean, is
there any way, like can yousend her a game? I mean,
yeah, so I can send thata couple of games, you know,
I send that because she she alwayslike, you know, I didn't pictures,
I didn't videos. Yeah, Sis, I don't blame her. I
(16:47):
would. I would want them toI know, like I send out pictures
of videos every time. She wouldbe like, that is that all?
I'm like, yeah, mom,that's all. I would be like,
yeah, that's all. So howmuch do you think or do you feel?
And I know, I know youdon't know because you got a bunch
of talent to teammates, right,so, but you've again, you've had
(17:07):
that that that that summer as afreshman now as a sophomore. So how
much do you think your role isgonna change on this year's team. You
obviously you had Canada, right,which which I don't You didn't get to
play much, but you've got you'vehad those days of practice, right,
you know, and you all gotwhat's going on now, which whether it's
(17:29):
pickup games or you know, justindividual stuff. So as you look at
your team now, right, andyou're you're not for classman at this point,
I mean you're almost like a senioreven though you're only a sophomore.
So what do you look at asfar as like what is your contribution going
to be to this year's team?I'm always gonna say, well, I
always say, you know, doingthe thing that's gonna make you stay in
the game, which is what foryou block and shots? Yeah, grabbing
(17:52):
a rebounds in the floor. I'deven add this too, because as great
as shot blocker as you are,you're a shot changer, you don't you
don't have to block a shot tobe effective in that low post. You
just got to be an intimidator andas many blocks as you get, Hey,
look, if I'm driving down thelane, and I know you're back
there. I'm thinking twice before Idrive into that lane. Rember. It
(18:14):
then is you can bet tall Istill in the block shot. That's true,
Yeah you can, but you've gotthe ability to do that. So
but what I'm saying is, evenif you don't get your fingertips on a
ball, I'm gonna have to changemy shot to get it around you.
Yeah, And that's that. Nobodygives that much thought until you're in my
position and you're like, all right, well I got past my man,
which I never got past my mananyway, but I got past my man.
(18:37):
I gotta deal with this guy,right. That's that's tough for a
guard to think about all the time. So if we were to go through,
well, I'll just ask it thisway. Of all the people other
than your mother, right, whichclearly is one of the most important people
in your life, in biggest influenceyour life, who would be another basketball
player? Professional college? Like,who do you look up to? Who
(18:59):
do you maybe want to had inyour game after I mean I used to
say this before, but I stopped, you know, talking about him,
because I'm like, you know,you can be as good as him.
Yeah, But you just got tobe you. I'm play like you.
Yeah, but I you know Ilove Jannis. Yeah, not just because
of basketball, yeah, you know, because I really looked into him,
(19:22):
you know, when he was growingup. Yeah. The things he went
through, Yeah, it was similarto mine. Okay, So I'm like,
if someone like this can get tothis level, yeah, why kind
Yeah, but you don't you don'ttell people that much anymore. No,
I don't why. I just wantto be me. Okay, all right,
but but you Okay, you maynot have the same game as him,
but yet you can still you canstill have him as a role model,
(19:45):
especially considering he went through a lotof things and things. So give
me an example of something that youhad to go through. I mean,
it's difficult in your path to getinto Kentucky. I mean obviously you came
from another country, right, Sowhat was that in and of itself hard
or were there a lot of thingsalong the way that made it difficult for
you to leave your home at fourteen? All of a sudden, he playing
(20:07):
professional basketball even though you weren't,right you were playing in leagues in Africa,
I presumably, But what was thehardest about that? Because I can't
even imagine leaving home at fourteen.I mean, it was pretty difficult for
me when I first left home,Like the first year, Yeah was difficult
for me because I agree up likeI never left my mom, yeah,
like she was all by my side. Yeah. So my first year,
(20:30):
I like idea caught in me.Yeah, it was pretty tough for me.
Like you go to a town whereI was like, I don't want
to do this no more. Sure, I want to go home. Yeah,
So I called my mom like Iwant to come home. I don't
want to do this no more.She told me, like she's like,
you have your reason for leaving,Like you playing basketball for the reason if
(20:57):
you can make it at this level. Yeah, if you can leave home
at this level to play basketball,there's a reason for that. Yeah.
So just remember that and keep pushing. What you've looked at this team And
I know this sounds like an obviousquestion, but what's your owst goal this
(21:18):
year? What is this team's goalthis year? This team's go like,
we need to play together, okay, and how is that going? So
far? Great? It's amazing.You know, everybody's going to keep talking
about, oh, we want toget championship championship, championship. Lets that
the team is gonna get a championship. But if you don't play together,
(21:41):
you know, we didn't know achampion. That's exactly right. So how
is it you all are able toplay together so well so quickly? And
that would be my last question.The thing is we got each other like
we got against the other real howthat practice? Yeah, we talk about
like we talked to like we talkedto each other. Yeah, like we
cause our each other doing practice.But after practice, how we've like how
(22:03):
we you know, bund after practice, like how we'll talk to each other.
