University of Kentucky Basketball Media Conference
Tuesday, January 3 2017
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
JOHN CALIPARI: We were focused on what we were working on, and guys, if they broke down, it’s not a missed shot or turnover, it isn’t. I told them again, discipline. What I’m talking about is not tucking your shirt in, pulling your socks up, combing your hair. We’re talking about this is how we’re playing as a team. This is your job, do your job so we can trust you, and then you have to trust each other. I’m just trying to build trust within this team.
On offense, we shared the ball, we did some good stuff. We got a good team. I told Billy after, that’s about as well as we can play. Other games, we had played well for 20 minutes, and then 10 minutes we look looked like an AAU team. Today we were grinding on defense, didn’t take crazy chances. So it was pretty good for us.
Q. It was a 35-2 turnover, points on turnover differential in your favor. What do you attribute that to?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, they have two guards out. They had their starting point guard and the backup point guard are not with their team because of injury or whatever else, I think it was both of them got injured. So now they’re playing with their third point guard and sometimes they’re playing without point guards. What he’s been able to do thus far to keep this thing afloat, and doing what he’s doing playing big lineups, playing some zone, playing a 1-3-1 at times, he coaches. Billy’s good.
But today, again, what our forte is, is putting pressure on the ball. So, his guards are out, our guards put pressure on the ball and that’s what you would see.
Q. Billy said when Isaiah’s an offensive weapon like he was tonight you can win the whole thing. What’s been the difference for Isaiah with his jump shooting recently?
JOHN CALIPARI: He’s in the gym working. He got away from it for a while, and his shooting went south. Now, he’s in there after every practice. He stays after at the shoot around.
And De’Aaron Fox now we’re forcing him to do the same thing.
Isaiah’s doing it on his own, trying to master his own craft, but he’s doing good. He’s still getting too many shots blocked. I’m telling him he’s leading the nation in shots blocked and not blocked shots.
Q. His overall numbers weren’t huge, but, again, tonight it felt like Bam was taking a step forward. Some of the offensive moves that he made was active in a lot of different areas defensively blocking shots. Do you feel like he keeps improving?
JOHN CALIPARI: He was great. How about the break away lay up? He looked like a guard. It was crazy.
I only — we got up, that gap was, and I subbed with seven minutes to go, that’s a lot of time. I even put Brad in with what? Five or six minutes to go? So, I didn’t want to put Bam back in. But Isaac and — I thought Ty was pretty good today, he just can’t play the extended minutes. Two or three minutes of him banging and going after balls is not bad. Sacha got a chance to go a little bit. Now we can watch tape and try to build on that.
Q. Was there any one or two players that you saw had really benefited from Camp Cal in this game that really took their games to another level?
JOHN CALIPARI: Wenyen is starting to become disciplined.
Derek broke down about three times in a row in the second half, but is better defensively.
I think our guards were not, we’re playing — this is starting to look like a team I coach. Like we, we’re — defensively. They shot 45 percent, but again, this was a game where everything was tough for them. I thought we did a good job trapping in the post. I thought we did some good stuff today.
Q. What can Isaiah do to get his shot off when he drives to the basket?
JOHN CALIPARI: Shoot it higher. Like shoot it up. I told him, don’t get it blocked. Shoot it higher. You’re shooting it like the guy’s six foot three. Shoot it high. Good news is, if he shoots it high, and he misses, Bam is going to tip dunk the ball. He’s just trying to get — I told him, ‘you got to shoot it higher.’
Q. Did you see more of that trust you were talking about earlier?
JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, and I told them, I said, look, we had some breakdowns, but we didn’t have 10 minutes of it in what we have seen in just about every game we have played. I’m just, I told them, their focus should be on their competitive spirit. I put Isaac in and he played behind that kid and the kid bagged. Then after that he started fighting and battling. Just have a competitive spirit. I’m beating this guy, you’re not jamming me under the goal, I’m not accepting it. The same with Derek, have a competitive spirit.
We are going to work on discipline as a staff and, as a coach, that’s what I’m about right now. Discipline play. In other words, here’s how we’re going to play, then play that way. Here’s what your job is. Do your job. If everybody’s doing that, you can trust everybody. You don’t go like, is he going to do right this time, is he going to go under, is he going to help me. So we just have to stay with it. We’re young. We’re playing all these young guys. Our veteran, the guy that’s getting it is Isaiah, and he’s a sophomore. But it was a good win. Again, Texas A&M, they just hit us on a good night. That’s as good as we’ll play. We shot the three, we made free throws. I mean, that’s as good as we go.
Q. Not about the game, but just wondering your reaction to the news about Orlando today or if you talked to him today or not.
JOHN CALIPARI: He and I talked. I’m disappointed. What’s he been there two and a half years? I mean, that’s how this is now. You have two and a half years to get it going or we’re going to get somebody else. Just kind of disappointing. But that’s why coaches want contracts. That’s why coaches — they fire us and we leave. I mean, it’s just, it’s crazy. But he’ll be fine. They owe him money, and he’ll either be a head coach again or be an assistant.
Q. This is the fifth time that you’ve scored a hundred points this season. What’s different about this UK team offensively that’s different than some of the teams you coached in the past.
JOHN CALIPARI: More possessions. We’re getting more possessions. When you end up getting 10, 12 more possessions and you score on half of those. What’s happening is we go from an 80 point scoring team to a 90, 92 or 93. That’s the biggest thing. We’re really fast. This is a fast team.
Q. How tough a guard is Isaiah when he’s making the outside shots to add to the drive to the basket?
JOHN CALIPARI: No, he’s playing well. He’s making free throws, he’s — I was going to put him back in so he could get the triple double, and then I looked and said, “Can you get nine rebounds in three minutes?”
