Kentucky Basketball Previews Monmouth
UK MEDIA RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK-MONMOUTH PREGAME
DEC. 7, 2017
MEMORIAL COLISEUM MEDIA ROOM – LEXINGTON, KY.
UK Head Coach John Calipari
On how this week’s practices have gone …
“Good. Good. I was really tough two days ago and the problem was that our weight/strength coach, Rob (Harris), sad that at that point in practice their heart rates went up, their effort went up and their—that’s a problem. Because if I’m the one that has to get them to do that, they’re not getting this. I told them that. I said, ‘You mean to tell me I’ve gotta be that mean for you to do what you should want to do and what you’re supposed to be learning to do?’ They were better yesterday. They’re trying to get better. The message today’s going to be really simple: As everyone buys in, this team will start taking off. But we all gotta buy in. And buying in isn’t that anyone’s selfish. Just, they don’t know better. Buying in—they’ve created habits that the minute they’re fatigued they go back to and all those things. When I get tired, I stop. When I get tired, I just do what I want to do. We’re working on that every single day. And then we gotta start working on how we’re playing together and what we’re doing. But individually right now I’m pleased, because everybody’s ticking up. They’re all—Wenyen’s (Gabriel) been great the last couple days. He’s really—trying to get him to play a little more like Derek Willis played, with more rebounding, hopefully better defense, but do the stuff Derek Willis did for us. I think it’s making easy for him. Just be that guy.”
On the trip to New York …
“We always like to go up in there and travel, get away from here. You know, going into the Garden, going into the Barclays (Center), we try to do it every year. It’s a good trip. We have guys from there on the team, whether they’re bringing family from up in New England or Philadelphia or New York area, they get to be with family. I wish it was a later game so we could maybe even stay overnight, but it’s a noon game so we’ll probably leave right after to come back. They do have finals next week, so most of the rest of Saturday and Sunday will be—and they’re all loaded up. They all have one or two finals on Monday.”
On UK not attempting many 3s …
“Well, we’re trying to get to, instead of 14 or 15, we want to get to about 18, 19, 17, maybe 20 every once in a while. You don’t want more than that because that’s not who we are, but we need to have that. And then we have to have—like Quade’s (Green) gotta scout out 3s. He’s one of our best 3-point shooters. I want Kevin (Knox) to shoot three, four, maybe five if he’s making them, but I really need him to get to the basket and drive the ball. We need Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) to scout out (3-point attempts). I just asked him, ‘Are you spending extra time? Are you getting in the gym?’ ‘Yeah.’ Well I said, ‘You’re not making any right now.’ So you look at him and you look at Wenyen. Wenyen needs to shoot three. You look across the spectrum. Right now a guy that’s been shooting well in practice that we’ve been waiting for is PJ (Washington). So you get one more guy that can make perimeter shots—and they don’t have to be 3s. I mean, I always say this: If you’re going to shoot 30 3s a game—and we have teams in the country right now, their whole deal is, we’re shooting 30. You’re going to hit a game where you’re going to hit three. It’s just how it is. You’re not machines. ‘Well we make 40 percent every game.’ Really? Alright. Then you have other teams who are gonna say, ‘You’re going to have to beat us shooting 2s, we’re not giving you 3s.’ So, I just would rather if you make us take more than we want, OK, but we’ll still – this is a different kind of team. I’ve had teams that have shot more 3s, but I think if you follow me, anytime we’ve shot 27, 28, 29, 30 3s we’ve lost that game. We’ve lost it. So, it’s not how we play, but I do want more than 12. We should be able to make six 3s a game, maybe seven, but six 3s should be what we get per game with the way this team can shoot. And we should be a great free-throw shooting team. I mean, Nick (Richards) is shooting 80 percent – your big guy. So, we have good free-throw shooters. And I’d rather to be an attack team that loves to get in the lane and likes 3s, but loves the lane, just live in that lane.”