Yeah, like we competition competition duringpractice, but after that we about
like we frist again, like we'retalking to each other, like we're doing
fun things. Yeah. So beingable to do that, I mean,
it's like you like, we like, we like together. It's one of
the best things about being a partof a team is that you're gonna go
(22:26):
at each other in practice. You'regonna hate each other and practice because you're
competing for playing time. But themoment practice is over, that's my brother.
Yeah, and that's what makes greatteams. Goanna, thanks for joining
us, appreciate it. Thank youall. Right, all right, So
we got about I don't know,maybe two or three questions about basketball,
maybe one or two, and thenwe'll do some like fun personal questions I
(22:48):
need. Yeah, yeah, wellthat man, I keep forgetting to telebrate
to do that. All right,all right, we're with Cream Watkins.
Cream, this is how many yearsyou've been here? Now it's my fourth
year, fourth year upperclassman, seniorstatesman. You're the leader now something like
that. I mean you are.I mean, look what we can talk
about playing time while you want atthe same time, you know what to
(23:10):
expect. And we got eight guyson this team near as I've counted,
they haven't been through what you've beenthrough. So what do you want them
to know? Let's take those whatwe got seven freshmen and then one transfer
in trade. What do you wantthem? What does Kareem Watkins want to
make sure they understand about playing atKentucky. I mean it's fun, you
just have fun with you in thecourt. But yeah, at the end
(23:30):
of the day, when you cometo Kentucky, it's like as I'm not
gonna say expectation, but like everybody, you have your high your held to
a higher standard. So like,yeah, you gotta win, try to
win as many games as possible,and then just listen to the coaches.
Was that a big adjustment for youas a freshman when you first got here?
It's word? What its far asfar as that level of expectation that
we have at Kentucky, It's like, wait a minute, this isn't like
(23:51):
we're not happy with a elite eightyear right, We're happy with the national
championship. Whether that's the fans,whether that's coach, how whether you put
that pressure on yourself. How isthat adjustment for you? I mean,
I've been a Kentucky fan, likeas far as I knew about college basketball,
so I knew what the expectation wasfor like being a Kentucky but actually
being here and experiences is it's awhole nother level. Why were you a
(24:11):
Kentucky fan? What what drew youto Kentucky in the first My stepdad played
for Kyle Yeah, you know,just when he was coaching did play here
for exactly right? He told melike stories about Kyle and how are your
coaches and stuff like that, howgreat of a coach he is. So
he came to Kentucky. I justwhat was it about what your dad told
you about playing for Kyle. Whenhe told you those stories, do you
remember like one in particular or somethingthat was, like, man, I'd
(24:33):
love to play for that guy.I don't know nothing in particular, but
he just told me how hard ofa coach he was. Yeah, how
and that appealed to you? Yeah, yeah, of course, because I
mean my stepdad was hard on thisman. Dare growing up playing basketball,
So I mean he told me aboutKyle's history and him winning and from different
organizations. So I like that aboutKyle, did you in DJ? I
mean, y'all, y'all you grewup together right right? Are y'all y'all
(24:55):
have a sibling rivalry going on?Or y'all love each other? We love
each other, but but you stilldon't know. Yeah, growing up,
I wonder one who used to fight? Yeah? Yeah, I mean he
should go one on one and youbreak out like we throw fist. Yeah
I ain't throw fist. He did, but I beat up a little bit
because I don't want to heard.You know, I'm saying what it is,
and I'm gonna ask him the samequestion about you. But what is
the best thing about DJ Wicker?Everything? He's everything about him. He's
(25:15):
humble, he works hard, hewanted to see everybody win, teammates on
and off the court. He justlook kid. So, last basketball question,
how hard you been for you tobe here and be a reserve player.
It's the same role I played formuch of my career, and it
wasn't hard for me because I didn'thave much expectation for playing and I did
and that was fine. But whatwas your expectation for I mean, now
(25:37):
I'm playing on my life. Itwas a little hard and not planning,
but yeah, after I met myteammates each and every year, the chemistry,
you just I don't really care aboutit that much. I've asked everybody
else's question, but I'm ask youtoo. Why does this team? And
I almost don't want to make thatbig deal about it because I feel like
I feel like I'm setting you guysup for failure. But I keep hearing
it from every single player. Youguys are just close, right? Why
(26:00):
how can you have eight brand newplayers, seven freshmen, one graduate,
grad senior and be that close already? Right? I mean everything I didn't
even started, ye, i't evenhad a real practice. You had in
the summer, right, I meanevery year the team chemistry is is just
there, I guess, but thisyear, I don't know. I just
I think everybody, most of theguys know each other, Yeah, coming
up from high school and yeah,just doing fun activities and stuff like that
(26:22):
together. It just builds the chemistryand everybody competitive. So when you're playing
against each other, yeah, thecompetitive level off the court, it brings
us closer. That makes sense.So I'm ask you a couple of just
fun personal questions. So what's thewhat's your favorite place you've ever traveled to?
Brazil? Brazil? Okay, allright? What's your walk up?