Q. What did he say?
JOHN CALIPARI: “I will.”
Kentucky Players
#5, Malik Monk, Freshman, Guard
On how the team played …
“I think we played well. We came out with great energy and we just kept that going through the rest of the game. So, I think we did pretty good.”
On guards for Texas A&M not be able to play tonight …
“Coach told us before, we knew before we went out there that they had no one coming off the bench really. As guards, we knew we had to get out there and play.”
On this being the most complete game for the guards this season …
“Oh yeah. This is the best one we have played so far. Hopefully, we will be able to keep up the energy and continue with that throughout the season.”
#13, Isaiah Briscoe, Sophomore, Guard
On his game tonight defensively …
“I think I played pretty good. I think I could’ve rebounded way more. I didn’t have many rebounds. But other than that, I think I did pretty good.”
On defense for himself and the team …
“Defense is good. All week in practice we been focusing on extra talking in defense making sure one another feels comfortable because you know we need to trust and at this point if we want to go forward we are going to have to trust one another. So, I think talking makes some people feel more comfortable on defense. Once our defense go to the next level, we’ll be fine.”
Billy Kennedy said that if you can score, Kentucky can win it all …
“Thanks for the credit. Texas A&M is a great team, they have a good coach. We respected them coming into the game and know that our defense is going to be key and we came out on fire. You know, the crowd was into it, we were into it. We were just playing with incredible energy and I think that’s who we are. As a team, I think we are defensive team that our offense, you know, we just play.”
On coming out with a lot of energy …
“I think so. And you know, like I said, coach preaches to us that that’s who we are; a defensive team with a lot of energy and he doesn’t really focus on offense because we’ve got a lot of talent on the team. I think that’s who we are.”
On how hard it is to play with that much energy …
“I mean it’s hard but our practices are harder than the game. A lot of people don’t know that. Our practices – I mean we aren’t trying to kill each other in scrimmages and everything like that, but our scrimmages are harder than the game. We get out here in the game and we think it’s just like practice and the other teams I guess they’re just not used to it.”
#0, De’Aaron Fox, Freshman, Guard
On the 100-point game…
“It’s a lot of chemistry, our athleticism and our ability to run and get out. If you miss, and don’t get that rebound, it is more likely to turn into a lay-up. You just need an emphasis on running, getting out and transitioning so that’s what we have been doing.”
On the first five minutes of the game …
“Oh man it was extremely fun. We came out and talked about pressuring the ball so that is what we did. They turned the ball over 25 times and I think that’s a season high this year. It’s just something that we have been putting an emphasis on. We came out, pressured the ball and did what we were supposed to do. We got steals, got dunks and layups. Its always fun, especially against a team like that.”
On what Coach Calipari means when he says to be more disciplined on defense…
“Just no bad fouls like one of the fouls I picked up last game. No touch fouls or fouls we shouldn’t have. Not too much gambling, even though they turned the ball over and we got a lot of steals. That wasn’t from gambling; it was just from good defense. That’s what he’s talking about when he is talking about being disciplined on defense.”
On their level of confidence now…
“We are just building momentum. Every game right now matters; it’s league play so we are just coming out. We have been confident in ourselves and have been making shots. We have been doing well defensively these past two games. And we are putting the ball in the basket, so it’s nothing but just building confidence for March.”
Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy
Opening statement …
“Obviously, their defensive pressure gave our young guards a lot of problems. I thought (Isaiah) Briscoe again created a lot of pressure for us on offense and then when we did get the ball to Tyler (Davis) they doubled him and the turnovers mounted to where we couldn’t combat them. Malik Monk making shots and then Briscoe – I love him (Briscoe). He’s one of those kids you want to have on your team because he plays on both ends of the floor.”
On how key it was to keep UK out of transition …
“The turnovers – we didn’t even run our -. I would like to give (Kentucky) as much credit as possible, but we weren’t very good. I have to do a better job of preparing our guys to handle any type of pressure. I mean sometimes we just gave them the ball. I don’t want to take away any credit from De’Aaron (Fox) and (Isaiah) Briscoe because they play so hard defensively and are so good on the ball, Malik Monk shoots gaps and you have three guards who are all NBA-level guards and they had a huge advantage tonight.”
On Kentucky compared to other good teams Texas A&M has faced this season …
“We didn’t play anybody with guards like that. I’m not knocking the guys we have, but UCLA lets you run offense and the way they play defense is different than Kentucky. I think our lack of experience at the guard and lack of depth on the perimeter when you go up against pressure teams at this level – we’re going to struggle. Again, I don’t want to take away anything from Kentucky because I thought those kids played really hard. When Malik gets going – I’ve seen it happen since he was a freshman – then it’s hard to stop him.”
On if Kentucky’s speed surprised him …
“No. Nothing really surprised me. I would like to tell you – I thought we would play much better. There was no surprise. Kentucky – they are who they are. You get what you get. Coach Cal knows what he has and they’re coming at you full speed. With a guy like De’Aaron Fox and Isaiah Briscoe, a guy who can score like Malik (Monk) from all three levels – and then you throw in a guy like (Bam) Adebayo – who can match Tyler’s (Davis) physicality – you don’t see that very often. Normally, Tyler has a huge advantage. He didn’t see and angles, and he didn’t have an advantage. Picking up two fouls early in the first half didn’t help.”
On how much harder Isaiah Briscoe is to defend when he is making shots …
“When he is making shots, that’s what we gameplanned to live with. When he’s doing that, they can win it all. I know Coach Cal doesn’t want to hear that, but when he’s a weapon offensively like he was today, I don’t know how you defend it.”
