Jerone Morton may not have arrived in Lexington with the loudest buzz, but one comparison from a familiar Kentucky voice is enough to change the conversation fast.
Morton, a senior transfer from Washington State, has mostly been viewed as a steady depth addition this offseason - the kind of player who can get up and down the floor and fill a need. But legendary Kentucky radio personality Tom Leach sees something much bigger.
T.J. Walker shared Leach’s comparison on X and added, "Sounds like he's a DOG defensively."
Walker also posted:
Whoa. Tom Leach just compared Jeron Morton to DeAndre Liggins.
Sounds like he’s a DOG defensively. I was not familiar.
That’s the kind of name that makes Kentucky fans sit up. Liggins was one of those rare role players who never needed the spotlight to matter. He showed up, did the dirty work, and kept doing it year after year.
His best-known honor was making the SEC All-Defensive Team in 2011, and that same season he also drilled the corner three that helped bury North Carolina in Kentucky’s historic Elite Eight win. From 2008-11, Liggins was the Wildcats’ do-everything glue guy, finishing his final season in blue and white with 8.6 points, four rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game.
That profile carried over to the NBA, where Liggins spent five seasons with seven different teams and carved out a career as a plug-and-play defender. It’s that kind of impact Kentucky would love to see from Morton, even if his build is smaller.
There are differences in the offensive game. Morton hit 38.7% from three last season, which gives him a longer-range threat than Liggins usually offered.
But the defensive instincts are what make the comparison land. Morton averaged 1.3 steals per game in the 2024-25 season and then followed that with just under one this past season, showing the kind of ball-hawking feel that can bother opposing offenses.
At this stage of the offseason, nothing is locked in until Kentucky actually takes the floor in a competitive setting. Still, when Tom Leach puts a player in the same sentence as DeAndre Liggins, that’s not the kind of thing to shrug off.
Morton may have entered the picture quietly, but he’s clearly a name worth tracking.
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