University of Kentucky Basketball Media Conference
Saturday, December 16 2017
John Calipari
Men’s Media Conference
Kentucky – 93, Virginia Tech – 86
Q. What did you learn about mental toughness and guys you can count on down the stretch from this game?
JOHN CALIPARI: I’m gonna watch the tape. I usually learn more from the tape than I do just watching the game because I’m in a dogfight. Very rarely say anything to the officials or anything, but everything else I’m in a dogfight out there, so I’ll miss a lot of stuff. But let me start by saying that the job Buzz (Williams) is doing, how — what I love about him as a coach, they’re playing a way they have to play to win. It’s different than we’re playing. We were posting; they were driving and shooting 3s. And defensively he was switching it up, going some man, going some zone, and you know, I like the fact that we had to go against his team, well-coached. I expected them to press a little bit more, but I can see that he did the right thing for his team. They had a chance to win really the whole game.
But terrific players. You know, still made 10 3s on us, and we made 11 on them. How about that? We don’t shoot that many 3s. We shot 22? Wow.
Q. Is this the best game you’ve ever had by a player in sunglasses?
JOHN CALIPARI: He (Quade Green) was really good. Let me just say this —
Q. What was going on there?
JOHN CALIPARI: There were a couple things. I thought Quade — I put him in quick because I didn’t like — I like the rotation with him starting and Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) coming off the bench. It’s just a better rotation for our team. He’s playing the way I want him to play, which is score baskets, kid. Score baskets. That’s what you do. But by doing that, he’s getting five assists and one turn. So instead of being like watch me with the ball and bouncing it 12 times, he’s either trying to score it, and if you stop him from scoring it he’ll give it to somebody because he’s a good enough passer.
I thought Shai was good today. Wenyen (Gabriel), nine rebounds today was really good. I thought Hami (Diallo) was good. Look, individual players are getting better. Nick (Richards) struggled, Sacha (Killeya-Jones) struggled, but that’s OK. They’re not machines. They’re not going to be great every night out. But you saw that I put in a press. That’s what I worked on last week.
It was OK for three days’ work. Now we’re going to have another four days and try to add some stuff to it. That’s my old press from 10 years ago. When you’ve been doing this 40 years, you can go reach back in the basket 20 years ago and come up with something you used that still can work.
Q. Virginia Tech shot 58 percent —
JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, it was pretty good defense.
Q. How do you factor that in, and how do you take account for this game?
JOHN CALIPARI: If we didn’t turn them over, they win the game. Then you look and say, well, how did you get them turned over? Probably the press more than anything else. If they don’t turn it over, they beat us. And again, I’m going to have to look at exactly what they were doing, but they’re like a typical team that comes into this building that has talent that plays loose. They had nothing to lose, and that’s how they played. They only made three 3s in the second half. One was the last 3 throwing it up the court, and one was where Wenyen didn’t know the guy was standing right next to him, he made a 3, so from that they made one. But they made three 3s in the second half compared to what they did to us in the first half.
You know, we had talked about tough twos and not giving up 3s, and we gave up a bunch. But it’s what a young team does.
Q. What was the difference in the 3-point defense in the second half? Why were you more effective then?
JOHN CALIPARI: I told them if you don’t run through, I’m taking you out. So if I see a guy go at a 3-point shooter and not run through him, not to foul, just make him bounce the ball, you’re out, I’m taking you out. That’s mean, I know, and probably it’s a mean thing to say, take a guy out every time he gives a guy a 3. We’re trying to win.
Q. Are the sunglasses now mandatory for Quade Green going forward?
JOHN CALIPARI: I don’t know if they’re mandatory, but just so you know, because I kind of felt bad for him, I was going to wear sunglasses today, too. I told the team I was going to. I thought, if he has to do it, I’ll do it with him, we’ll both have sunglasses. But I didn’t want to be — it would have been a national story, and there he is, he wears jeans on the plane, this bum, this guy. Who does he think he is? He thinks he’s at the beach, who is this guy? But that’s why I didn’t do it.
Q. Could you talk about Hamidou Diallo’s shooting today?
JOHN CALIPARI: Shooting much better. He’s working at it. Kevin Knox, I told him after the game, I went at Kevin for three or four straight times and it was unbelievable, and then you look at me and say, well, you went away from him after that. Well, he had played seven straight minutes and what I do normally is just keep going. If that guy gets it going, he’ll get it 15 straight times. But I didn’t because this is not a normal team for me. This is all freshmen. So then I shifted, I wanted PJ (Washington) a little bit, and I’m forcing him to make baskets, make fouls. He’s got to be that guy for us. And then I like Hami away from the ball as a secondary scorer because he gets baskets that way as well as anybody.
But it was — I thought we rebounded a little bit better. Nick (Richards) still — we didn’t two-hand rebound. Nick went after the ball one hand probably five times that cost him five rebounds. So he could have had — I don’t see him on here. He had six, he could have had 11 or 12 rebounds, and he went after balls with one hand. He didn’t bring any of them in. Some of them were late that almost cost us.