Music? And madness? When you'reintroduced? Right, I don't know if
(26:44):
they're gonna play this year. Yeah, yeah, like like what what what?
What do you want playing in thebackground when they introduce screen walk I'm
gonna bring out one of my unclesongs. I'm not sure yet, but
we're gonna see. It's gonna seeat think of the madness love it other
than basketball. All right, Let'ssay you don't have a professional career.
We all have to it at somepoint, whether we get it or not.
What do you want to do?What is your life going to be
anything in sports, whether it isI don't know, communicat Asian, Uh,
(27:08):
communicating or connecting people. Yeah,entrepreneurship. I don't know you,
but for sure, what are youmost proud of? As far as any
I mean you you were what twentytwo twenty one, you're twenty one years
old? What is the thing youwere the most proud of in your life?
It can be basketball related, itcan be something different. I don't
know, that's a hard question.Well I don't ask easy ones. Just
(27:30):
uh, I don't know. Justbeing successful coming to college. Yeah,
seeing my brother, Yeah, seeingI'm transferred to college. Just just that
right there? Just growing up?Uh? When when in to play for
an organization like Kentucky and you've beenhere, who my brother? Have you
talked you talked to DJ about likeand I know we've kind of already alluded
this, but like, all right, dude, now this is what's gonna
be like, right, because Ipresume your dad told him so, he
(27:52):
told you right so, But nowyou've been here for four years and he's
coming, He's making that leap fromit's a game now it's work exactly.
I mean, yeah, I talkedto him about it. Before even before
he came here. But he alreadyknows, like yeah, uh, you
know, his dad played, andhe just knows the expectations and you gotta
listen and be ready and be focused. Awesome, Perfect Cream, thanks for
joining us. Apprecipciate it M appreciation
Welcome to Behind Kentucky Basketball. I'mCameron Mills. A few weeks ago I
had the chance to sit out andhave some conversations with each member of this
coming year's Kentucky basketball team. Ifyou'd like to see video of the podcast,
check out the UK Sports Network socialmedia. We're on Facebook, Instagram,
and x and hopefully this chat willallow you to get to know these
(00:29):
guys a little bit better than youalready do. I truly hope you enjoyed
these conversations. All right, Well, we're here with again yet another phenomenal
freshman of this recruiting class. Itstarted out as five and somehow has grown
to seven in the last few months. DJ, Is there any added pressure
You've got a family, You've gota grandfather that played at Louisville, a
(00:54):
dad that played at Memphis, andthen now you're at Kentucky. Is there
an added pressure coming from that kindof legacy that you put on yourself or
that maybe granddad or dad put onyou. Yeah? Nah, not at
all. You know, they myfamily and my supporters, and they make
sure like I just have fun nomatter what. So they do a great
job helped me with that and noteven looking at it as that, like
(01:15):
people on the outside of me lookat it as yeah, something different.
But to me, I'm just doingsomething I love to do. So I'm
really just having fun. Okay,But you can have fun playing basketball,
right because honestly, the people wholove playing basketball typically are going to be
the best because they do it allthe time. Right, But it isn't
always easy, right, I mean, practice gets hard, especially at this
(01:36):
level. Right, there's a leapbetween high school and college. Has you
has your granddad, your dad theytalked to you about because I mean again,
your dad played for cow so heknows what CAW's like. You now
know because you played for him fora few months. If we throw in
Canada, are you, i mean, are you shocked by anything about making
the leap from high school to college? Is there anything that's surprised you so
(01:59):
far? I wouldn't really say itlike surprise me, but definitely like,
well, in a way, yeah, you I could say surprise me just
like you said, just the workoutsand just the amount of work we gotta
put in, like even being inthe weight room a lot, even more,
just just the smaller things really justto help take our games to the
next level. But my people,like my cultures and like you said,
my family, they help, theyhelped prepare me well for it. Just
(02:22):
and they told you it was definitelyhigh school was for fun. Yeah,
colleges work, right. Yeah,so I kind of I kind of like
expected it already, but it stillsurprised me a little bit bit. I
was able to expect it just fromlistening to them and hearing from them.
All. Right, first time youwere in the weight room, right,
first left? Yeah, you throwup? N come on, come on,
(02:42):
I threw up like my first threetimes in the way right. Well,
we started living in high school,so it's here, right, that's
different a together you obviously you knowyou were ranked one of the one up,
if not the number one overall recruitcoming into the season. Yeah,
you could have gone anywhere in thecountry. Yeah, why here, just
(03:06):
you know, just here. Itfeels like home for me, just coming
on the visits, just hearing howthe atmosphere is. It reminded me a
lot of my high school and alot of being at home. And just
from talking to coach, I knowI could trust him a lot. I
know I could trust in my teammatesa lot. So I feel very at
home here, and I feel likeI'm close for you to the guys like
the incoming freshman class, right,I mean you were, you were fairly
close to some of these guys beforeyou all got to Kentucky. Yeah.
