John Calipari talks about the upcoming game with Providence on Sunday night in the Barclays Center.
Kentucky Men’s Basketball
Pre-Providence Game Quotes
Lexington, Ky.
Nov. 29, 2013
Head Coach John Calipari
On what kind of test Providence will be …
“Well, they beat LaSalle who is a pretty good basketball team. They beat Vandy who is a good basketball team from what I saw and Vandy had them down 16 and they came back and won. They beat Boston College, they lost to Maryland, the only game they’ve lost is Maryland and it was like a four-point game so they had a chance to win that. They run good stuff, they play hard. It’s the next step up for us. It appears as though every game has been like a stepping stone if you take out Michigan State.”
On what he’s looking for to take the next step …
“We’re just continuing to do, I’m adding different things to practice to get them to stay in a stance longer, to move their feet more, to make us more aggressive. We showed signs last game, I liked that our guards got up and moved their feet. You don’t have to body them, just move up there and move your feet and hands a little bit, get closer to them and bother the ball, we did that. We stop less, we still stop 30-percent of the time, just stop playing. Like, why did you do that? ‘I don’t know.’ We’re not a great execution team but we’re good enough to win. We should be a better team shooting wise than we are even though we’re a good free throw shooting team which usually implies that you’re a pretty good shooting team but right now it’s not carrying over. I think part of the reason is we’re probably, for me, shooting too many 3s. I mean, the most a guy should shoot is four or five 3s, that’s the most. And that’s like, you were on fire. The rest of the time we’ve drive the ball, that’s how we play. Everybody will say, how do you get to the line so much? Are you watching the games? The last game was the most fouls we’ve had. We’ve always played the same way, try to get in the half with six fouls. For all you ‘Basketball Bennies,’ why only six? They’re not in the bonus. So you only want six, you don’t want seven or eight, you want six. And then at the end of the game you only want six fouls so that they’re not in the bonus, so that they can’t beat you shooting free throws. I’ve always coached that way. The other day, just keep fouling, we’ll get enough people, get up there and body check, hand check. It’s OK, you can win however you’ve done this but the problem is the rules have changed now so you can’t really play that way unless the officials don’t call it. But we’re driving the ball and posting the ball and we’re big. We should be shooting 40 to 50 fouls a game, we really should. And there will be games coming up we may shoot 60 if they keep calling them all. Well, then shoot 60.”
On if there is something consistently not happening leading to the slow starts …
“I just think they’re so young, we’re out there with five freshmen. I told the staff today, I can’t get caught up with winning and losing right now and I am, I want to win every game. But what it’s causing me to do is try to make these guys better than they are at this stage. Just coach the games, watch the tape and let’s get better. Of all the teams in the country, we have the most upside so deal with that. If you didn’t want to deal with it, either convince kids to stay or recruit bad players, they’ll all stay, you won’t’ have to deal with this. But the reality of it is, we are what we are, a bunch of freshmen trying, I’m trying to figure them out, they’re trying to figure each other out. We’re still not locked into how we’re going to play. The problem is I go watch tape and then I get 17 more thoughts in my mind that I want to give to them and they don’t have the seven thoughts that I taught them right now. I almost, that brings anxiety. Like I got more I want to give you but you don’t have this yet and we can’t. The biggest thing for us, forget basketball, effort, staying in the stance, talking more, being more aggressive, fighting through screens, don’t stop. How about this one? Sprint the floor on offense. We rebound it, sprint. We’re a great rebounding team right? So run, sprint. I mean everybody that doesn’t get it, sprint. If you’re the point guard, don’t jog it up, sprint it up and if you don’t want to sprint it just throw it immediately to a wing and then you jog. The rest of us will score; you’ll end up with two points. That’s OK, nothing wrong with that. But we’ve got to go because of how we play. Those are the basic things. Give up the ball earlier than you think you should. Right now we’re holding it ‘til the last minute and I told them, when I played I knew all the tricks. I’d throw a slow bouncer to the guy that was open. Why would I throw a slow bouncer? Slow bounce pass to the guy that is wide open. Why would I throw that? He’d be guarded; he had to throw it back to me so that I could shoot it. I’d always give it up early. Why would I give it up early? ‘I’m here, I’m here.’ And I’d shoot that one. I got all those tricks, so I know them when you’re using them. I played that way. Late in the game they’re fouling. Do you pass it or ball-fake it? You’re up eight, there are 28 seconds to go, they’re fouling, do you pass it or ball-fake? I ball fake. ‘You’re not, foul me. Foul.’ OK, and then I’d go shoot free throws. I knew all those tricks because it’s how I played. Couldn’t guard anybody so I had to score, knew my guy was going to get 18, I better get 22. I was a selfish player. So I know what selfish looks like. They never saw me play, that’s the greatest thing about being old.”
On if the team will be doing anything special in New York …
“Yeah, well we want to but I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do. One of the things we’re doing because they’re changing the rules so that we’re able to do things. We’ve done a lot of stuff that people don’t know. I mean we bring in NBA security to talk to them about all of the pitfalls that they’ll get early but most kids if you end up having a professional career what you have to watch including getting stopped in a car because you are either speeding or nothing, or they’re just checking on you, how to deal with it. We also we brought in sports psychologists to meet with each one of them. We’re doing stuff talking to them and training them in different ways, giving them books. We’re bringing in financial people to talk to them. And on this trip and other trips, I want to take trips for the sole reason of teaching whether we go to the stock exchange and do stuff. If we’d have left today we would have done that. If we had left earlier today or last night and we didn’t, so, but we may go to a theater or we may go down to the district. We’re not sure what we’re going to do yet, but we’ll do something. We’ll be there early.”
On if the team is finally getting the sense that they’re every other team’s Super Bowl …
“I don’t know. That’s why I keep coming back to that we need to probably lose a few games and see where they come. Because these guys have the will to win and they don’t want to lose. So, then start better. How about that simple thing? Then start better. And part of it may be how we start and then how we are playing to start the game which is on me, which is let’s do something a little different. But, these guys it’s more it’s not just the start. It’s an effort and a stopping or breaking off doing what you’re choosing to do. My thing, the last game was do your job. We’ve been very clear with each player what their job is. Do your job. If you can’t do your job you shouldn’t be in there let somebody else go then. And it’s been clear so that each player knows exactly what to do to help our team.”
On if Willie Cauley-Stein starting would help fix the slow starts …
“No, it has nothing to do with that. Marcus (Lee) the kid goes in there and if you look at his per minute rebounds, per minute points it may lead the nation. So, it had nothing to do with him. It’s just that Willie is playing so well, now if Alex (Poythress) or one of the other guys, or if Dominique (Hawkins) stepped up then one of them would be starting. But, they’re not playing as well as the guys in front of them right now and at the end of the day it’s still a rotation. I wanted to get Derek (Willis) in last game. That was my plan to try and put him in as a four because he can really shoot it, and I haven’t played him as much but we need to figure some of that stuff out too.”
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