Here are John Calipari’s comments from SEC Media Day in Hoover, Alabama:
[I]On practice thus far…[/I]
“Obviously, I’m in panic mode right now. I don’t have both feet on the panic button but I have one. I went back to my practice plans from a year ago to see what we had gotten in at this same time last year and it was exactly the same. Everything we are doing right now is the basic fundamentals that they have to have to play the way we play. So, I put on the board that we don’t have zone offense, against any zone, we don’t have out-of-bounds plays, and we don’t have a side out-of- bounds play. If they half-court trap us we don’t have anything. We don’t have a press attack. We have no late game. What if we need a three, and then I showed them the board. Then I said lets talk about defense. Then I went through the 15 things we have not covered on defense. I just said we have to start moving forward and we’ve got to get this stuff because I can’t move on until you get this stuff. Needless to say, we’re a ways away from being able to play a basketball game. I will say this, I like my team. We’re long, not as deep as we we’re a year ago, but I like my team.
[I]On his ability to bring in good guards…[/I]
“I’ve had guys say to me ‘Can you do for me what you did for Derrick Rose?’ and I go ‘Are you that good? If you’re that good, yeah I can.’ I think what has happened is this offense unleashes those guys. If you can play they’re going to see it, so you’re not held back. If you’re not real good at something, it also exposes that. I tell guys, if there are things in your game that you know you’re trying to fool people with; this is not the place to come. I’ve been very blessed by the best players I’ve had have been good guys. Brandon Knight is no different. There is one threat that I can tell you right now that goes through Derrick (Rose), Tyreke (Evans), John (Wall) and Brandon (Knight), and that is at 11 o’clock at night he’ll be in our practice facility working out. Those young men all were anxious about how good they were. They didn’t ever read the press clippings. They weren’t sure and so it drove them by being in that gym at night and doing those things and Brandon is the same.”
[I]On the team this year…[/I]
“The greatest thing you have with these guys is you’ve got the Terrence (Jones), you’ve got the Darius (Miller), whose 6’8”, you’ve got all the other guards – we’re a long team. Again, these guys, they’re behind but they’re trying. The key will be, will we be the defensive team eventually that we were a year ago? If we can do that we’ll be fine.”
Source: SEC