(03:29):
Yeah, we all annoy each otherbefore, just from playing with each other
and against each other. Yeah,we all anew each other pretty well before
coming here. And did that haveany like is that why it felt like
family? Because you knew, allright, guys, we're all going to
Kentucky, We're gonna keep this familytogether kind of thing. Yeah, that
was a factor most definitely. Youknow, I got a brother here as
well. Yeah, that's my brother. So I had a brother here as
(03:51):
well. And just from even talkingto the coaches, the other coaches,
coach Ten, coach Oh, coachbro just from talking to them, it
just felt like at home. Andjust from talking to them, I just
like I was talking to Famine,I was able to be comfortable around them.
Now. I talked to Kareem alreadyand he said, y'all used to
have some knocked down, drag outyeah one one? Yeah, what was
definitely? Yeah, definitely, hesaid, he said, you throw hands.
He wouldn't yeah, yeah, sure, yeah fast. When he was
(04:13):
like younger coming up, you know, he my older brother, so he
you know, I get into myskin and stuff like that. I know
I get under his skin too,But it's just different when you're the younger
siblings. Suits. I used toget mad, throw a tantrum, try
to find him and stuff. Olderbrothers. Sure hold himself back. They
say some legendary one on ones wehad. Did do you ever have any
(04:33):
good one on ones with dad?Uh? We didn't really played like serious,
but we played like a couple oftimes just to just to but we
didn't really played like serious. Yeah. Yeah, we shot. We had
shooting games though. We used toplay I'll play a shooting game against each
other. Yeah, So that's that'swhat I can say. Yeah, you've
obviously got a lot of well howdo I say this, You've got a
(04:55):
lot of pressure on you because you'reyou Okay, I mean all of you
freshmen. I mean, well elsewith this way, you don't come to
Kentucky without that pressure, right,just because you're only gonna come here if
you're good. Then you've got thelegacy, you got the family, and
then I imagine because of how goodyou are DJ. You've put a lot
of pressure on yourself, so you'vegot that, right. I'm gonna assume
(05:17):
you know how to deal with itso far as best you can, and
you'll learn even more as you getolder. But what personal goals do you
have for yourself this year? Andyou and you don't even throw in for
the team, But how do youwant to improve your game over the next
seven eight months? Right? Really? Just mentally? Okay, that's that's
the biggest thing to me. Justbeing the same way mentally, no matter
(05:40):
I have a bad game, Ihave a good game. Just keeping the
same head space because a lot oftime, that's what it is. Just
not getting frustrated with myself. Yes, keeping a positive mindset no matter what,
no matter I make a shot,miss a shot, treated the same
way, no matter what. Whenit comes to team goes, just the
same thing. Yeah, you know, we're gonna face some adversity as players
and as a team, so justpush it through that and they am being
(06:01):
successful as a who. It's funnybecause you all have the Kentucky has an
advantage, is one of your teammatessaid earlier, Correctly, when you play
Kentucky, you get everybody's best game. Everybody wants to beat you, right,
And because everybody wants to beat you, they get up, they get
hyped to play Kentucky. Right.There's a problem there, right, because
(06:23):
if you want an even kill allyear, then somebody's getting up to play
you. Right. The response isall right, we're gonna show them,
right when the reality is you wantto just even kill it all year,
so the same way exactly? Howhard is that? Though? I mean
when because when you're when you're playingKansas, when you're playing Michigan State,
(06:43):
Missigan, when you're playing one ofthe blue Blood's, like like, we
are right, how hard is it? Or let's play Louisville, especially for
you for crying out loud because yourgranddad. When we play Louisville, how
hard is it going to be foryou to say, Okay, we're treating
Louisville the same way we treat youknow whoever, we play an exhibition this
year, how difficult you think that'sgonna be? Uh? I don't think
it's going to really be too difficultfor us, you know, Just like
(07:03):
I said, just having that mindset, we all competitors, like especially in
practice and stuff like that, weall like to go at it like sometimes
the practice you would think were ondifferent teams, But that's just our competitive
nature and that's how we try tomake each the better. So I feel
like just from feeding off each otherand just from being good teammates to each
other, that we could help motivateeach other and help like get each other
(07:25):
excited for them games, even likeone game I might not be feeling like
I might not be ex excited.I feel like one of my teammates one
of my buzzes, they going tellme like, oh, like come on,
like let's go. But I feellike coach is gonna do a great
job as that of that as well. But we all natural competitors, so
I feel like that's just going tobe just from being able to step on
the court. And that's one ofthe best things about a team. Right.
(07:46):
You can have a down game,right Rob, maybe he has his
best game right right? I mean, I mean, I mean, that's
what makes it great. It's okay, And that's what to me, it's
always special about Kentucky is that there'salways so much talent here. Who are
you gonna stop you? Who areyou gonna game playing? To stop this?
Team. And that's not saying wewon't get beat you said it earlier.
