John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats talk: Cats vs Florida

Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
On if anything stood out to him after watching tape from the loss at Ole Miss …

“Couple guys didn’t play very well. Like, really, I was stunned. What I’ve said to those players, it’s hard for me to watch individual performances when I’m watching a game. I’m trying to see the flow of the game; I’m trying to think ahead, I’m trying to see where I think this is going, what we need to do. It’s hard for me to zero in on one guy. When you do that on the tape you have the chance to rewind it, rewind it, rewind it, you’re like, ‘Uh-oh.’ We don’t have enough room for error, if two guys really play poorly, like, really play bad, we’re trying to play with 3.5 guys. So, guys have a responsibility to each other. We didn’t talk, we didn’t defend. We had a couple guys not defend at all; it was straight line drive, straight line drive to the basket. But Mississippi came out and they were the aggressor and that’s what happens.”

On if their defense against Ole Miss is why he’s emphasizing taking charges …

“No, just one guy. Not on his man, but away from the ball, Josh (Harrellson) needs to put his body out there. He’s not taken one charge all year. He now has a goal that he has to reach or he runs. He’ll be flopping all over that court. And you know what? It’s not his fault; I accepted that for 20 games. Now I’m not accepting it, it’ll change. What it always comes back to is, me. What I accept is what I’ll get. If you demand a lot you’ll get a lot, if you accept mediocrity you’ll get it every single time. We have some guys that I’ve accepted what they want to give and that’s why I’m saying there’s stuff we’re trying to do to cure some of that. We need to get some free baskets; we don’t get enough offensive rebounds. Why? Well, guys aren’t going to the glass. Well, that must be acceptable. We’ve got a lot of stuff that we’ve got to tie together.”

On Florida and how they match up against them …

“Hard game. They’re playing well, they play well at home. Their two-guard will control the tempo of the game, their big kids are good, they run a lot of pick and rolls and do a lot of good stuff. Billy’s (Donovan) done a great job.”

On if he hasn’t been tough enough on his team …

“No, I’ve been hard on them, believe me. But, there are things that they’re not doing that we must have let go because that’s where they are. So, it always comes back to me. Like I said, we’ve accepted certain things and for us to move forward, like I said, we can’t accept those things. Those are so important, that’s one or two possessions in a couple-bucket game. And for us, every game we’re going to play is going to be a couple buckets. Those are two-possession games. Everybody wanted to look at the last shot. ‘Why didn’t he shoot it, what was the…’ Well, there were about four or five plays before that, that that wouldn’t have been a factor if we had blocked on a weak side drive, guy shoots a six-foot run, a 5-9 guy, shoots a reverse layup and our guy is standing right there and doesn’t block it. I mean, just stood there and watched it. We had a bunch of plays like that, straight line drive off our guard. ‘I score so I’m going to go down here now and not going to get in a stance and he’s going to drive and score.’ We had a bunch of those. I score; I’m good now, and then they score quick because the guy’s not ready to play. But again, that’s the inexperience. That’s something that we’re just trying to work our way through, playing every possession, it’s what young guys and inexperienced guys do not do. They don’t understand every possession is important, every possession.”


On if he believes freshman guard Brandon Knight when he says that playing against Florida, a school that recruited him, and Kenny Boynton is just another game …

“We’ll see, we will see. I hope he’s accurate with that statement because I think what they’ll try to do is press him a little bit, get up in him and do some stuff. He needs to have poise down there because the place will go nuts. It’ll be interesting. It’s a good game for us to play right now – great game.”

Why?

“Because it’s a bounce back game and you better bounce back, and you’re going to do it against another team and they’re not going to go away. So, you’re going to have to play the entire 40 minutes and we have to find out at some point this year when will we do it because we haven’t done it yet. We’ve played for 30 minutes and 32 minutes, we’ve not been close to a 40-minute game. So, this one, you better challenge yourself. You make a basket, you better not go back and say now I’m good and they score quickly. If you do that you have no chance of winning the game.”


#1, Darius Miller, G, Jr.
On the importance of getting off to a good start …

“Yeah, it’s really important for me and the whole team. We can play a lot better, especially at the beginning of the games.”

On the reaction to him not taking the final shot in the Ole Miss game …

“I don’t know. It was just a bad moment I guess. But, I have to learn from it and move on.”

On if he is lacking any confidence …

“No, I don’t think it really has anything to do with confidence. I think it just goes back to what I said earlier and I have to play the whole game.”

#2, Stacey Poole, G, Fr.

On if his dad will wear Florida or Kentucky gear …

“He is going to wear something plain. He isn’t going to wear anything with something on it. He may. I’d be surprised if he wore some Kentucky stuff.”

On how he is developing …

“Well, you know it is a big transition from high school to here. You have to go from starting and playing a lot to not playing. I just have to deal with it. I have to keep my head up. The opportunity will come.”

On if he feels like he is getting better …

“Yeah, practice has been going pretty good. I am trying to get my defense better, and I am trying to get better on that. So practice is going pretty good, now I am waiting on my opportunity.”

#12, Brandon Knight, G, Fr.
On his overall thoughts on the Florida game …

“We are just trying to go out and do what we have been doing in the SEC.”

On what it will be like to play in Florida …

“The only thing I can say, and I will say is all I am trying to do is get wins. You know, I am focusing on the game plan and the things that we are going to have to deal with.”

On teams trying to play Kentucky with more physicality …

“I’m not sure. Every team that we have played has tried to play us physical. It wasn’t just Ole Miss. Every team that we have played in the SEC has tried to play us more physical.”

quotes courtesy of UKAA

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