Q. Why is a press you dusted off from 10 years ago best for this particular team?
JOHN CALIPARI: Because I’ve got to figure out something that disrupts the game and something that they don’t get into a rhythm. A zone normally is going to get a team to make eight, 10 passes. If you want to speed up a game, how do you do that and be disruptive? You either trap out of a zone or trap out of a man or press, and this is a simple — it’s not that hard a press, but it’s one that I think could be effective for this team. Part of it is when the front line of your press is 6-9 and 6-6 and that guard is looking at that and you put interceptor in the middle and the other guy is 6-9 and you’ve got an interceptor deep who’s seven-foot, Nick, who can come up with balls; kind of makes you think like what are we doing.
Now, what they did, and again, Buzz (Williams) was pretty smart. He said, look, we’re putting shooters in the deep corners, throw it to anybody, just get rid of it and we’re going to find somebody in the corners, which is what they started doing in the first half at the end of the first half.
Q. What was it about the way Tech defended you that led to those 11 3-pointers and the 22 3-point attempts?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, they’re a 3-point shooting team and a fast team. Man, did they start the game fast. I mean, I’m sitting here saying, are they this fast the whole game. We’re more of a post-up team. So now when we throw it in there you’ve got to make choices. If we can score on you, you’re going to trap. You’re going to do something, and the minute you trap, it should open up our shooters. Now, what was happening is we couldn’t get Nick to dive, so Nick’s man was going to double-team, and Nick wanted a jump shot instead of that run to the basket. When Wenyen ran to the basket, that’s when Hami got shots, that’s when PJ got shots. You just need that guy out of there.
But I think that’s what did it and where we got most of the 3s.
Q. When you’re pressing and you’re limiting their possessions, are you willing to live with a higher shooting percentage because they have fewer shots?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, if you know my career, I cannot stand giving up baskets. I want them all contested. And when you’re doing this, you have it a little different mentality, which is let’s get into their legs. Let’s be the aggressor. If we let Virginia Tech be the aggressor, we lose this game. We don’t have a chance. And what I’ve learned in my career, you’re playing a pressing team, you always press the pressing team. And that makes you the aggressor versus them.
And so the issue becomes can we play eight and nine guys playing that way, you know, and I thought PJ got tired in the second half. You know, and that’s — you start playing — we haven’t played in a week, so you start playing twice a week and we’re trying to play this way, it may be in spots, may not be much but it’ll be in spots.
Q. You talked yesterday about guys not getting enough respect.
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, the thing I’ve said is people evaluating my players individually. It’s not the team. We’re all freshmen. Everybody knows it. We’re hoping by January we become one of those kind of teams. We’re not there yet. But when you look at whether it be Hami (Diallo) or Kevin (Knox) or even Nick (Richards), who was not real good today, or Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander), and you start saying, well, they’re not this and he’s not that and that’s not John Wall or that’s not — well, there’s only one John Wall, and I want to tell you, there’s only one Anthony Davis, who has one eyebrow. There’s only one. These kids are good, really good players, and are going to have professional careers. They are. I don’t know who’s watching them to think they’re not, and they’re all 6-9 and 6-10 and seven-foot and head on the rim, now nose on the rim. I mean, yeah, they may not have this, but what they have is special and sets them apart.
The question becomes when we’re fatigued how do we play. Do we learn how to win in close games. That’s why this game was important for us. Do we really become servant leaders to each other to where we’re worried about the other guy more than myself? We still have guys that want the ball so bad they can’t play. I keep trying to explain. You set a great screen, you will get open. We’ve got guys that won’t set a screen because they’re looking at the ball, and it affects them.
Q. Do you think with this win your team is going to finally get some respect?
JOHN CALIPARI: I think we’ve gotten respect. I mean, everybody knows we’re playing all freshmen. Wenyen (Gabriel) didn’t play much last year and Sacha (Killeya-Jones) didn’t play much last year and everyone else is a freshman. This is the youngest team in the last 11 years. This is the youngest team to play college basketball, and I bet you it’s the youngest team in the last 30 years to try to play this young and really compete for something. You know, a team this young usually goes 7-30 and they fire the coach. No, we’re getting respect. We are.
Q. Justin Robinson had 19 points and nine rebounds tonight, most out of screen-and-roll situations. What makes him so difficult in that situation?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, you know, what I saw with him, he was good coming off, getting him the ball, physically being able to finish. We couldn’t get guys to come across the lane. And again, when you’re a young team and they’re over there and your man is over here, you’re more concerned with your man than coming over here and helping, and that was a lot of it. I mean, I started like saying, let’s just switch. I can’t get the weak side off. That’s what you do when you have freshmen. Just switch. Just play zone. They’re not listening.
But no, they’re good. I mean, this team, you know, not only is he good and he’s a great lay-up shooter, so if you get him near the rim, he’s making baskets. But they’ve got guys that if you leave them open, they’re making 3s. They’re going to make shots. And that’s why they’re going to be dangerous. Any team that’s willing to take 25, 30 3s and has a chance to make 15, you will win games. You will win games. And Buzz (Williams) is letting them go. They’re playing fast. He’s doing a heck of a job with that team.