I mean we'll have down games,but it's about like, how are
(08:07):
you going to scout this team becausethere's so much talent, But it's because
y'all beat up on each other inpractice, and I don't think that's what
people realize so much so is thatit's a warring practice. Yeah, that's
what I'm saying, so that thatwe played for that adversity. So in
the game, a team might Iain't even saying just losing, Like I
ain't saying we're gonna lose, butI'm saying we're gonna face some a verset
light. Yeah, we might bein the game and a team going to
(08:28):
run and now in their crowd goingcrazy out of away game, they going
to run now we're down. That'sjust a part of the game. So
just practicing for moments like that,just being able to keep the same positive
mindset no matter we up, twentydown, twenty up, one down,
one, just keep fighting no matterwhat because matters in the end. It
end it getting so important, especiallythat the freshman y'all, y'all understand that
(08:50):
because you'll learn it about your sophomorehere, but you to know it now
matters, all right? I gotfive quick quick questions, right, what
do you like to do for fun? And you can't say gaming? I
don't want to hear Xbox PlayStation five? What do you want to do outside
of gaming? I don't even ifyou're into it or not. What's how
does DJ Wagner relax when he wantsto get away from basketball if I ain't
(09:11):
sleeping? Yeah? Fishing? Fishing? Yeah, I like to fish.
So I came out here. Istarted to get into fishing a little bit.
I think I do. I dosay the same thing. Yeah,
that's a lot of people with himKorean? Yeah I do. I love
it, all right, you juststarted since you got here. I fished
before, but not as much,not as much as us other than basketball.
(09:31):
Okay. At one point, nomatter how far you go, your
career is gonna end, right,you know that, all right? So
after that happens, whenever that happens, what do you want to do besides
basketball? What's your life going tobe about? Oh no, I can't
even tell you that. Okay,that's a hard question. It's a it
is hard. Maybe own the businessor something, ok Fair, enough.
(09:52):
Do you want it to be inbasketball at all, even if you're not
playing. I mean, it's dowith sports, okay, athletics, So
okay, all right. I lovethis question because it makes you think about
your teammates. What's what's a skillthat one of your teammates has that you
are so glad they have when youlook at when you look at your team,
like you're thinking, man, I'mso glad we got that dude that
(10:13):
can do that? Right? Whois that? And it may be it
may be more. Obviously it probablyis more than one. But what someone
stands out to you, it gotto be more than one. But yeah,
like Tom, he could shoot realgood. Read too. We got
a couple of people that shoot theball great, so I'm glad about that.
And then we got other players likeRob you know do they can handle
the bar? So it's just everybodygot their own certain skill with special skill
(10:39):
bottom special part of our game andbottom yep. Last question. You've obviously
done so much and what are youreighteen Yeah, what are you the most
proud of so far in your eighteenyears? It can be basketball related,
it can be personal. What areyou most proud of? Uh, I'm
(11:00):
wanna to say, not specific ifprobably high school, maybe like winning the
state championship. Good, not specific, just being able to make my family,
probably being able to get to college. Yeah, that's what I could
say. Good yew DJ, Thankyou man, Thank you for being here.
Appreciate appreciate it. Actually you don'tknow this if you're one of my
favorite players from last year, reallyfor one reason, because and this and
(11:20):
this may embarrass you, and Idon't want to embarrass you, but but
I want to I want to remindyou of a story that I was told
about you at the very beginning oflast year that I loved, and that
was apparently you were questioning, andI'm talking at very beginning season for the
Blue White game, you were questioningwhether or not you were good enough to
play here. Do you remember that? Remember that? Did you? Is
(11:41):
that really how you felt? Didyou feel like you just have the talent?
You didn't? What was that?I mean, I was in my
own head, you know, Yeah, I'm not, I know, I'm
really good. Yeah. Well it'sjust me, you know, thinking really
hard about the whole thing. ItWhat was it getting here? And all
of a sudden you're seeing your teammates and like you're like, oh man,
these guys are better than me.I mean, I'm not going to
(12:03):
say there, but I mean Ifeel like everybody dies playing like Kentucky is
really good. Yeah, I meancoach to you know, recruit you,
for him to, you know,bring you here. There's a reason for
that. Yeah. So if youplaying in Kentucky, I think you're pretty
good. So it's just me beingin my own head. Yeah, you
know the pace, you know howthey're playing here. You know. I
(12:24):
had to get used to that.Yeah, so that was the reason.
Well, I love the story becausefrom what I was told, you went
to the coaches. The coaches didwhat coaches should do, which was convince
you, dude, just what yousaid. You wouldn't be here if you
weren't good enough. And then,if you recall, the next day was
the Blue White game, you hadlike seven blocks and ten rebounds. Really,
(12:45):
yeah, but what do you mean, really? You don't you don't
remember your shats? No, it'sprobably good. It's probably good enough to
think about your stats. But Ijust love that story because I played here
wasn't good enough play. I reallywasn't as a walk on, but I
always had that doubt and I lovethe idea that you had that doubt with
all your talent, with as tallas you are, with the with the
ability you have to block shots anddominate games, and you struggled with doubt.
