PAGE 15   THE CATS' PAUSE, DECEMBER 31, 1977
Williams Relaxes As TC Plays Ping Pong
Aleksinas Chose Kentucky For Style Of Play
(Continued From Page 11
Question: What about Kentucky's team? How do you evaluate the material on this Wildcat team, especially the veterans?
Chuck Aleksinas: "All four seniors will be drafted into the pros in my opinion. They're the four bewst senior sin the country and Rick and Mike is the best forward-center combination around.
Question: What do you look forward to during the next three and a half years  at  Kentucky,  on  a personal
basis?
Chuck Aleksinas: "Improving as much as I can. Coach Hall can improve me more than any coach around, that's why I came here and hopefully I can play pro after college. Kentucky has a reputation of developing the big man. The other schools recruiting me never had that great big man and Kentucky, well, there have been several All-Americans here so they have to know what they're doing."
Question: What did recruiters use in trying to sell their respective programs to you, schools other than Kentucky?
Chuck Aleksinas: "It was really strange, but Kentucky was the only school which was completely truthful with me. Some schools would try to find out who you were interested in, then tell you bad stuff about that school. After the schools found out Kentucky was after me, I started receiving all kinds of letters. One said Kentucky had so many big men that I would never play. Another one said La Von Williams is 7-1 and that Danny Hall was still here and stuff like that. Some even said Kentucky was only recruiting   me   so   I   couldn't go
anywhere else.''
Question: Are there Kentucky fans in your home area?
Chuck Aleksinas: "There are many Kentucky fans up in Connecticut, especially in my area."
Question: What's the Kentucky connection that far from the Bluegrass State?
Chuck Aleksinas: "Well, WHAS radio comes in beautifully back home and everyone listens to Kentucky basketball up there. My junior varsity coach has been a Kentucky fan a long time. In fact, before Kentucky ever contacted me, my high school coach said I should go to a school like Kentucky where they play inside. When I received the letter from Kentucky, I figured I'd look into it."
Question: What do the hometown people think about you leaving the coast for Kentucky to play basketball?
Chuck Aleksinas: "My coaches agreed with my decision but several hometown fans thought I should have stayed in my home state and they didn't think I could play at Kentucky. The coaches just want me to prove the fans wrong. I guess a lot of them are fans of the University of Connecticut and didn't like the decision too much. Some felt I owed it to the state to stay home, but there are no dominating centers up there and I wanted to play against the best competition there is."
Question: What's been your most exciting moment in sports?
Question: What's been your most exciting moment in sports?
Chuck Aleksinas: "The frst game of the season last year we lost to a team by 24 points and went on to lost five of
our first six. We finished fifth in our league of eight but went on to the tourney semi-finals and then lost by only one point to a team which beat us by 58 points earlier in the season. That was the highlight, improving so much during the season. Nobody could believe that we improved that much over the season.
Question: Have there been any surprises since your arrival in Kentucky?
Chuck Aleksinas: "One thing is that there aren't any lakes here where you can go swimming and that's about it, no oceans either. But I do love the weather here. There were about two feet of snow yesterday back home and it was about fifty here. I really like the weather here."
Question: What about the Kentucky basketball fans?
Chuck Aleksinas: "They're really crazy. Up in the East, the fans are good but they're not basketball-crazy like the fans here. I was really amazed the first time I played here, especially the Indiana game. They really went crazy and it helps the team a great deal.
Question: What do you think about the new Wildcat Basketball House?
Chuck Aleksinas: "Super, it's just super. It's going to be beautiful, just like living in a big hotel on a road trip the entire year. I really look forward to it. I didn't even know about the House until about the third time Coach Hamilton visited with me. I couldn't tell a lot about the house from pictures, but I had no idea it would be as nice as it is."
Question:  When  did  you finally
decide to sign with Kentucky?
Chuck Aleksinas: "The day of signing I didn't even know I was going to come here. Coach Hall came up for the last time and I told him Charlotte was going to be coming up on Saturday. I still didn't know what I wras going to do. All of a sudden I just signed, everything just came together all at once. Once I signed, I didn'T HAVE ANY REGRETS ABOUT IT."
Question: Kentucky had only three scholarships last season. Did that have any bearing on your decision?
Chuck Aleksinas: "With all I had been told, I wasn't sure Kentucky wouldn't go out and get another big center this year so I was pretty mixed up. I just didn't know who to believe. I believed Coach Hall in the end."
Question: How do you feel about Kentucky's style of ball, the muscular, inside play with a fast tempo?
Chuck Aleksinas: "That was a big reason I cam here because of the power play inside and I like a team that runs, but not like Las Vegas. Kentucky likes to play two big men at the same time and it fits my style."
Question: Joe Hall was asked during a press conference this year if he was going to discard the karate-type defense label Kentucky has earned the past couple of years. He answered by saying he would not have recruited Chuck Aleksinas if he had any thoughts of abandoning the physical play. What's your reaction to that?
Chuck Aleksinas: "What impressed Coach Hamilton most on his first visit was my strength. He said I could get up and down the floor all right for a big man and he started recruiting me."