Kentucky Wildcats vs. Vanderbilt Commodores Post Game Notes and Quotes
By Wayne
Jan 11, 2014; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari gets the call from the referee during the second half at Memorial Gym. Kentucky won 71-62. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
"UK Coach John Calipari On the struggles of Julius Randle: “You have to understand, he’s in a dogfight. I think right now that he’s the only college player that when he catches the ball, he’s got 3 guys on him. I don’t know if there’s another college player. You’d have to tell me who that would be. And they’re being physical. So he’s not just running down the court, he’s like in a football game. So now, he’s exerting physically, cardiovascularly, and there’s some anxiety, so that could all play into it. He’s doing fine. He’s a beast. I wanted him to dunk a few balls today, but it’s hard to dunk when guys are all over you, body to body.” On the play of Alex Poythress: “Defensively, it’s the best he’s ever played. He scrambled and came up with balls and they were not his men. And then the dunks. That’s what our big guys all should be doing. When you go up, don’t think of laying it. I don’t need to know you have a good left hand or right hand. Dunk the ball. Put your head on the rim. That’s what he did today.” On whether he thought Vanderbilt’s lack of available players affected the game: “I don’t know. I was not watching that. You’d have to ask their coach.” Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball vs. Kentucky January 11th, 2014 Kentucky Forward #15 Willie Cauley-Stein Kentucky Guard #3 Jarrod Polson On expectations of game against Vanderbilt: Cauley-Stein: “I think we played really good as a team and that’s been one of the biggest things this year is you know the word this year is we’re not a good team. We got selfish guys but I mean the last couple days in practice we have been getting closer basketball wise as a team and then the game just showed. Like we really do have each other’s back and we really do got good guys.” On what ways did you really show up today: Cauley-Stein: “We have these things called hustle points and I think they both were in the high 50’s and that’s really good. You know when they are in the low 30’s we’re probably down at halftime or something like that, or it’s a one point game. But when they’re in the high 50’s that’s when you start really getting after it.” On Jarrod only making one three but having two in first half: Polson: “Yeah I mean I feel pretty confident with my three point shot. We practice all the time with that and I do pretty well in practice so I just an opportunity and took it.” On game feeling like a ground it out type of game: Cauley-Stein: “That was one of our things coming in, Coach has been saying we start off real sluggish in the beginning. So we’re just going to start by grinding it out instead of trying to play up and down, and then let the game kind of come to us and then start running. And I mean that’s what we did.” On contributing to grinding it out by controlling the boards: Cauley-Stein: “Personally, I thought I could do a better job at rebounding. Until Coach started getting on to me about it, I was just letting the guys box me out and I was satisfied with it. But just having that in the back of your head, just like you’re not going to let this guy stop you from trying to get the rebound instead of once you feel his body you stop. You always need to be moving and stuff, and for the most part guys did that. I mean that’s where the rebounding came in.” On playing a team that is down but who still played a close game: Cauley-Stein: “I mean definitely, the SEC is tough it doesn’t matter where you go. A team can lose by 50 in one game and then the next game come out and win by 30, it’s just tough especially on the road it’s real tough to play on the road. Once we start to get more into it guys will start to figure it out, until then it’s just going to be like that every game and you’re rarely going to have a game where you blow somebody out.” On how you think you responded when Vandy made runs: Cauley-Stein: “I thought we kept our composure pretty well, when they made a run we calmed ourselves down and then made a run back. Coach preaches that to us all the time, that it’s a game of runs and most of the time whoever has the last run is going to win.”"