On Kevin Knox seeming to be the guy he’s prioritized getting into the lane …
“Yeah, because he’s used to settling, he’s used to shooting fadeaways, he’s used to stepping back versus continue to play through bumps and get at that rim. You’re long, we have him shooting runners. You don’t have to go all the way to the basket. You can drive it in and shoot a one-, two-step runner, and he’s making that shot now. I think in the last week Hami (Diallo) has got a better feel for what we’re trying to do. What it tells you as a coach, they don’t know. And when you talk to them it may not register. You have to do drills and practice a certain way to get them – and then you gotta reinforce, ‘That’s what we’re looking for. Right there. You be that guy.’ Now, the minute they’re fatigued they revert back to that other stuff. That’s why we’re trying to tell them – I’m doing shooting drills, killing them, running before we do the shooting drills, more running and then go shoot. And I’m telling them, ‘You’re fatigued, some of you will let go of the rope. If that’s who you are, don’t. You know you’re the one that lets go of the rope. If you make 35 shots, you let go of the rope. If you make 50 to 60, you didn’t. So, make 50 to 60.’ So, that’s the mindset. Most of this stuff is young kids. They’ve accepted this is who I am, this is the best I have. And basically they got probably 40 percent left in there. But no one has demanded they do more. So, that’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
On if he’s OK with Kevin Knox playing 35 minutes per game …
“Too many. Too many. He’s in the one position that’s kind of we don’t have enough. You know what I’m saying? He’s at the one – I wish I had two of those, but I don’t. We have one. That’s why I can play Wenyen (Gabriel) some there and PJ (Washington) some there. I can go smaller with Hami, but we haven’t done it in practice right now. So, I hate to do stuff in a game that I haven’t worked on because you can’t really hold those kids accountable if you’re doing stuff in a game that you haven’t practiced. Whatever happens, happens. But yeah, he’s playing too many minutes.”
On saying his team is “a work in progress” and how far along they are …
“I just think it’s going to be day-to-day. Yesterday I told them, ‘I feel encouraged right now.’ They were like, ‘Wow, really?!’ Today I’ll probably say, ‘I really feel discouraged right now.’ That’s how this has been. I don’t want to be the guy that has to go crazy to get them to compete and play, because if I am that means they’re real close to letting go of the rope. And when we get in the game and it’s really hard, the other team’s giving it, that’s when that team lets go of that rope. You’re seeing teams, some of them lose to mid-major teams, you’re seeing it now. I mean these teams we played, they all had a chance to beat us, but we fought to win. You’re seeing teams, some of them look tired travelling all over the world playing basketball. These kids are 17 and 18-years old going to school, practicing, trying to do it, national television and all that. That stuff happens. I’m asking my guys, ‘Do you guys watch?’ They watch every game. I’m watching ‘Alaska vs. Frontier,’ I’m watching ‘Life Below Zero.’ I’m not watching other college basketball teams, and the reason is I don’t want to get discouraged for ourselves. ‘We’re so far behind these other teams.’ I really don’t care if we are because we’re not playing them yet. I just gotta stay focused, and I don’t want to have anxiety about ‘well we’ve got to do more, be more of that.’ We are who we are right now. And now we’re gonna go to New York. This team had Hofstra beat yesterday, it was a tip-out play, can’t believe they lost the game. They had Connecticut beat, up at Connecticut, had a chance to beat them so they’ve got good guard play. Really big and physical inside, and we better show up and play. I’m more concerned about just let’s go 40 minutes and see what happens. It’s a noon game. Hard to play at noon. Normally at noon whoever shows up to play wins the game. So let’s just hope we’re showing up to play, and we have a chance to do what we need to do.”
On PJ Washington knocking down shots in practice …
“He’s just started. He’s doing things he hasn’t done, and he’s doing them for the first time, and he’s building his own confidence. And now he’s gotta go in the game and do it. I keep telling him, ‘We need you to shoot balls. I need you to shoot some jump shots. That’s what this team needs. If you don’t feel you’re making them, you don’t want to shoot them so then you start putting your head down and drive. Then you turn it over, run somebody is over, beg for a foul. No, you, if they give you shots you gotta take them. He’s beginning to do that now. I told them about some guy, ‘He would kill you guys,’ and then Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) says, ‘Yeah, he’s 24 years old. I’m 19; he’s five years older than me.’ So that made me laugh, but like I said yesterday was a good day. I walked out and really felt good. I’m just hoping today’s a good day so I can walk out feeling good about this.”
