[B][FONT=Arial Narrow]Kentucky Men’s Basketball [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]March 20, 2012[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Pre-NCAA Regional Media Opportunity[/FONT]
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[CENTER][FONT=Arial Narrow][U]UK Head Coach John Calipari[/U][/FONT][/CENTER][FONT=Arial Narrow][U][/U][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On how things have been going since Louisville …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Good, they’re good. We had a tough road, five games in eight days and every one was high level and pressure packed. Sunday off, yesterday’s practice was OK, it wasn’t great but it was OK. Today we have to zero in on a few things and get ready for a tough ball game. It’s funny how now everybody is trying to give Tom (Crean) billboard action, ‘they’re going to kill them.’ Come on now, this is going to be a war. There are 16 teams left, every one of them can play and every one of them is inspired, every one of them is playing out of desperation, every team. So if you’re still playing now, you’re fortunate and if you get in a chance to play in a game and you expect it is going to be easy you’ll get beat. These games are going to be tough, every one of them.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On what he saw looking back at the last meeting with Indiana …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Well the score wasn’t indicative, they beat us every way; they were more physical, they played with more intensity, they executed better, made shots that they had to make. We had a couple guys, literally, no-show the game. Wasn’t just one, you guys got one but if you watch the tape it was more like two or three. Michael (Kidd-) Gilchrist was really a man that kept us in; Marquis Teague played better in the second half; first half was not very good. That was like a season ago, literally four months ago. That was so long ago I had to watch the tape to remember anything. But they played well, the one thing about it is we are better but so are they. Both teams are better now than they were then. They execute better, they have a better plan for what their strengths are, and how they are playing is to cause mismatches and trying to get (Cody) Zeller the ball. Their guys that are drivers are driving and doing a great job and then defensively they are way better than they were, they are more physical.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Indiana without Verdell Jones III …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Well (Jordan) Hulls is their point guard, he is another handler for them. They just shorten their rotation. This time of the year you can get by with playing five guys if they stay out of foul trouble. You are getting two and a half minute timeouts, sixty minutes half-time; it’s like, ‘what in the world, let’s play the games.’”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On emphasizing winning each weekend …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Well I said play that first weekend just worry about that but you have to win the game you are in and you have to play every possession. At this point, one of the things they do a great job of is they (Indiana) take off their four and their five, especially their five. They go from defense to him sprinting, if you lose track of that two or three times a half that is six buckets, you lose the game. ‘Well I just, one time coach.’ It’s the third time this half, three times this half, you must sprint back, you must be focused on all possessions. You break down on a couple pick and rolls and they bang 3s, say its two or three, just three possessions now, that’s nine points. You have seven, eight possessions you break down, you cannot win the game. It is about possessions, taking yourself out when you’re tired or you lose focus. Losing your concentration is as bad as being tired, you are mentally tired, come out, get your breath then get back in.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the ESPN commercial …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“It wasn’t rhetoric, it was true. What I would tell you is, I don’t ever teach anger because the physiology of that is really close to fear; so if you try to make your team angry and when anger doesn’t go right it turns to fear within their own bodies. I don’t do that, we are worried about us being our best, if that’s not good enough then someone played an outstanding ball game and deserved to win. As long as we are doing what we do and doing our best, how do we get our team to play their best? I feel I have a terrific team with terrific players, let’s worry about us playing well; let’s not worry about what happened with four months ago, it doesn’t matter now. We haven’t talked about it in any of the meetings, it’s we have a ball game, a team in front of us that can beat us because we know that, they’ve already beaten us. We’re going to have to play a terrific ball game and that may not be enough because they may come out of their minds, they may play crazy. They are the leading 3-point shooting team in the country or one of them. If you foul them they shoot almost 80 percent as a team from the free throw line so if you foul them or give them 3s you’re losing. Its how it is, that’s what they do.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On teams having to pick their poison when guarding Kentucky …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“What Indiana is going to do, they are going to back off of (Marquis) Teague and they’re going to back off of Michael (Kidd-) Gilchrist. The only issue is that it’s dangerous because we have all seen those guys have big games and what you’re hoping is, let’s hope they’re not making shots. That’s what I would think they would do. I think what we are is a good defensive team, we are an athletic team, we’re a driving team, if we make 3s we are a really strong team. Again, Iowa State played a heck of a basketball game. They missed 3s but we were up on them, they didn’t get many open looks and when they got open looks they made them. We acted like they should have beat Iowa State well let me just tell you, Kansas didn’t beat Iowa State, you’re talking about a terrific basketball team but we played well. They played well, we did what we’re supposed to do and that’s what you have to do each game here. It’s about how do we play our best, let’s not get too fancy, let’s not get too crazy. This isn’t the time to trick them, when you try to trick people at the end of the season, you trick yourself. We have established who we are, they have established who they are, we have a good idea of how they will play us. (Indiana coach Tom Crean) knows how we will play them. Throw it up and let’s see what happens.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On talking about the ultimate goal …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“No, just being our best. The ultimate goal is about being our best, there are so many things that can happen, there is one thing that we can control, us being in a great frame of mind and playing our best and that’s all we talk about. I know that you have all this stuff out here, to us it’s a closed house, closed shop, let’s just be our best. Here’s what we look like when we are our best.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On playing against a good friend in Tom Crean …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“I don’t enjoy it but during the game I am just thinking about one thing, let’s do the best we can, let’s win this, let’s just be at our best. I’m not worried about anything else, when the game ends one way or another. For me, if we go down, if he goes down I’m going to be ecstatic but I’ll feel bad for him. I think the same, he’s a terrific coach; he has done a great job. Look where he has his team. The games that I have watched him play, they have played well.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Terrence Jones …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“I don’t know; I hope he’s playing, keep doing what he’s been doing. Told him whatever you’re eating tell the rest of the guys. He’s doing good.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On a new offense …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“We’re just trying to tweak what we have and let’s get better at what we do. Be ready for a physical war, I’m watching all these games, I don’t know where this physical play stuff that we were supposed to be calling went to. I swore one team had lacrosse equipment. We’re doing stuff physically so that we can be in that kind of game and withstand it. Because you don’t have any control over how it is going to go, is it going to be a rough game or not, is it going to be called closely or not.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On what Anthony did to get in foul trouble in the first meeting …[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“He left his feet twice; he didn’t need to either time.”[/FONT][/B]
