[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Kentucky Men’s Basketball [/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]October 25, 2011[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Pre-Blue/White Scrimmage Media Opportunity[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B][U]UK head coach John Calipari[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On how practice is going … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Very good. We are pleased. We are cutting back a little bit because I don’t want us to get too far ahead. I don’t want us to be playing like its December when it’s October. Some of the practices we have cut short simply because they are getting done what I want them to get done. When they hit that spot, we just stop. Again, we are practicing most times with 10 guys on the floor, so those 10 aren’t leaving very often, so you don’t have to go very long. We practiced two hours and 10 minutes yesterday; we will probably practice the same, maybe a little bit less today. Guys are coming in at night, and it’s great. They are getting their own work in. When you do it the way we do it, you have time to do all of that other stuff, and you get time to do whatever you want to work on.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if he knows what type of style he will play this year … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Not yet. It will all play out. Kind of like last year, you figure it out as you go through games and you think something is going to work, and then you play some really good teams, and you say that (isn’t) working against really good teams, so we have to go back and figure out what we do. What I have liked right now is a guy like Terrence Jones. If there is a better player in the county, then I’ve got to see him. Maybe that guy is in our gym, I don’t know. If there is somebody better than Terrence (Jones), then I have got to see him. He is first in all the running things, first out on the court, comes back in the evening and shoots. I had four scouts in here yesterday that said his whole focus on basketball and what he is compared to last year is not even close. Now you are seeing a young man who has changed his habits, changed his body, added skill level, and now a different attitude towards basketball. Who does that sound like? Josh Harrellson. So now what you see is a different player. The competitiveness of our practices has changed. You should see the wars between Darius (Miller) and Michael (Kidd) Gilchrist. I mean absolutely vicious. After it’s done, they hit each other on the butt. They like each other and they like what they are doing for each other. Darius (Miller) has never been better. Eloy (Vargas) is not the same. You know what Eloy is doing in the morning and at night? Conditioning. Wow. So now, all of the sudden he has changed his habits to practice, he has changed his conditioning, he has changed some of his skills and his attitude towards basketball, and you would be surprised. He has changed the outcome, so now he is a different player. That’s the only way this works. I tell these guys 20 times, if you need a chance, go play the lottery. It’s a buck, and you can win 150 million. There’s your chance. You’re not getting it here. I mean, you either earn your minutes, or you earn your way out of minutes. It’s simple. We’ve got a good group here.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if he will look to vary playing styles throughout the season … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Well, you have to settle on something at some point of how you are going to play. What I’m finding out is the pick-and-roll with this team has really been interesting. I have never run pick-and-roll partly because I didn’t want to bring two defenders to my best player. Why would I do that? Especially when he didn’t need someone to get himself open and drive by him. Whether it was Derrick Rose, or Tyreke Evans. (Evans) was so physical, he didn’t need another guy. He could beat his own guy. How would they have played John Wall if we would have played pick-and-roll? They would have gone under. Now I would have had John Wall shooting jump shots instead of attacking the basket. Now, we are a little different, mainly because as we attack, we have the players in there that we do want to get the ball too, and we do want to create space, and we’re using the pick-and-roll to get into the dribble drive. So instead of just going down there and getting started, we are getting the ball off a pick-and-roll and we play. We are doing pretty well.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On what fans can expect tomorrow night at the Blue/White scrimmage … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“We are just going to scrimmage. We may just do warm-up lines and scrimmage. Yesterday was the first time in the 13[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]th[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”] practice we have scrimmaged. Last year, we practiced at the 10th practice. I waited a while because we had so many guys that just weren’t ready for us to be scrimmaging with officials. We will do it today. From what I saw yesterday, we will probably scrimmage from here on in. The competitiveness we are getting out of it is good. We can do drill work on whatever and then throw it up for an hour.” [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B][U]Players[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]#1, Darius Miller, G, Sr.[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the versatility of the team…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I don’t think teams are going to know what to expect. We have a lot of weapons and different ways we can use them. We’re all pretty versatile so I think we will cause a lot of matchup problems for other teams.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On Anthony Davis in the pick-and-roll…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“He’s great for the pick-and-roll. He can pop and shoot and he can go to the rim. If you throw it up by the square I don’t think anyone can get it but him. He is a really nice weapon to have in the pick-and-roll.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the team’s chemistry at this point in the year…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I feel like it has been better than it was last year at this point. It took a little while for us to gel last year, I think you could see that from the struggles we had at the beginning of the year. This team has done a great job from the beginning, everyone is doing their part and we’re spending a lot of time together.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On what Kyle Wiltjer brings to the team…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“He brings a lot, he can shoot the ball, post-up and play defense. A lot of people don’t talk about him as much they should. He’s going to be a very nice weapon for us; he can score the ball in a lot of different ways. You can’t stop his hook shot. We’ll see him a lot this year and he’ll be a big help to the team. It’s very rare for a guy with that size to be that skilled. He can put it on the floor and will cause a lot of matchup problems for people.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”] [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]#3, Terrence Jones, F, So.[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On what he expects to get out of the blue-white scrimmage…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Really to just get more comfortable with us playing together in the dribble-drive and getting up and down. Just doing what we’ve been doing.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On what practice has been like…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“We’ve been running a lot, cutting to the basket like last year. We try to keep the floor spaced out for guys to cut. We’ve done a few more pick-and-rolls. We’ve got great guards that are making good decisions.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the style of this year’s team…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“You can’t say yet, especially with how Coach Cal coaches. He thinks of something different every night.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On his expectations for this season…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“To do better than last year.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On whom the back-up point guard will be…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Right now, Doron Lamb is the point guard for my team in practice. Doron and Marquis (Teague) go at it every day in practice. Doron is a much better ball handler than he was last year.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]#20, Doron Lamb, G, So.[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On how the freshmen are doing…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“They are doing (well); they are getting better; they know the system better now. They are making the right passes, making the right plays, making shots, getting rebounds and just getting the plays right.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the blue-white scrimmage…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“We want to show the fans that we’ve gotten better. We know the system better and we’re all getting better in practice.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the chemistry of the team at this point compared to last year…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“It’s better now than it was at this point last year. Last year we were prepared earlier to play because we went to Canada and started practicing before everyone else. We have a good group this year; we’re playing good right now and ready to go.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On being picked to win the SEC by the media…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“It’s an honor, we’ve got to live up to it and keep working hard in practice.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On playing point guard…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I play the point most of the time in practice. I like it; I’m getting better at it. I’m starting to make the right plays from the point position.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
