DONTAIE ALLEN is well on the road to recovery
and hopes to be back on the court soon.
“It’s going good. I’m at the end of the process,
so it should be sometime a little later, but in the
beginning of the season,” Allen said. “It feels
good. I woke up (one) morning and thought, ‘Man,
I’m trying to dunk.’”
The reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball tore his ACL
13 games into his senior season at Pendleton
County and spent most of last year rehabilitating
his injured knee. He averaged 42.9 points per
game during the first 11 games last year. Despite
a shortened senior campaign, Allen finished his
prep career with 3,225 points, ranking him No. 11
in state history.
If the knee injury wasn’t enough to overcome,
Allen suffered a broken collarbone in an
automobile accident last April, a minor setback
in his anticipated return to the court. Despite the
delay in his return to the playing floor, the ordeal
has been a learning experience for Allen.
“I think that any time things like that happen with
a car wreck and being off the court watching
games, I think you grow on and off the court.
From the off the court perspective, you see how
guys move and their tactics,” he said.
During the summer, Allen mostly worked on his
shooting and dribbling and avoided contact
as much as possible. Allen has been recently
working on cutting, a few jumping drills and some
small-distance running. He likes being close to
Memorial Coliseum and said, “that’s so clutch.”
“Being from Pendleton (County), you have to drive
10, 15 minutes to your school to go shoot,” he
said. “Here, you’re walking 30 seconds and you’re
in the gym.”
Even his teammates have noticed his presence in
the gym at various times of the day.
“His work ethic is tremendous,” freshman
classmate Keion Brooks Jr. said. “I’ve seen
Dontaie in this gym at 2 or 3 in the morning just
working as hard as he can to get back.”
Point guard Ashton Hagans also has witnessed
Allen working in the gym in the early morning
hours.
“You come in here at 5:30 in the morning and he’ll
be in here running up and down getting up shots
with a brace on,” Hagans said.
Kentucky coach John Calipari is happy to have
Allen on the squad and said Allen is good enough
to play for the Wildcats.
“This is really hard, and you have to want this
as bad as we want you,” he said. “I am always
looking for guys who have always dreamed of
playing at Kentucky. Then I’ve got to find out
if they’re good enough. Because they may be
100,000 of those but there are only three or four
that are good enough to really be here to make
that work.
“If we look at those guys first, and then again you
have to have a great faith in your own ability and
confidence that you’re not — like I don’t promise
anybody that they’ll start and play. Like, how
much you’re going to shoot the ball. I just don’t
do it with anybody, which some kids need that
and that’s OK. I mean, you just wouldn’t be here.
It’s the way we recruit. I’ve recruited the same way
everywhere I’ve been.”
Calipari recently offered no hint as to when he
expects Allen to be cleared to play this season.
“He has been doing things in the gym, but I still
think my guess is he’s still a month away,” Calipari
said. “(Athletics trainer Geoffrey Staton) would
probably be the one to tell you better. But he has
not been practicing.”
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