John Calipari transcript after Belmont Bruins game

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

What I’m trying to do is I’m trying to bring them along, but I’ll tell you, we talked about Anthony (Davis) early, he was just okay. Well, you all who watch my team in 2012, how was Marquis (Teague) early? Say it, Larry.

Q. (Anthony Davis and Marquis Teague) struggled.

COACH CALIPARI: Like really struggled, worse than Andrew. And he came around and he ended up being a national championship point guard. But it’s going to take time, and the games we played early were probably not fair, and they weren’t fair for Marquis. They really weren’t.

Q. When you came to this state, Kentucky hadn’t won a championship since ’98, Louisville hadn’t won one since ’86. Now the state has produced back‑to‑back national champs. It looks as though you’ve raised the level of play at both schools.

COACH CALIPARI: No, I don’t coach at that school. Rick Pitino won a national title here. He took Providence to a Final Four. I think he’s qualified enough to do that. He’s a Hall‑of‑Fame coach. What he was doing at Louisville inspired us and me here. We’d better work. We’d better get after this. The thing that’s happened here, kids are leaving early. I was with Mike Krzyzewski last night at a game. It’s just changed college basketball and how you coach and how you teach. It’s made it that much harder. No, I don’t think so, but it’s great for our state. I mean, you think about it; the two programs that ‑‑ when do we play them? Glad I’ve got a couple days off.

Q. Having not played Marcus Lee as of late but you played him today, what was your thinking about when he got in there early?

COACH CALIPARI: Only this game. I mean, now Belmont had a big kid that if they put in I was going to put in Dakari, but Dakari didn’t really have anybody to guard there, so it wouldn’t have been fair to put him in the game unless I played zone. Now, if I played zone, what would they have
done? They’d have shot 25 more threes. Let me say this, too: And I’ve said this publicly, and Rick (Byrd) and I spoke, and I’ve known him for a number of years now, I can tell you he’s not a good coach, he is a great coach, could coach wherever he’d want to coach. To build a program, to take it from where it was to the next step to the next step and then go in and beat North Carolina, NCAA Tournament games and win, mold a team, getting kids to come together and play how they have to win, I just have the utmost respect for him, and he knows that, and I’ve told him that many times. I knew this would be a hard game. Somebody said, well ‑‑ the kid that was hurt is now healthy and he was ready to play, and he played well, and their team is good. This is like Boise. You play Belmont and Boise, those two teams are going to win 25 games, both of them.

Q. Have you ever had a Camp Cal session more important than the one you’re about to undertake?

COACH CALIPARI: Well, you all say that. Whatever happens in that game, I can remember we played Tennessee one versus two, and there must have been 30,000 people outside the arena watching it on the big screen because they couldn’t get tickets to get in the arena. It came down, and the game was so high powered, I can’t begin to tell you how fast and how aggressive, and we had a lead, they made a shot, we missed a shot, they made a shot, late at the buzzer, we missed a shot, they won. From that point my team went like that and their team went like that, and I mean tanked.

Why are you laughing? I’m not saying that about anybody, I’m just saying it was the truth. So my point being we have to get better. Andrew has to get better. He’s got to have a better understanding of what we want and then do it. If he doesn’t, I’m not communicating well enough. James Young has to play. He did not today. Julius, we’re getting better at how we’re playing him. Did you notice we changed a little bit of how we did transition? We’re trying to do different things because we have to play different with this team. It’s a big game because it’s the next one, and they’re in our state. It’s a big game that way. But the reality of it is if we win and don’t get better and throw one at half court and it banks in and all of a sudden we start losing, it didn’t do ‑‑ we have to get better as a team. The challenge ‑‑ let me tell you the one thing with them, they play extremely hard, way
harder than we’ve played, like way harder. And again, they’re a Final Four, national championship team this year ‑‑ those guys are back. They know
how hard to play; they’re not rattled late, all the things that this team is still learning about. Three games, we lose. Three minutes to go, it’s a
one‑point game, and we don’t win any of them, and not only don’t we win any of them, almost lose double digits in each of them. Could have easily in
each of them. One‑point game with three minutes to go. So we have a lot of learning to do, and that’s the next one.

Q. Outside of scoop passes in transition, what did you like about what Julius did today?

COACH CALIPARI: No, Julius was a beast running. He got up and down the floor. We put him in different positions. I love that he made a jump shot. We’re trying to tell him, shoot the ball; you’re a good shooter. He missed some free throws today. He’s a great free throw shooter. I don’t understand what’s going on with his free throw shooting. Probably thinking too much. But you know, he ran, he was strong around the goal. As they tried to rip it, he’s getting better. But you know, again, this team is just ‑‑ we are what we are right now, and you saw it. We had to go to Jarrod and Dominique to get the
energy we needed in the game. You know it and I know it. That’s what we did. And what I want is a high‑energy game, and you stick those guys in and they raise it even more, and they sustain it until we can get guys back in. That’s what I want, not like I’ve got to get you out because you’re not giving us anything, you’re not adding, you’re sucking, you’re sucking the energy out of us. We need you to add energy. No, I want it to be great energy. You’re tired, come out for a minute and then raise it again, and then the game is played the way we want to play.

We’re trying to get our team to play fast. I’ve never heard of a coach, just play fast, get it in and go, and we’re not at times. At other times we
are and we look pretty good. Again, guys, have a great holiday. Hope you get to spend it with your family. My whole family is in. I’m not doing radio today, I’m going to go race back. My son tore his ACL yesterday in a high school game and I had to go to the hospital last night. Tough deal. He’s worked so hard and done great stuff, and he’s out six months, so I’m dealing with that right now, my own son, and kind of similar to I remember sitting down with Nerlens (Noel) and having him cry and then telling him why he was okay.

I had the same scene last night. I literally did not want to tell him what I knew, and the doc said he probably knows, you need to tell him, because I didn’t want to deal with it. And then I told him, and same response what you would expect from a 17‑year‑old. But he’s going to be fine, and this is all
part of life. This is all part of growing. This is adversity that’s thrown at every kid in every family, so I’m going to spend a little time with him to try to keep him thinking the right way.

Thanks, folks.

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