Coach Cal’s pre-Cleveland State press conference:
Head Coach John Calipari
On players saying they only worked on defense yesterday …
“We’re trying to get them to play through a whole possession, stay in a stance. Someone said ‘Wow, you guys got beat on the dribble.’ Yeah, if you’re standing straight up and down, it’s pretty easy to get beat on the dribble. So we did a lot of things of keeping them in a stance. But again, when I watched the tape there’s just not the effort, and I’m trying to explain, you guys – I asked them what having fun was. They said winning. I said, ‘No, not necessarily.’ It’s coming out and having an unbelievable effort by everyone that’s on that floor and who comes in the game and forcing your will on the other team, doing it together, talking and having fun doing it. That’s fun. You may lose a game and be miserable after the game, but throughout the game you had a ball playing because you tried to do it and the other team did it back, and you went back and forth. I said there are games you can lose and feel good about because you gave everything. Then there are games that you win by 30 and you should not feel good about. But they don’t know all of that. This is all stuff that’s new to them.”
On how the Harrisons are handling his coaching …
“They’re trying, but they’ve got a ways to go. But it’s not just those two. Julius (Randle) has got a ways to go. When you rebound, stick, rebound, bang, and then they say, ‘Man, he played hard,’ but then you’ve got to watch defensively, you’ve got to watch running the floor. Alex (Poythress) has gotten better, but got a ways to go. I mean, we’re just, you know, we’re a team that is behind. Dominique (Hawkins) probably is closest to what we’re looking for of anybody on the team, but it’s not where we need to be right now.”
On whether or not he is emphasizing talking on defense …
“If you don’t know where everybody is and if people aren’t talking, you’re not comfortable. You kind of get, you go back, because you’re afraid to go out. Because you don’t know if people have your back, and that’s where we are a little bit right now to. Look, there’s a lot of fronts that we’ve got to work on. You know, we’ve got to work more on the press, which I want to do today and do some different things out of it. But the whole point comes back to your effort, if you want to know, again, what’s success, it’s just ‘I’m giving my best, I’m doing my best.’ You have to feel good about that. If you’re not doing your best, if you’re standing around, if you stop playing, for most of these kids, they were always bigger and stronger and longer and faster. You didn’t have to outwork the other guy. If a team’s effort level is far beyond yours, it will smash a talented group. Just will. A less talented team that just fights like crazy will beat the talented team. So, my job right now is to get these guys to understand how hard they’ve got to play, what it’s got to look like, and we’re just not there.”
On who his lockdown defender is and if the leading candidate is Dominique Hawkins …
“Well, his size. I mean, James Young should be able to be that guy. Julius (Randle) should be able to be the guy. He got beat on the dribble four or five times again. (He) stood straight up and down, didn’t really get down in the stance. And then getting down, we’re so long, you have to get down in the stance and have a hand up, because you’re taking away a jumper, because you’re 7-foot tall, you’re 6-9. You don’t get in it, go down and go like this and make yourself 6-foot. So then it’s like, ‘Well, I can’t have my hand up and get down.’ Oh, yeah you can. That’s what you’re supposed to be doing. So we’ve got some of that. But again, I’ll say this, great bunch of kids. They really are, one of the greatest groups I’ve coached. But they’re kids, you know, and we’ve got a lot of learning to do and a lot of habits to break. And it’s hard to break them, and especially if I keep seeing on tape and it’s the same. Then I’ve had to change what I’m doing in practice and how I’m doing it to you know, to get them to do the right stuff.”
On Dakari Johnson …
“We worked on his free-throw shooting yesterday. I think he’ll be fine. Showed him clips of Enes (Kanter), some other guys in the league and how before I worked with them, worked with Enes. Enes right now is the leading big-man free-throw shooter. (We) Just shortened his stroke, so it’s from here, and he (Dakari) did it yesterday and he looked pretty good. But he’s got to grab balls with two hands. He’s got to be more athletic, which means be more alert before you guard and before you catch the ball. Don’t bring the ball down. Get it up to the goal and keep your hands up, you’re 7-foot tall and you’ve got long arms. Why would you bring it down and make yourself small? Because it’s easier. ‘I want to gather myself.’ To do this and make it, it’s hard. So most of our guys if there’s two ways of doing it, this is the easier way and this is the harder way, right now, this group has been used to, let me do the easier way. We’ve got to get them out of that mode.”
