In case you missed the live stream of Coach Calipari’s press conference from today, here it is.
Kentucky Coach John Calipari
On Arkansas’ fast-paced style …
“They’re playing that way; they’re playing that way. Offensively, motion into driving and attacking, a few pick-and-rolls, get it up quick, get a shot off quick, go rebound it. Defensively, denying, switching, being active, trapping. They’re doing a good job of that. They shoot the ball well. They shoot it from the 3, they shoot the 2s well and they shoot free throws at 70 percent; so it’s not a game you can go down there and throw a bunch of clunkers up because you’re going to have a problem. I think that what Florida did is they made some shots but they also got a lot of drop-offs, they got a lot off the penetrations and kick outs.”
On how much of a test it will be for Andrew Harrison …
“It’s a test for our team, not just him. I’m trying to get these guys to be excited about winning and be excited about us getting better. Yesterday I kind of hit them in the mouth, I think they were all like stunned. You know, you get a team down and you have a chance to put them away, you do. And here’s why you didn’t. And we watched taped and talked about it. Said you have to get off this, well we won and get on to, let’s play our best. Now what does that mean in the score? May be a four-point win, it may be a 25-point win but let’s play at our best and let’s go out with that mentality. You know, it’s just hard for me, you know, after games where – and I haven’t had this many times – you know, teams, ‘they’re OK, we’re just as good.’ That usually does not happen. Part of that is back on us; do you understand what’s out there? I don’t want to say lack of respect but it’s not like glowing remarks.”
On how he ‘hit them in the mouth’ yesterday …
“I just told them the truth. I just told them the truth. I just said, want me to sit here and BS you, or want me to tell you the truth? It wasn’t just one guy, it was like everybody. And then we were going to practice an hour because we traveled back and practice went an hour and a half because of them. I told them, part of our issue is the focus we have at times on the court, we just lose the – you have to have a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose on each possession and we don’t always do. Guys will stop, they’re pointing, they’ll go guard their man who came off a screen or stop playing the guy, back cuts. We told them, Vandy is going to try to trick you into baskets and they did. They probably got 20 points off of tricks. Get beat because they’re better than you; they execute, not trick you into a lay-up or slip into a dunk. Those kind of things and we had gone over, obviously we didn’t have a whole lot of time but you have to be focused and we’re not quite ready for that yet.”
On Derek Willis’ minutes against Vanderbilt …
“He didn’t shoot the ball well but I liked his post feed, I like his size on the court. He hadn’t been shooting the ball well in practice probably because he hadn’t been playing and he didn’t think it was important, well now he found out it was important. But I told him, I said, you and Jarrod (Polson), it’s important that you guys are ready and, you know, I had told him for a week I’m going to try to put you in games. If they’re smothering Julius (Randle) and he’s kicking it out and guys are missing, I’m putting you in. Get in there and make shots. His teammates are even telling him when they throw it to him, ‘shoot it, we know you can shoot, shoot it.’”
On hearing Derek Willis was in the gym late the other night …
“I heard Dom(-inique Hawkins) was in here. You know we are getting to where they understand – look I told the story, I had Tyreke Evans and Tyreke really struggled early now, I’m just telling you. We’re like, one year? We’re going to have this kid for four years. I mean it was ugly. And it started getting better, it started getting better and we put the ball in his hand. But he knew, ‘man, I got a long way to go.’ He slept in the practice facility. We had a lounge that he had a lounge chair, he’d put a pillow and a blanket and two-three times a week he slept in the practice facility. Now, granted the housing was seven blocks away, this housing is 12 steps, OK? He still didn’t want to walk seven blocks, he said, ‘I’ll sleep here, I gotta get up at eight anyway.’ Guys have to be that committed and driven and when you are you don’t let go of the rope. Someone comes in to take it; you worked too hard, ‘I have invested too much. You’re taking this from me? You ain’t taking this from me. I don’t care how hard you play, how much you foul. It doesn’t matter, you’re not taking it,’ if you’re invested. If you’re not invested, you’re only doing what you’re being told to do. You basically say, ‘No, no, don’t go crazy, just take it. You’re losing your mind, here take it.’ And so guys have to be more invested in this and they’re beginning to be.”
On it being more difficult to get extra work in with class starting back on Wednesday …
“Brandon (Knight) did it. Brandon did it. You know, how much do you have to play video games? Really? Gotta get those two hours of video (games) in or how are you going to live? You gotta be on your phone three hours, reading everything. I mean that’s tough, ‘I cannot give up my video games.’ I mean, there are things you’ve got to look at and say ‘what am I going to give up to make sure (I’m invested)?’ All I know is Brandon was a straight-A student and when I walked in this building at 12 o’clock at night or 11 o’clock at night from recruiting, he was in there. And he’s up there scoring 30, think about it. And he’s skinnier than anybody we have on this team. Again, it’s just, the breakfast club, those kinds of things but it cannot come from me because if you drag them, they become exhausted. If they do it themselves, they become inspired. Now you can encourage it but that’s the best you can do. If it comes from them, they’re inspired, if it comes from me, ‘he’s killing me. Dying, oh my gosh.’”
On late game free throws against Vanderbilt…
“I made two guys shoot the ball, really all three. I made us throw the ball to Willie (Cauley-Stein) because I wanted him to get fouled. I made Alex (Poythress) go. I called high five and I wanted him to shoot a free throw. Julius (Randle), we ran the play for him to come back and get fouled to make the free throw. If the game was a little closer I probably wouldn’t have done that. We probably would’ve gone to somebody else, but with the score the way it was, I wanted the guys in those situations to know, you’re going to get the ball. You have to have the mindset, ‘I’m not worried about missing. I’m going to make it.’ We’re still not there.”
On if Julius can practice as hard as he plays …
“Everything we do is just high energy, it’s not long. There are times he backs up. Now, he’s still going hard, but he’s not like he’s playing. You have to do it. He’s got to get that point, he has to push himself and try to get yourself to cramp in practice. Does that make sense to you? Make yourself cramp in practice. Now, maybe you don’t have the anxiety. Now if you go that hard and you don’t cramp, you’re going to go into the game knowing, ‘I can do
this.’”
On Dakari Johnson’s game performance …
“He’s done fine. I just want to make sure we’re still engaged with Marcus Lee because he’s been way better in practice and Willie’s playing so well. There’s not space for three of them right now, but this could be an energy game. This could be one of those games where he plays because of his energy, but we’ll see.”
On the matchup with Arkansas …
“I’ve played against Arkansas a bunch, whether I was at Memphis or here and it mostly affects who you have on your team. You have to have tough, strong-willed players. Those guys will give themselves a chance to win. If you’re timid in any way they’ll over run you, but they’re not the only team that plays that way. There are a lot of teams that come after you. They’re flying, being aggressive, playing, you’ll have opportunities and they’ll make some crazy shots. You just have to keep playing.”
On the atmosphere …
“Arkansas doesn’t know this yet, but the t-shirt company I own, they bought. I went out and bought a t-shirt company because of everybody’s blue, blackouts, whiteouts, yellowouts. I’m just kidding.”
On having a late away game…
“It’s (9) o’clock our time so we’re not getting down there until tonight. Just coming back, they’ll get back here late and they have class tomorrow so it’ll be tough that way. You wish it were earlier so they could get back and not have an 8 o’clock issue where they get three hours of sleep and have to go to class.”
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