'Didn’t play a ton of defense’: Kentucky’s Alex Wilkins on his all-around growth

Alex, when you guys made that big run in the first half, it looked like you personally had a big impact on that defensively. Does that represent growth for you, just that you could not be scoring at that point in the game but still have a big impact on it? I mean, I'm working on that every day, day in, day out, night in, night out. Obviously, at Furman last year, I played a lot of offense, high usage rate, kind of solid on the defense end, didn't play a ton of defense. But we have so many great players, so I've been putting a lot of my energy onto the defense end. And it's just getting better. I mean, I'm not the best defensive player ever, but it's really just effort, and I'm just working on it every day, day in, day out, with Coach Fox and Coach Pope, watching a ton of films. So just continue to build. I mean, I'm not a finished product. I'm just going to continue to build. What has the process been like coming from your background as a scorer, as kind of the guy to lead the offense, to now trying to figure out where you fit in best as far as that goes? I mean, you guys only really seen last year. Obviously, I wasn't really talented. I was talented in high school, but I wasn't really. A lot of news didn't really cover me in high school. I mean, I played every role. Freshman year, I rode the bench, played two minutes. Second year, I've been the third, maybe fifth option. Junior year, I really got to become a scorer, really get better in my game. Shout out to my trainer. I mean, we were in and out, day in, day out, just working really hard on my game. That's when I became more of like a dynamic three-level scorer. and senior year i took over but my junior year high school i kind of like played the score role and then junior year of AAU i mean i played the role of the low i mean i'm guard 94 i mean i'm going games maybe taking the attempt so i mean i played every role i think that's what's helping me uh being able to be coachable at this level i mean last year i didn't go in a firm and thinking i was gonna be a top leading scorer so i'm just going in with an open mind um continue to build um but My background is just, I mean, I'm a worker. I mean, nobody's going to tell me I can't do none. I have a lot of confidence, but I'm going to continue to work, and I'm a really good listener. So just continue to do stuff that Coach wants me to do, and I'm going to continue to build, continue to grow.