Ansley Almonor is controlling what he can control 'and everything else will take care of itself.'

Ansley Almonor can’t control — to an extent — what happens around him. He can’t control when and for how many minutes Mark Pope is doing to play him on any given day. He can’t control how Andrew Carr‘s back feels in the lead-up to a game. But he can control how he reacts to those things. And that mindset allowed him to have a breakout game against Mississippi State over the weekend.

Carr’s back pain, which wasn’t even revealed as his ailment until it was said on the broadcast, wasn’t enough to keep him from giving it a go in the Wildcats’ 95-90 win over the Bulldogs on Saturday in Starkville. But it was enough to limit him and keep Pope on his toes. Carr still played 21 minutes, but not the usual 26.5 that he’d been averaging. Someone was going to have to soak up those leftover minutes.

That someone ended up being Almonor, who hadn’t played at least 19 minutes in any game since late November. That was also the last time he scored in double-figures. But Almonor knew his moment — the one Pope kept saying would happen — could be coming. He was going through shootaround as a member of the first team. He didn’t know for sure that Mississippi State was going to be his game.

But he was prepared for it just in case.

“Make sure you control the things that you can control,” Almonor said on Monday. “And everything else will take care of itself.”

Almonor finished with 11 points and one rebound in 19 minutes against the Bulldogs. He buried a trio of three-pointers during a crucial two-minute span deep into the second half that flipped a Kentucky deficit into a lead the ‘Cats would not give back up. Pope’s promise came true: Almonor helped win Kentucky a huge game.

“It was awesome,” Freshman guard Travis Perry said of Almonor’s performance. “Ansley is a guy that’s always in the gym. He’s first one in, last one out. So to be able to see that work pay off for him, get a few minutes in a big-time (game). Coach had some faith in him, subbed him in there, and it worked out great for us. He has immense confidence in himself, just to see a couple of those shots go in. It was a lot of fun.”

The transition from Fairleigh Dickinson to Kentucky couldn’t have been an easy one for Almonor. He averaged 13.6 points per game as a sophomore and 16.4 per game as a junior. He was a two-time All-Conference performer at the mid-major level. As one of the last addition’s to Pope’s debut Kentucky team, he already knew what to expect out his role — and it wasn’t going to be what he was used to.

But he jumped on the opportunity to play for a Blue Blood, no matter the individual cost. Almonor is averaging just 5.1 points per game through 16 games off the bench this season. And yet, he appears to be loving every second of it. Pope said that you can’t buy with any amount of money the experience Almonor went through against Mississippi State. He’s probably right.

That is why a player as talented as Almonor would make the sacrifice to go from the best player on his team to not even among the top five at Kentucky.

“It’s been something different,” Almonor said. “Because that’s not what I’m used to the past two years but I’ve accepted the challenge, I love the challenge. I love being able to help the team in that way and it’s been great. I’m happy that I get to try to provide a spark every game off the bench and it’s been fun. I’ve been having a fun role so far.”

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