By Murray Evans
The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - Quotes from two coaches succinctly summarize Kelenna Azubuike's basketball career.

"He has a natural anointing to score," his high school coach, Joe Mercier, said in 1999 during Azubuike's freshman season. That quote has more meaning when you consider Azubuike's high school, Victory Christian, is across the street from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla.

Then there was last month when his college coach at Kentucky, Tubby Smith, publicly challenged Azubuike to be tougher: "Son, look like Tarzan, play like Jane."

Azubuike has caught grief from his Kentucky teammates because of Smith's choice of words, but since receiving that challenge, the 6-foot-5, 208-pound sophomore with the sculpted physique and unassuming personality seems to be on his way to fulfilling Mercier's prophecy.

Azubuike has scored in double figures in five of eight games since Smith's Tarzan-and-Jane comment and has raised his per-game averages to 10.6 points and five rebounds. Azubuike's improvement has coincided with a late-season push by No. 8 Kentucky, which has won six straight games and is 23-4 entering this week's Southeastern Conference tournament in Atlanta.

"I took it as a challenge, a personal challenge to improve," Azubuike said of Smith's comment. "To go up stronger, go to the basket stronger, be more aggressive. I think a lot of times things like that can spark something in you to play harder, and I think that's what it sort of did to me."

Azubuike scored 3,530 points during his high school career, the second-highest total in Oklahoma history. During his senior season, he averaged 39.1 points and 13.3 rebounds per game.

After orally committing to Oklahoma and flirting with the idea of trying to jump from high school to the NBA, Azubuike signed with Kentucky. Smith and the Wildcats had a scorer, but Azubuike's playing time as a freshman was limited because of his defense, or lack of such. He averaged only 3.7 points per game on a team that went 32-4 and reached the NCAA Midwest Region final.

Thrust into a starting role this season, Azubuike seemed content to follow the lead of the four other starters - three seniors and a junior. He showed flashes of brilliance - going 12-of-16 from 3-point range as Kentucky won its first seven games and finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds in a January win over Vanderbilt - but struggled with consistency.

Smith said he thought his comment would motivate Azubuike.

"I have to keep them accountable," Smith said of his players. "Sometimes you have to jolt or shock them into doing something else or working harder or being more physical."

For Azubuike, it's also meant focusing even more on defense. Smith has rewarded that focus by assigning Azubuike the opponent's best player in recent games against Tennessee (Scooter McFadgon) and Alabama (Kennedy Winston). McFadgon and Winston, the SEC's third- and fourth-leading scorers, went a combined 8-of-27 from the field against Azubuike.

"He is a laid-back guy," Smith said. "He has great honor and ethics, and you see that about him. He isn't going to trash talk or try to incite the crowd, he just plays his game. That is his demeanor."

Just because Azubuike doesn't trash talk doesn't mean his teammates are as polite.

"We call him Jane," junior forward Chuck Hayes said of Azubuike. "When he goes in the lane and misses a 2-footer, we tell him that's a Jane move."

Next for UK

vs. winner of Georgia/Auburn in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, Friday at 1 p.m.