On the article written about him coaching in the NBA …
“I mean I don’t pay any attention to it. The job I have to do here, to develop these kids and get them right is all-encompassing. So, I’m not, my focus is here and I don’t get into all that, rumors and innuendo, and it won’t be the last one that’s out there, and I just don’t deal with it.”
On if he will ever consider going back to coach in the NBA …
“I’m good where I am. I’ve said it publicly. This is a great, what makes this unique, and I mentioned today driving in, I was reading a new book, and it’s about purpose. And the purpose here is real clear to me, is I’m getting someone’s child, and my job is to develop them in all areas, not just on the basketball court, to prepare them for reaching their dreams. And when they reach their dreams, they become successful and understand the bigger picture. Which, John Wall gave a million back to charity. DeMarcus Cousins gave a million back to charity when they signed contracts. That’s, and you see it here, and so my focus is on just, this is what I’m doing. Here’s a purpose that is one that’s, you know, it’s a heavy thing, because you got people’s children. But, this stage and what we do and how we prepare them has worked. So we’re just going to keep working that way.”
On if Michael Kidd-Gilchrist helped rub off on his teammates defensively …
“It did, but also Marquis Teague would go guard. We didn’t have just one, and Anthony was back there alert. He never was flat-footed. Terrence and Darius and Doron, you know, those guys, you had a lot of guys that were willing to defend and you had some veterans that were showing the others. Michael didn’t need to be taught about effort. That’s what Michael brought to the table. And so we’re right now just, there’s just something lacking that we’ve got to get out of them, and they got to accept it, as much as anything else.”
On the attendance at Rupp …
“That’s one great thing here, I don’t need to market and I don’t need to sell tickets. I don’t need to put up billboards. No, we’ll be fine. This program, I think what happens for us is every game being on TV and you have an arena the size of ours, sometimes people ‘Ah, I’ll just go watch it on TV.’ And that has an impact. But that’s everywhere. I think the one program that has sustained that support has been this program.”
On the officiating thus far…
“I think scoring’s up. The only thing, in the post, I think you know, we were all taught when you’re defending, to push, go up, because if you went down, it was an automatic foul. So if you were going to go to somebody, you whack up. Because, watch this, his hands are on the top of the ball. So you whack up where the ball was. For a guy rebounding it, all you basketball Bennies, you rebounded it, where are his hands? On the top. Do you want to whack here or do you whack up? For some reason, we’re now letting kids whack down and saying the hand is part of the ball. Really? So when he throws it, his hand stays on the ball? I didn’t know that. So then, hey, I’m throwing the ball with two hands on it. Really? And then when he moves it, and I want you to understand, the guy holds the ball like this and they take it out of his hands, that’s, you could understand. But how about when he moves it and they whack? You’re going to hit that ball without hitting elbows and wrists., and so right now what we have is, there’s still a lot of whacking going on. We did this rule, ready? Ball raises. If that guy’s not there, automatic (foul), automatic. If I move the ball and you whack down, my humble opinion, that should be an automatic foul. How are you going to hit that ball as I move it, move it to, you’re going to hit right on the ball. ‘Well, he only had a little bit of your wrist.’ Oh, which portion? The inside? The outside? So, those are the only things. I think the direction we’re going with officiating, long overdue. I’m just hoping that coaches that are coaching their team to play this way don’t get punished as the year goes on because they start calling it rough again. They start letting them do this and that, and all the other stuff. Push in the back, hit in the elbows. As long as that’s the case, you just, you want to reward the coaches who did what you asked them to do.”
On the players’ not allowing missed shots to affect their attitudes …
“A little bit. But you still have a bunch of guys that, you know, like I told them, you look like you’re a bad kid, like you’ve got an attitude and it’s not true. Why would you want to be perceived that way? See, I think a lot of times guys put their shoulders down because they just want to stop playing. Because if you don’t, you’ve got to run back and get in a stance and play and get your, or I could just put my head down and run like I’m mad and look around. ‘Anybody watching me?’ So I’m just saying, play. Just play. You missed a free throw, head went down. ‘I’ll jog back. Anybody watching?’ Are you kidding? Just keep running. Guys get used to stopping and not having to play through stuff. It’s what happens. So they developed habits. We’ve just got to correct them. And it’s going to take time. It’s not happening overnight.”
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