UK basketball news and notes

Cousins named SEC Player of the Week
Last week DeMarcus Cousins earned Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honors, this week he did a little better.

After averaging 18.5 points and 15 rebounds in UK’s two wins over Hartford and Louisville this past week, the freshman forward from Mobile, Ala., earned SEC Player of the Week honors.

Cousins is averaging 15.4 points and 9.6 rebounds in only 19.2 minutes per game. Per 40 minutes, Cousins is averaging 32.1 points and 20 rebounds on the season while averaging 32.9 points and 26.7 rebounds in UK’s past two games.

It’s the second SEC Player of the Week award the Cats have earned this season. Junior forward Patrick Patterson earned the award in the second week of the season.

It’s the eighth time in as many weeks that a UK player has been honored by the SEC office.

Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins won SEC Freshman of the Week honors this week.

Holdin’ that No. 3 spot
The Cats (15-0) are No. 3 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today men’s basketball polls for the fourth consecutive week.

Kansas (13-0) and Texas (13-0) also held their positions at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Purdue (13-0) remained at No. 4 in the land thanks in part to a convincing 15-point home victory over previous No. 6 West Virginia. Duke (12-1) moved up two spots to No. 5 after Syracuse and West Virginia suffered their first losses of the season.

Villanova (12-1), Syracuse (13-1), West Virginia (11-1), North Carolina (11-3) and Michigan State (11-3) round out the bottom half of the top ten in the AP poll. Kansas State (13-1) is No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

Other Southeastern Conference teams in the AP top 25 include Mississippi (11-2) at No. 14 and Tennessee (10-2) at No. 16. Florida (11-3) sits just outside of the top 25 at No. 29 thanks to a 75-foot 3-pointer from Chandler Parsons that went in at the buzzer in overtime on the road against North Carolina State on Sunday. The miracle shot gave the Gators a 62-61 victory.