Kentucky Wildcats: John Calipari Previews the Baylor Bears and Julius Randle’s Expectations

Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

In the midst of a very long lay off between basketball games, we continue to build momentum as both our Men’s and Women’s teams head to “The House that Jerry Built,” other wise known as AT&T Stadium and Cowboys Stadium.  Setting up men/women combo games at the same venue is relatively uncommon but, then again, so is Coach Calipari.  Coach Cal previewed his Cats vs. Baylor yesterday and there are some very interesting bits.

"ON BAYLOR: “The games I’ve seen, they’re relaly long, they’re really athletic, they’re a talented team. They play both man and zone. Their zone is really effective. My feel is they’ll play us 95-percent zone.  They play different ways, but they’re like us. They’re so long that you’re not getting the looks you think you’ll get in that thing. The good news is, just about every team has played a zone. And the one thing I want to tell you: There’s a cohesiveness to playing this game. And against man to man, we don’t seem to be as cohesive as we do against zone, and I don’t—my answer to you would be, because you have to pass it against zone. “You can’t just come down and make a play. You’ve got to pass the ball, pass the ball, move it inside, kick it out, drive it. And all of a sudden, we become a cohesive team. I really don’t care that people play us zone. That’s fine, it makes us come together. And it also showed me, on our offense, we got to pass the ball a little bit more. Now there’s a difference – in transition, you go. But in half-court offense, we got to pass it some.” ON JULIUS RANDLE ADJUSTING TO DOUBLE- AND TRIPLE-TEAMS: “The only thing I said: Quit trying to be perfect. You’re trying to act like you should make every play. Just stop. Just play harder than the other guy. Just worry about that. Don’t worry about anything else. ‘I can’t make this shot. I missed that shot.’ So what? Doesn’t matter. But he’s doing fine. He’s doing fine.” ON RANDLE GETTING ROUGHED UP AND IF HE’S DONE A GOOD JOB STAYING COMPOSED: “Well, I was on a conference call with a bunch of coaches yesterday, and they’re talking about the rules. And I said scoring, you know, is up six points per game (from) this time last year. So don’t talk about conference play and all. The games that were played to this point last year, scoring’s up six points. How much of that is free throws? Under 50 percent. So scoring is up. It’s doing what it’s supposed to. The absolute: Head and shoulders by the guy, contact is a foul on the defense. I raise the ball and you’re not standing there two-footed, it’s a block. How about another absolute? If you throw it in the post and the man moves the ball to shoot and you come down (with your hands), it’s an automatic foul. “Why not add that? If he’s holding it and you grab it out of his hand, it’s OK. He goes to score and you come down, automatic. Now, when I told the coaches, one chuckled and I said, ‘Now I am being self-serving, now.’ But I think it eliminates me or anybody else worrying about ‘Did you hit his arm? Did he grab him? Did he grab instead of hit?’ It eliminates it. So anything we can take out of the officials’ hands and make it — it’s an absolute; you just call it. They now get rated, and it’s very simple. ‘That’s an absolute. Why didn’t you call that?’ ‘Well, I thought… .’ ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, you don’t have to think. It’s an absolute. As soon as you see it, blow that whistle.’ So there are still things, I think, to clean up this game. I like the way the game is being played. Faster, more scoring, you can’t foul on every possession. You can’t foul four times on the same possession. You can’t anymore. Unless the crew is going to be penalized. They won’t be in the NCAA Tournament. You referee a game like that, you will not be in the NCAA Tournament.” ON PLAYING IN COWBOYS STADIUM IN A FINAL FOUR ATMOSPHERE: “Yeah. We’re not gonna have 80,000 there, but my hope is that because of the games that are being played – everybody’s ranked — it’s gonna be a terrific environment. And then to play in that building – I haven’t been in the building, but everybody tells me it’s just ridiculous. They’re moving the court to one side, but the court will be raised, so it’ll be like that kind of environment. But I’m excited. Look, we need to find another ranked team to find out where we are at this point. It’s not about winning and losing. You want to win every game. It is about, let’s just keep learning where we need to go with this team.” ON IF BAYLOR IS THE OPPONENT WHO HAS BEST MATCHED UP AGAINST THEIR LENGTH: “Eh, Michigan State has some length. They were long. I mean…” ON BAYLOR HAVING A 7-FOOTER WHO CAN HIT THREES: “Yeah, well, they’re different, but they were big. They had two big guys in there, and their wing was big and athletic, so…” ON IF THEY WILL PRACTICE IN COWBOYS STADIUM: “We’ll practice in there Thursday and probably shoot around Friday, so we’ll have two looks. And the women will be the same.” ON IF HE HAS ANY CONCERNS ABOUT SHOOTING IN AN ARENA THAT BIG: “Nah. No.”"

Have a watch at what Dominique Hawkins and Julius Randle had to say re: Baylor Preview.