(13:09):
And so I feel like a lotof fans need to know that it's
not just you. It's a lotof these guys. Look y'all come in
with all the confidence in the world, but it's easy to get up there
on the court and see some ofthe talent and like you said, just
be in your head and start todoubt yourself. So other than the coaches
convincing you, what did you haveto do mentally to tell yourself that no,
(13:31):
no, no, I belong here. I just have to talk to
myself. So couse, God toldme your best Chelity does yourself. Yeah,
if you'll wake up on like it'sgoing to be a bad day today,
actually gonna be a bad day foryou. Yeah, But if you'll
tell yourself that you're going to haveyour grid there today. You know the
(13:52):
kind of person you are, Youknow the kind of things you can do.
If you think positive, you're goingto get a positive response. Yeah.
So they coaches can talk to mewhenever I then wants to like however
it wants to do. Yeah,but it up comes down to me.
Yeah, they can tell me.I mean I'm a great player. Yeah,
(14:13):
I'm good. I can do this. But if I don't believe in
myself, nothing's gonna happen. I'mkeeping myself on bent successful. So great
going from your freshman year to thisyear, because what I tell everybody all
the time is is that the biggestleaps that players make is from their freshman
(14:35):
to their sophomore year during the summer, right, because number one, you
know how to play here now,I mean, you know what a season
looks like. You know what thestretches like, the forty games you're gonna
play, you know how many oftenyou're gonna play. Then you got class,
you got to study all you gotall that stuff. You're used to.
The grind. Yeah, now yougot a summer with that the past,
and you know exactly what you gottawork on. So this summer,
(14:58):
what was in your mind for you? What was it you wanted to get
better at? Getting off my head? Just mentally, get what I mean,
I mean, nothing specifically related tobasketball, just being mentally being stronger.
Yes, so I feel like Icould do ever I can do,
Like I can't play basketball. Yeah, I'm a pretty good basketball player.
Yeah, so he she has gettingoff my head. Do you do you
(15:20):
still struggle with that doubt? No? Not as much? Good? No
good. So well, when wetalked about all this, I want to
talk about your confidence, but youtalk about let's let's talk about your mom.
You mentioned your mom in the littlemedia guide thing about it and how
much of an influence she is onyou. Why is your mom such an
(15:41):
influence, because moms are influences anyway, right you You don't have any of
your teammates talked about their moms,but you're just kind of stood out because
I'm assuming she's still She's still Nigeria. So let's talk about that first.
How hard is that for you tohave someone that you're so close to.
I know you left it like fourteenright home, but how often do you
get to see her talk to her? I mean I get to cuss off,
(16:03):
you know how my schedule is.Yeah, I only get to talk
to her on the weekends. Okay, my Sundays only, that's when I
got to talk to her because atthe time. Difference to right, they're
like five hours ahead. Okay,so when I'm done with classes and practice,
yeah, she should be sleeping.Okay. So when that's the only
time I got to talk to herwas on Sundays. Yeah, she's always
at home on Sundays. Yeah,that's the only time I got to talk
(16:26):
to her. When you and yourmom talk, what do y'all talk about?
You just tell her about your day. You tell her about what's going
on. Did she get to watchyou play? Did she get to watch
the games? No? Really?Noah? Can you I mean, is
there any way, like can yousend her a game? I mean,
yeah, so I can send thata couple of games, you know,
I send that because she she alwayslike, you know, I didn't pictures,
I didn't videos. Yeah, Sis, I don't blame her. I
(16:47):
would. I would want them toI know, like I send out pictures
of videos every time. She wouldbe like, that is that all?
I'm like, yeah, mom,that's all. I would be like,
yeah, that's all. So howmuch do you think or do you feel?
And I know, I know youdon't know because you got a bunch
of talent to teammates, right,so, but you've again, you've had
(17:07):
that that that that summer as afreshman now as a sophomore. So how
much do you think your role isgonna change on this year's team. You
obviously you had Canada, right,which which I don't You didn't get to
play much, but you've got you'vehad those days of practice, right,
you know, and you all gotwhat's going on now, which whether it's
(17:29):
pickup games or you know, justindividual stuff. So as you look at
your team now, right, andyou're you're not for classman at this point,
I mean you're almost like a senioreven though you're only a sophomore.
So what do you look at asfar as like what is your contribution going
to be to this year's team?I'm always gonna say, well, I
always say, you know, doingthe thing that's gonna make you stay in
the game, which is what foryou block and shots? Yeah, grabbing
(17:52):
a rebounds in the floor. I'deven add this too, because as great
as shot blocker as you are,you're a shot changer, you don't you
don't have to block a shot tobe effective in that low post. You
just got to be an intimidator andas many blocks as you get, Hey,
look, if I'm driving down thelane, and I know you're back
there. I'm thinking twice before Idrive into that lane. Rember. It
(18:14):
then is you can bet tall Istill in the block shot. That's true,
Yeah you can, but you've gotthe ability to do that. So
but what I'm saying is, evenif you don't get your fingertips on a
ball, I'm gonna have to changemy shot to get it around you.
