Jordan Burks answered the call against Vanderbilt 'Gotta keep the phone on the hook.'

ZGeogheganKSR

John Calipari always tells his players to be ready for their moment, especially the ones who don’t see the floor all that regularly.

For freshman Jordan Burks, his moment came on Tuesday night against Vanderbilt. The 6-foot-9 forward posted a career-high 13 points on a perfect 6-6 shooting in 15 minutes of action. He also grabbed five rebounds, which tied his personal best. Burks hit just his second three-pointer of the season and was locked in on defense. The Wildcats won running away, 109-77.

Kentucky was even without two starters — DJ Wagner and Tre Mitchell — but Burks didn’t have any idea that he would come in and contribute the way he did against the Commodores. He was more than ready to answer the call though — he’s been ready all season long.

“No. I didn’t,” Burks said with a laugh when asked if he knew Calipari would play him against Vandy. “He tells me to stay ready every game, so I’m gonna stay ready and it just happened. I was just ready.

“You gotta keep the phone on the hook, you can’t ever have the phone off the hook. Gotta keep it on the hook in case you get called. I’m ready.”

Burks went from leading Overtime Elite in scoring (over 27 PPG) last season to now being a defensive-minded, energy-bringing role player. He’s averaging just 7.7 minutes per outing in his 16 games played this season. The Alabama native wants to get on the hardwood though, no matter what it takes.

If that means doing the dirty work that no one else wants to do, Burks is perfectly fine with it. He certainly doesn’t lack any passion when he’s out there.

“It’s a extra body and it’s a extra person that we know is gonna go hard every single time,” Fellow freshman Aaron Bradshaw said of Burks. “Regardless of if it’s on offensive side or the defensive side, we know he’s gonna hard, 110 percent. So just bringing that alone, especially in the time where we are right now when we need, it’s great.”

“Everything happens for a reason,” Burks added. “Just be patient.”

The Kentucky coaches have preached to Burks about being a lockdown defender and taking the shots that present themselves. They’ve told him to stop being so hesitant on both ends of the floor. The coaches trust him to be out there with his teammates, so it would be a disservice to all of them by not taking advantage of the moments. That’s why Burks was so confident shooting the ball and getting himself fired up after defensive stops in Nashville.

“Someone else can believe in you but you’ve gotta have confidence in yourself,” Burks said. “If Cal is over here in practice telling me to shoot the ball every time I’m catching it and I’m not shooting it, then that’s obviously my fault… If I didn’t shoot that (three-pointer against Vanderbilt) I think I was gonna come out for sure. He wants me to shoot the ball. Now it’s like I believe in myself to shoot the ball when I’m open, shoot the ball.”

No one knows what Burks’ role on this team will look like moving forward, especially if Wagner and Mitchell return sooner rather than later. But as Bradshaw said, whenever Burks is called upon to step up, everyone knows that he’s going to give it all he’s got. That’s no small thing to have in the back pocket, especially going into tournament time.