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[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On what a Calipari Christmas is like …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“The good news is my two daughters will be in town with my son and wife. I’m trying to get my dad to pop in. We’ll spend a couple days together, we may even go somewhere for a day and come back. I’ll be with the family so it will be nice.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On the importance of giving the players a break for Christmas …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“I hope when they look back they look at their time at Christmas with their own family, being able to see friends and stop in and see relatives, not that they were tortured over Christmas while everyone else was enjoying stuff and they were tortured to play basketball. Basketball is important and I know it’s important at this school and this program but it shouldn’t come before their families. I’ve always felt that way. Every team I have coached has had a Christmas break. We played in the Rainbow Classic one year and got out there when the coach in Hawaii thought was late, but we were there before our game. We made the game and we won the tournament, no one else took a Christmas break except my team. We got there about 15 minutes before the game started but we were there in time and then we won the tournament.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On Terrence Jones …[/FONT][/I]
[I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]“[/FONT][/I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]I don’t think he’ll practice today, he wants to play tomorrow but I may not let him.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On players stepping up to be vocal leaders …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“They’re better. Doron (Lamb), because he is spending that extra time, is starting to play different. He is playing more assertive, he’s not in to himself, he’s talking more, and they all try to talk more. There were still times when Kyle (Wiltjer) didn’t talk on some back screens and neither did Anthony Davis but the reality of it is that they are trying to do what we need them to do.[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On Michael Kidd-Gilchrist feeling like he has performed enough to step up and be a leader …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“It all develops within your team. It develops with performance and effort. You can’t be sitting in the ice tub yelling at guys to work harder. He’s out there spending the extra time and it’s neat to see. One of the reasons I talked to him about what he will do for this team is he will drag the intensity of this club because it is embarrassing if you don’t play with intensity with this guy out there because it really shows. You start saying, ‘well this guy doesn’t play hard, look at Michael.’ It raises the intensity in practice and there will be guys mad, ‘Michael you’re trying to kiss butt,’ no I’m just trying to be the best player I can be. They all have an opportunity to come in. What I always say to guys like him, John (Wall) and Brandon (Knight), you don’t do this all yourself, you drag other people with you. I told John Wall, ‘don’t be leaving here by yourself, drag three or four guys with you.’ He took four with him.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On voluntary early morning workouts…[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“It’s torture for some guys, to get up in the morning and spend more time than they are supposed to spend. It’s just, ‘I’m going to do what I have to do and leave.’ But again, if you want to really feel success, it’s ‘I’m doing my best and I know this is absolutely the best I can do.’ That is success and that’s for everyone, if you’re cutting corners and say the most important part of your life is getting 14 hours of sleep, OK that’s fine but success isn’t the most important part of your life, getting two days worth of sleep in one day is.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On the game against Loyola …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“This game will be a good game for us. They play a funky zone, they press, and they press on the side-out. They are going to come after us and press, they will not back down. (Loyola head coach) Jimmy (Patsos) does a great job with his team, they’ve got good players, they are physical, they are older and they shoot the three. He coached under (former Maryland head coach) Gary Williams so they run a lot flex, they run a lot of hand offs and pick and rolls in to flex stuff. He does a great job with his team; they are (8-2). The two games they lost they had a chance to win both of them, they could have come in here (10-0).”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On the next two games for Kyle Wiltjer …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“We need a confident player out there making baskets because that’s what he does for us. We also have to figure out how we are going to play defensively with him in. I have to come up with some plans and schemes with him on that court because he will do what we ask him to do. I don’t want him to shoot all 3s so yesterday he did some step-throughs, but didn’t cover enough ground. You need to cover space and then shoot the ball. The best play he made was, we were in the huddle and he hadn’t made a shot so I said we were going back at him, let’s see if he makes it now. That’s the one where Darius (Miller) went off the screen and threw it back to him and he made the 3. It’s a good sign, the kid has courage, he can miss five shots and I can put him back in and expect him to make a shot.”[/FONT][/LEFT]
[LEFT][I][FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd-Italic]On Jon Hood …[/FONT][/I]
[FONT=ArialNarrowMTStd]“He’s doing good, he’s involved in every practice. He watches tape with coach (John) Robic. He’s around us and he’s doing pretty good.[/FONT][/LEFT]
