Kentucky-UNC Asheville Postgame Interview with John Calipari
By Jason Marcum
Q. Willie (Cauley-Stein) again obviously was on the bench a lot there with some foul trouble but really affected the game, and there was one stretch I think he led to five straight baskets.
COACH CALIPARI: Now he’s got to be able to sustain it more. But that spurt is who he is. Now, maybe at this point he can only go 20 minutes. That’s fine, just give us 20 minutes of those minutes because then he started getting beat on the dribble and saying, I’m not tired. Well, you blocked all those earlier, why do you think you’re not tired. Something is wrong. You went from blocking them to giving them lay‑ups. So again, we’ve got guys, the intensity and the fight that they’ve got to play with, we’re just not where we need to be right now.
Q. You spent a lot of time in the preseason talking about the new rules and the new points of emphasis. Is this what you expected from a foul standpoint?
COACH CALIPARI: Well, we do drive the ball, but they sagged in. They did what every team is going to do, 90 percent of the teams. They’re going to work the clock, work the clock, and expect one of these freshmen to stop playing, and if they don’t stop playing, they’ll shoot it and expect one of them to stop playing so they can rebound it. That’s what they’re going to do.
If hands are down they’re going to try to beat us shooting 3s. Northern Kentucky made 13 threes tonight, almost beat Purdue on the road. I mean, if we play like we did tonight against them, we lose. I don’t care what you’re ranked. I really don’t care this guy can play, that guy can play; that’s okay, and then you lose.
We’ve got to, again, play through full possessions, the whole possession play. If they make a tough shot, fine. Don’t stop, not one guy. We’re not near that yet.
Second thing is if you rush it up and it’s not there, don’t throw a lob pass into five guys. Swing the ball and let us all play. If you don’t have a play, don’t take two more bounces and throw a slow bouncer out like the play is over. Swing it, swing it, drive. Again, we didn’t ‑‑ I’ll tell you what, I thought when I put Jon Hood and those guys in you saw the ball move. You saw Jon Hood get a wide‑open shot on the third drive. I don’t think we got to the third drive one time with that other unit. We’ve got work to do.