Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: John Calipari, James Young and Willie Cauley-Stein Pre-Florida
Feb 27, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari huddles with his team against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second half at Rupp Arena. The Razorbacks won 71-67. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
As the Kentucky Wildcats prepare to head to Gainesville, Florida to take on the Florida Gators, Coach John Calipari, James Young and Willie Cauley-Stein gave some time to the media for a short pre-Florida press conference. Let’s see what they had to say
John Calipari
On the teams confidence in shooting the ball
"We’ll see. I mean, they shot the ball well yesterday, had a great practice. Got to do it in the games, got to have a fire, a passion to play. If we’ve got to get them excited about this game"
On the first 30 minutes vs the last 10 in the previous Florida game
"Well, we lost the game because of two offensive rebounds. Now, we could have made more shots and it wouldn’t have come down to that, and all this and that and that and that. Two offensive rebounds."
On whether or not his team is in shape
"Well, it’s in the kind of shape you want it to be, but these kids all played high school basketball and their season ended about two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Their high school seasons have ended. And now you’re into the gut-check of your season. So, yeah, it could have been – some of it could be that."
On what people have been telling him
"These are great kids. I love coaching them. I had a ball in practice yesterday. And I did tell them this: I said, ‘I’ve had friends of mine say, “One, you look tired.”‘ I am tired! It’s March, I’m exhausted! ‘You look tired.’ How stupid is that? Do you look at any coach that doesn’t look tired? I’m the only one that looks tired? Oh my gosh. The second thing is, they say, ‘You know, I’m watching, you don’t have as much fun as you usually have with your teams.’ And I said to my team, ‘You guys must be rubbing off on me now, ’cause that’s never said about me when I’m coaching."
James Young
On the first half of the last game against Florida
"It shows that we can beat anybody."
On feeling like they have nothing to lose
"It’s their senior night, or whatever. It’s probably a big game to them, we’re just going to go out there and play out game and hope to come out with the win"
On his shooting versus Alabama
"I looked at the video, I kept leaning back too much, sticking my leg up. I came to the gym and worked on it."
On last few practices
"We have a lot of energy."
On the team
"It’s a great team, probably the best team I’ve ever played on."
Willie Cauley-Stein
On what the first 30 minutes versus Florida taught them
"That we can beat anyone in the country, then the next few games we learned we can lose to anyone in the country."
On believing in themselves enough to beat Florida
"You play to win the game. Obviously. 100%. It’s to the point, our backs are kind of against the wall and players are going to have to show they’re players."
On being the team that keeps Florida from going 18-0
"It’d be great. That’s what we go down there for. That’s kind of the motivation. We’re so young, we don’t really know when the crunch time, when the winning time is."