There are two sides to Julius Randle. There's the side of him that posts Instagram videos of him and his teammates rapping in their rooms and dancing with the Joe B. Hall Statue outside the Wildcat Coal Lodge; the side of him that took pictures for two straights hours at a Lexington fireworks show just because he wanted to please the fans; the side of him that could earn an endorsement deal from a toothpaste company for that million-dollar smile.
When you see that side of him and look past the unmistakable physical gifts he possesses, you begin to wonder how this well-spoken kid, this gentle giant, has earned the title as the most competitive player in the class of 2013, how he's earned a reputation for being one of the most driven players the Kentucky staff has ever seen.
And then you start to talk basketball and Randle gets serious. You ask him things like why he chose Kentucky over a host of other elite schools, why he passed on a chance to play with Team USA this summer to get to campus early, and how he played with such a vengeance at his state's 5A championship and the high school all-star games just a few weeks after he returned from injury.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.