UK's Towns learned frown from game's greats

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Karl-Anthony Towns says the frowns are here to stay, but his University of Kentucky teammates and coaches are skeptical that the freshman forward's recent decision to stop smiling will stick.

"That's not going to last," guard Dominique Hawkins said. "Karl, he has to smile. He's a big guy, got a great personality, and that is his personality: smiling. I can't imagine it at all. He's too nice."

That's the point, though. Towns wanted an edge, so he ditched his perpetual grin for a grimace in Sunday night's game against Eastern Kentucky. Then he turned in his best collegiate performance yet: 19 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal in just 23 minutes.

He'll try to produce another snarling stat line tonight when the top-ranked Wildcats (9-0) host Columbia (5-2).

"My father liked it. He said it's a different person than he's ever seen," Towns said. "I like it, too. I looked a little bit at the tape, and I thought it kept me a little more focused on the game. I'm going to keep experimenting with it."

Not everyone at Kentucky wants the gregarious youngster – he turned 19 last month – to hide his pearly whites permanently.

"He's got a very nice smile," assistant coach Barry Rohrssen said. "He really does. To see somebody with that much talent and is such a nice person is so rare. But if that's his demeanor, if that's going to propel him to play like he did in our last game on Sunday, then so be it."

Towns' attempt to flip the personality switch comes from an unusual appreciation, considering his age, for the game's history. He can reel off a long list of famous frowners.

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"You talk about fierce mentality, just competitiveness: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, even a little bit – I know his birthday just passed – Karl Malone," Towns said. "You watch a little basketball and you see something I want to add to my game. I'm a student of the game. I ain't no expert yet. I will never be an expert. I'm always a student, and I'm looking for different ways to educate (myself) and be more knowledgeable about the game and my own craft."

Towns said his father always wanted him to study stars of the past and thanks to ESPN's various documentary projects and YouTube's vast archives of old footage, he's feasted on hundreds of hours of clips. That's how a kid born in 1995 can call Len Bias, who died in 1986, his favorite player.

Towns has a Bias throwback jersey hanging up in his room.

"He played with ferocity," Towns said. "He just knew how to play the game. He knew how to put the ball in the basket, ran the court. He was tall, just like me, too. He was able to do a lot of things that I always wanted to do in my game. And he's also a great lesson: Just stay focused on the path and don't ever detour from it."

Even if the next step down the road to success involves retraining your facial muscles.

"Karl is a bit different. In a good way. In a very good way," Rohrssen said. "His priorities always seem in order. He isn't just a good player. He's a wonderful person. He's so well-liked in this building, among his teammates, on campus, in the community here. Throughout many of the (charity) evens that we've done here, Karl has always gone above and beyond even what you ask him to do."

Certainly no one asked him to stop smiling. Towns reached that critical conclusion on his own.

"I woke up in the morning, brushed my teeth – good hygiene, that's the biggest thing – and I looked in the mirror, and I wanted to be better," he said. "I wanted to do something a little different than what I'm used to. I like to put myself out of my comfort zone, and everyone knows my main mechanism for being who I am is smiling. So I wanted to challenge myself."

There haven't been many things Towns, a McDonald's All-American and National Player of the Year in high school, attempted and failed. He's shining even in coach John Calipari's two-platoon system that limits him to just 18.8 minutes per game. Extrapolated to 34 minutes, the 6-foot-11 rookie is averaging 17.1 points, 12.9 rebounds, 5.1 blocked shots and 2.6 assists.

It won't be easy to maintain the mad mug if he keeps putting up numbers like that.

"Maybe on the court he can be a little meaner," Hawkins said, "but he's going to be able to crack a smile every once in a while, I bet."

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.