Yeah, And that's that. Nobodygives that much thought until you're in my
position and you're like, all right, well I got past my man,
which I never got past my mananyway, but I got past my man.
(18:37):
I gotta deal with this guy,right. That's that's tough for a
guard to think about all the time. So if we were to go through,
well, I'll just ask it thisway. Of all the people other
than your mother, right, whichclearly is one of the most important people
in your life, in biggest influenceyour life, who would be another basketball
player? Professional college? Like,who do you look up to? Who
(18:59):
do you maybe want to had inyour game after I mean I used to
say this before, but I stopped, you know, talking about him,
because I'm like, you know,you can be as good as him.
Yeah, But you just got tobe you. I'm play like you.
Yeah, but I you know Ilove Jannis. Yeah, not just because
of basketball, yeah, you know, because I really looked into him,
(19:22):
you know, when he was growingup. Yeah. The things he went
through, Yeah, it was similarto mine. Okay, So I'm like,
if someone like this can get tothis level, yeah, why kind
Yeah, but you don't you don'ttell people that much anymore. No,
I don't why. I just wantto be me. Okay, all right,
but but you Okay, you maynot have the same game as him,
but yet you can still you canstill have him as a role model,
(19:45):
especially considering he went through a lotof things and things. So give
me an example of something that youhad to go through. I mean,
it's difficult in your path to getinto Kentucky. I mean obviously you came
from another country, right, Sowhat was that in and of itself hard
or were there a lot of thingsalong the way that made it difficult for
you to leave your home at fourteen? All of a sudden, he playing
(20:07):
professional basketball even though you weren't,right you were playing in leagues in Africa,
I presumably, But what was thehardest about that? Because I can't
even imagine leaving home at fourteen.I mean, it was pretty difficult for
me when I first left home,Like the first year, Yeah was difficult
for me because I agree up likeI never left my mom, yeah,
like she was all by my side. Yeah. So my first year,
(20:30):
I like idea caught in me.Yeah, it was pretty tough for me.
Like you go to a town whereI was like, I don't want
to do this no more. Sure, I want to go home. Yeah,
So I called my mom like Iwant to come home. I don't
want to do this no more.She told me, like she's like,
you have your reason for leaving,Like you playing basketball for the reason if
(20:57):
you can make it at this level. Yeah, if you can leave home
at this level to play basketball,there's a reason for that. Yeah.
So just remember that and keep pushing. What you've looked at this team And
I know this sounds like an obviousquestion, but what's your owst goal this
(21:18):
year? What is this team's goalthis year? This team's go like,
we need to play together, okay, and how is that going? So
far? Great? It's amazing.You know, everybody's going to keep talking
about, oh, we want toget championship championship, championship. Lets that
the team is gonna get a championship. But if you don't play together,
(21:41):
you know, we didn't know achampion. That's exactly right. So how
is it you all are able toplay together so well so quickly? And
that would be my last question.The thing is we got each other like
we got against the other real howthat practice? Yeah, we talk about
like we talked to like we talkedto each other. Yeah, like we
cause our each other doing practice.But after practice, how we've like how
(22:03):
we you know, bund after practice, like how we'll talk to each other.
Yeah, like we competition competition duringpractice, but after that we about
like we frist again, like we'retalking to each other, like we're doing
fun things. Yeah. So beingable to do that, I mean,
it's like you like, we like, we like together. It's one of
the best things about being a partof a team is that you're gonna go
(22:26):
at each other in practice. You'regonna hate each other and practice because you're
competing for playing time. But themoment practice is over, that's my brother.
Yeah, and that's what makes greatteams. Goanna, thanks for joining
us, appreciate it. Thank youall. Right, all right, So
we got about I don't know,maybe two or three questions about basketball,
maybe one or two, and thenwe'll do some like fun personal questions I
(22:48):
need. Yeah, yeah, wellthat man, I keep forgetting to telebrate
to do that. All right,all right, we're with Cream Watkins.
Cream, this is how many yearsyou've been here? Now it's my fourth
year, fourth year upperclassman, seniorstatesman. You're the leader now something like
that. I mean you are.I mean, look what we can talk
about playing time while you want atthe same time, you know what to
(23:10):
expect. And we got eight guyson this team near as I've counted,
they haven't been through what you've beenthrough. So what do you want them
to know? Let's take those whatwe got seven freshmen and then one transfer
in trade. What do you wantthem? What does Kareem Watkins want to
make sure they understand about playing atKentucky. I mean it's fun, you
just have fun with you in thecourt. But yeah, at the end
(23:30):
of the day, when you cometo Kentucky, it's like as I'm not
gonna say expectation, but like everybody, you have your high your held to
a higher standard. So like,yeah, you gotta win, try to
win as many games as possible,and then just listen to the coaches.
Was that a big adjustment for youas a freshman when you first got here?
