Cousins Speaks Out

It doesn't seem fair to the Kentucky freshman, DeMarcus Cousins who is hacked and fouled...but it doesn't get called.

"My issue with DeMarcus is that they keep going to the monitors as he gets absolutely whacked, grabbed, pushed, shoved," Coach Cal said. "Then when he does do something, they go look at the monitor.

"If you want to go look at the monitor," Calipari argues, "then you've got to protect him. Call every foul. You can't let him get grabbed and pushed and then expect no kind of response. You can't then go to the monitor."


"Every little thing I do they run to the monitor ready to pop a flagrant on me," Cousins said. "But every time I come down the court, I get elbowed in the jaw and it's not ever looked at, it's not even called. I think that's completely unfair.

"I'm getting this rep to be such a bad player who plays physical and dirty, but every game I play I'm getting beat up and I'm getting no calls."

Junior Patrick Patterson feels Cousins's pain.

"That how it was for me my freshman year. You're not used to it," Patterson said. "In high school, you get all the calls. When you come to the collegiate level, the refs let it go a little bit and let you play. They don't call a foul unless it's a real hard foul."

But Coach John Calipari likes that teams are fouling Cousins.

"It's not his fault he's that big," Calipari said, Cousins being 6'11" and weighing 265. "But he is so big you almost have to do that guard him. You have push him, shove him, foul him, grab him and try to get his goat."

"They say they can't get me every call," Cousins added. "But if it's a foul, it's a foul. If it was me, they give them the call. I just think that's unfair.