On how deep in a season he normally goes with ups and downs with the team …
“Well, it’s not that they’re not trying. It’s more that we’re reverting back. It’s more of them losing focus and concentration because of fatigue. And they’ve never gone this hard. I mean they’ve never done what they’re doing right now, which is 45 days of practice, academics, tutoring, travel, all this stuff, playing in games, having all this social media out there that they’ve never had before. Dealing with all this stuff they’re dealing with, it wears you down, and the first thing that goes is your focus and concentration so they’re trying. They’re trying to please me too. I’ve had people come in and say, ‘Coach, that isn’t always the case now. You’ve got a team full of guys trying.’ You may be watching TV and guys are sulking because ‘he got more shots than I got.’ We don’t have any of that. I think this team wants to be special, they just, they thought they could do it easily, and they’ve figured out now ‘oh my gosh, this is really gonna be hard.’ Like Nick (Richards), Nick’s gotten way better, but the minute he gets fatigued he thinks it’s okay now to stop because ‘I hit a couple of shots, I made some free throws now I can be ok this time.’ No. It’s you push through, and it’s what we do here. Part of my message today will be, the thing for us – when you leave us you know right now you’re looking over your shoulders. But as you move on from here, if you don’t bring it, you’re out. There isn’t a coach that’s gonna scream, ‘You’ve gotta play harder.’ No, they’re gonna say, ‘Man, he can’t play hard. Put another guy in.’ All of the sudden you look and you’re on the shelf, and then all of the sudden you’re out. ‘What happened?’ ‘He didn’t fight.’ You’ve gotta battle. Nothing is given to you. You gotta earn it, and every day you’re competing against each other. If you think you’ve made it, you’re really close to probably being out. Our kids leave here understanding that they’re in a dogfight. If they wanna eat, they’ve gotta be battling somebody. This is a good group. We have some flaws, but so does every team out there. Every one of them. Can’t shoot free throws, can’t shoot, too small, to this, too that. Come on. This is a different team. Long as heck, and getting better defensively, but we’ve got a ways to go. We’ll see.”
On playing at Madison Square Garden …
“Yeah, the Garden is still, Madison Square Garden is the Mecca. It’s a place, you know the excitement of the City. The excitement of whole environment. They’ve redone it so it went from hooks on walls in the locker room, really, you know wooden bench. No, really, like little hooks and your clothes there and a wooden bench, and you didn’t know what was behind the wall so you’d be like, ‘What the hell was that?’ To it’s now they went through this thing and basically made it a brand new building. But it still, it brings back great memories when I was coaching, and well, we played there when I was at UMass. Had some great games. Beat North Carolina in there. We beat Syracuse there when they won the national title with Carmelo Anthony. We beat them there. Can’t remember how many times have we played there. Oh we beat Kansas, didn’t we? Michigan State? Yeah, but I think we beat — oh so you guys follow this stuff?”
#3 Hamidou Diallo, RS Fr, G
On going back home …
“It’s going to be great. I haven’t played there in a long time. It’s just going to be a great experience to see all who’s coming out. I’ve got a lot of family coming that haven’t seen me play in person in a long time. It’s going to be a great atmosphere because Monmouth has a couple of New York guys on their team as well. It’s just going to be a great atmosphere and I’m going to enjoy it.”
On what it will be like to play in Madison Square Garden as a New York native …
“It’s different. I’ve never played in the Garden. It’s every kid’s dream who’s from New York to play there. I’m just going to go out there and treat it like it’s another game.
#4 Nick Richards, Fr., F
On going back home …
“It’s going to be a great experience. It’s going to be a great experience just to play at MSG in front of friends and family who have supported me throughout the years playing basketball. I think this is one way of me giving back to that community is just showing out for them.”
On playing against former high school teammate Marcus McClary …
“It’s going to be the same as when I played against Harvard when I played against (former high school teammate) Bryce Aiken. You’re friends off the court and after the game and right before the game, but we’re going to compete as basketball players during the game.”