It's word? What its far asfar as that level of expectation that
we have at Kentucky, It's like, wait a minute, this isn't like
(23:51):
we're not happy with a elite eightyear right, We're happy with the national
championship. Whether that's the fans,whether that's coach, how whether you put
that pressure on yourself. How isthat adjustment for you? I mean,
I've been a Kentucky fan, likeas far as I knew about college basketball,
so I knew what the expectation wasfor like being a Kentucky but actually
being here and experiences is it's awhole nother level. Why were you a
(24:11):
Kentucky fan? What what drew youto Kentucky in the first My stepdad played
for Kyle Yeah, you know,just when he was coaching did play here
for exactly right? He told melike stories about Kyle and how are your
coaches and stuff like that, howgreat of a coach he is. So
he came to Kentucky. I justwhat was it about what your dad told
you about playing for Kyle. Whenhe told you those stories, do you
remember like one in particular or somethingthat was, like, man, I'd
(24:33):
love to play for that guy.I don't know nothing in particular, but
he just told me how hard ofa coach he was. Yeah, how
and that appealed to you? Yeah, yeah, of course, because I
mean my stepdad was hard on thisman. Dare growing up playing basketball,
So I mean he told me aboutKyle's history and him winning and from different
organizations. So I like that aboutKyle, did you in DJ? I
mean, y'all, y'all you grewup together right right? Are y'all y'all
(24:55):
have a sibling rivalry going on?Or y'all love each other? We love
each other, but but you stilldon't know. Yeah, growing up,
I wonder one who used to fight? Yeah? Yeah, I mean he
should go one on one and youbreak out like we throw fist. Yeah
I ain't throw fist. He did, but I beat up a little bit
because I don't want to heard.You know, I'm saying what it is,
and I'm gonna ask him the samequestion about you. But what is
the best thing about DJ Wicker?Everything? He's everything about him. He's
(25:15):
humble, he works hard, hewanted to see everybody win, teammates on
and off the court. He justlook kid. So, last basketball question,
how hard you been for you tobe here and be a reserve player.
It's the same role I played formuch of my career, and it
wasn't hard for me because I didn'thave much expectation for playing and I did
and that was fine. But whatwas your expectation for I mean, now
(25:37):
I'm playing on my life. Itwas a little hard and not planning,
but yeah, after I met myteammates each and every year, the chemistry,
you just I don't really care aboutit that much. I've asked everybody
else's question, but I'm ask youtoo. Why does this team? And
I almost don't want to make thatbig deal about it because I feel like
I feel like I'm setting you guysup for failure. But I keep hearing
it from every single player. Youguys are just close, right? Why
(26:00):
how can you have eight brand newplayers, seven freshmen, one graduate,
grad senior and be that close already? Right? I mean everything I didn't
even started, ye, i't evenhad a real practice. You had in
the summer, right, I meanevery year the team chemistry is is just
there, I guess, but thisyear, I don't know. I just
I think everybody, most of theguys know each other, Yeah, coming
up from high school and yeah,just doing fun activities and stuff like that
(26:22):
together. It just builds the chemistryand everybody competitive. So when you're playing
against each other, yeah, thecompetitive level off the court, it brings
us closer. That makes sense.So I'm ask you a couple of just
fun personal questions. So what's thewhat's your favorite place you've ever traveled to?
Brazil? Brazil? Okay, allright? What's your walk up?
Music? And madness? When you'reintroduced? Right, I don't know if
(26:44):
they're gonna play this year. Yeah, yeah, like like what what what?
What do you want playing in thebackground when they introduce screen walk I'm
gonna bring out one of my unclesongs. I'm not sure yet, but
we're gonna see. It's gonna seeat think of the madness love it other
than basketball. All right, Let'ssay you don't have a professional career.
We all have to it at somepoint, whether we get it or not.
What do you want to do?What is your life going to be
anything in sports, whether it isI don't know, communicat Asian, Uh,
(27:08):
communicating or connecting people. Yeah,entrepreneurship. I don't know you,
but for sure, what are youmost proud of? As far as any
I mean you you were what twentytwo twenty one, you're twenty one years
old? What is the thing youwere the most proud of in your life?
It can be basketball related, itcan be something different. I don't
know, that's a hard question.Well I don't ask easy ones. Just
(27:30):
uh, I don't know. Justbeing successful coming to college. Yeah,
seeing my brother, Yeah, seeingI'm transferred to college. Just just that
right there? Just growing up?Uh? When when in to play for
an organization like Kentucky and you've beenhere, who my brother? Have you
talked you talked to DJ about likeand I know we've kind of already alluded
this, but like, all right, dude, now this is what's gonna
be like, right, because Ipresume your dad told him so, he
(27:52):
told you right so, But nowyou've been here for four years and he's
coming, He's making that leap fromit's a game now it's work exactly.
I mean, yeah, I talkedto him about it. Before even before
he came here. But he alreadyknows, like yeah, uh, you
know, his dad played, andhe just knows the expectations and you gotta
listen and be ready and be focused. Awesome, Perfect Cream, thanks for
joining us. Apprecipciate it M appreciation
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