Here are John Calipari’s pregame comments as the Wildcats prepare to battle the Penn Quakers (via UKAthletic.com):
[B]On if Monday’s game against Penn could potentially be a ‘trap game’…[/B]
“This team hadn’t been that way so I would say not, but (Penn) is a team that can beat us if we don’t show up and play.”
[B]On what separates junior guard DeAndre Liggins as a defender…[/B]
“Well, that’s what his mindset is. Defense and rebounding is – yes, there’s skill to it. There is a skill to working hard every day, like bringing it every day. That’s a skill, too. But that’s the skill, where you come and bring it, where you compete, do you have the desire, do you have the will to play harder than the other guy knowing that you can’t stop. If you stop, you hold and grab which is what other guys do. Rebounding is the same way. Are you making that the emphasis? So he’s done that. But the biggest thing is he’s really improved his shooting. So now, even if he doesn’t shoot well, if he defends and rebounds you can’t take him off the floor. See the other guys don’t want to hear that. They want to walk in the game, give up a basket, give up a rebound and then miss two shots and say, ‘You got to let me out there.’ No. If you had rebounded and stopped the guy twice we could afford your misses. But that’s that buying in and it starts in practice. We were at my house last night as a team and I told them that we’re taking this up a notch and there’s a couple guys that will start practicing harder and with more intensity, but the minute I don’t see it they’re on the treadmill for a 30-second run and you’re going to give it to us somehow. You can’t just turn it on and off. You either have that reserve and you have something in the bag you can draw on at gut-check time, or you don’t and you’re attitude is to go half speed, stand straight up and down. We just have to change habits. I mean, you look at Josh (Harrellson), Josh changed habits. Now all of a sudden he’s a different player. He did it, it’s not what we did. He changed his habits. Some guys refuse to change habits. That’s just who I am. OK. And then they want to blame everybody. Everybody else is – change. ‘I can’t!’ Well, then you’re going to be who you are. Doing things the same way over and over and over and expecting a different result (is) insanity. You’re insane. You don’t want to change yet you want something down here to change. It won’t change. And so that’s what we’ve been able to do with most players who will trust us and buy into what we’re saying. They’ll change their habits and then all of a sudden their game starts changing.”
[B]On the process of DeAndre Liggins buying into what he was saying…[/B]
“He didn’t trust and probably rightfully so. You know trust is one of those things you build over time. You don’t just say, ‘Trust me.’ Because he’d been told that before when he was growing up and they just left him. Different males in his life have probably all done the same. Different coaches told him when you come here you’re going to do this, this, this and this, and then none of it happened. So I walk in and I say here’s how we’re going to do it and if you do this, this will happen, if you don’t, you’ll do this. I wouldn’t have trusted me either. Never trusted anybody in his life. So trust happens over a period of time. Do you do what you say you’re going to do? When he looks, I think now, he means what he says and he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do and I can trust him. That’s all part of what we have to do as coaches.”
[B]On people telling him when he got to Kentucky that DeAndre Liggins needed to go…[/B]
“They asked me to get rid of him. It wasn’t that he would leave, it was ‘get rid of him.’” (Then asked why he decided to keep Liggins…) “Because I knew him from high school, I knew some of his issues and I thought I could get through to him. See look, I’m not worried – and I knew there’d be ups and downs – I don’t do things publicly. So when I punish a kid, usually you don’t even know about it. I’m not trying to make myself look better by punishing a young kid. I’m not doing that. And I also am not afraid to take chances and have people say things about me, because it’s not about me. It’s about this young man. And I thought we could get him to play the way we wanted him to play, that we could win him over, that he had the things that I like to see in a player, but he had to change. He wouldn’t go in a game…I’ve had many players argue with me. I’ve had players not want to go in the game. You ready for this? If there’s a minute to go, and the young man hasn’t been in and we’re up 25 and I go to stick him in, I’ll say, ‘Do you want to go in?’ If the young man says, ‘No, I don’t want to go in,’ I’m alright with that. You know why? Because I was that guy. I know how that one feels. ‘No, please don’t put me in with a minute.’ Other guys, they could care less if it’s 12 seconds, I got that Kentucky uniform on girls are watching, I’m in. I am in. So, I don’t worry about all that, I don’t worry about give and take. This is an emotional game; we play with a lot of passion. And it’s not over yet with DeAndre. It’s never over. When guys totally start changing habits and learn to trust – sometimes one thing can shoot you in the wrong way, ‘Oh well I knew it.’ We don’t know. The guys last year, same deal. We all thought it was over the hump, we come in to practice, oh my gosh he’s back to where he was day one. So, it’s a daily grind in this, but you know what? It’s worth it. It’s worth it for me.”
[B]On Penn…[/B]
“They’re a team that runs great stuff. I watched tape of them and I’m like, ‘Holy cow.’ Drexel beat them, and I’m going to tell (Drexel head coach) Bruiser (Flint), (Penn’s) running better stuff than you’re running. But then I said how in the world did you win? Well, Drexel made shots and Penn didn’t. But they run good stuff, they’re going to play zone. They’ll do stuff to bother us. We’ve got to come and play. We’ve been a team that has shown up for every game, at least tried. In Hawaii I think we ran out of gas playing six guys, but every other game I think we’ve come with a great sense of urgency.”