Q. I know you’re not looking for excuses or making —
JOHN CALIPARI: I always look for excuses. Give me a couple.
Q. But this time of the year you talk a lot about distractions, final exams, family, friends, girlfriends, NBA scouts, media. How do you think this particular team is going to be able to respond to all those distractions later on down the line?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, we’ve got — they’ve got two days off. They’ve got today off and they have tomorrow off. We’re coming back Monday to practice. Tuesday will be individual work. Then we go Wednesday, do some stuff before we leave. We leave — we practice here Thursday, leave to go to New Orleans. It’s been good for our team. This team needed this kind of schedule. We did not need to play top-five teams early. We don’t even know who’s who. I don’t, they don’t, we’re trying to learn about each other. But this schedule has been good for us.
Look, I coach at Kentucky; there are no excuses here. You’re supposed to win every game by 20. If you win by 13, they want to know what the heck is wrong with the Cats. And all I worry about is how do I get individual players better. How does each guy, like I’m looking at Sacha (Killeya-Jones) and Nick (Richards), they’re more on my mind than these other guys because I’ve got to get them right for them. Wenyen (Gabriel) was better today. Second thing is how does this team have to play to win. I don’t know yet. We’ve got guys saying we should be playing all zone. We’ve got guys saying why aren’t they pressing. Why didn’t he just do what he always has done: Play man-to-man. That’s why I’m the coach and you’re sitting in the seats. So I will try to figure that out, and we’re experimenting, honestly, offensively. We’re experimenting. Like we don’t have this system that — we’re like trying stuff, I don’t like it, it’s out. If I like it, we do it. You know, I’ll say this: A bunch of good kids, and they’re trying to please me and the staff. What else can I ask for? And they’re smart. They’re like — I say it once, they’re pretty good. The only thing that happens is they get fatigued, and when they get fatigued, they revert back to their old self, and their old self — when they’re doing it the way they did it at times today, they look pretty good.
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Virginia Tech
Rupp Arena – Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 16, 2017
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#5 Kevin Knox, F
On Quade Green wearing glasses in today’s game…
“It was funny today. He’s practiced the last couple of days with them on. He was knocking down shots, so I guess he can see with them on.”
On the team’s shooting performance …
“At the beginning of the season I knew we weren’t a horrible shooting team. We weren’t the best, but I know we’ve got guys that can knock them down. Tonight we showed that we can really knock shots down. We’re getting really better at it. We do a lot of shooting drills in practices, and just getting better at it and hopefully guys can keep knocking them down.”
On defending Virginia Tech’s 3-point shooting …
“I think in the second half Cal said they hit like three 3-point shots or something like that. We just stuck it out on defense, found the shooters. I think No. 13 knocked a lot of them down, so we found him in the second half. We fixed that at halftime, got in the second half and defended it better.”
On Coach Cal’s encouragement of long range shooting …
“He tells us that he really wants us to shoot around 18 to 19 3s a game. That’s kind of our number. He doesn’t want us to shoot anywhere in the high 20s or anything that like. That’s not where our strength is. I mean, 18 or 19, he said make around eight or nine, that’s a good percentage as a team. Of course we’re getting to the basket still, so he’s kind of challenging us to make some jump shots and tonight we showed that we can.”
#3 Hamidou Diallo, G
On what’s he’s been doing to be able to have high-scoring performances…
“Just coming in everyday, working hard and buying into what the team needs us to do. That’s what we did today and we came out with a victory.”
On having to change the game plan today with such a good 3-point shooting team…
“It was big. They hit a couple shots in the beginning, a couple momentum 3s. That’s just mind-blowing. The type of defense we were playing, and they were still making 3s. We just had to adjust coming in halftime, and second half we did a really good job.”
On winning a game with opposing team shooting 58 percent…
“I think we were just aggressive. We were playing aggressive and never gave up. That’s what it was all about. There were times in the game when we were down, stayed with each other and we just kept competing.”
#0 Quade Green, G
On playing with his protective glasses …
“I’m not worried about that. I just played my game. Doesn’t matter what I’ve got on. I could have “Timbs” on- boots on- I’m still gonna play my game.”
His comments on opinions regarding this game being the best of the season …
“Oh, it was the best game for us as a whole, really. Kinda had to have toughness. It was a good game because Virginia Tech came out firing. It was hot from the 3-point line. It’s just another thing we gotta do and understand that we’re all together. Ain’t no one-to-one stuff. We all gotta win as one.”
On what the team learned today …
“That we’re tough, very tough. We can survive late situations.”
Virginia Tech Head Coach Buzz Williams
On the defensive challenges Kentucky presented…
“We turned the ball over 25 percent of the time. We shot 58 percent from the field and 46 percent from 3 and that’s slightly above what our cumulative scoring averages were through ten games.”
On what about Kentucky turnovers led to pressure today…
“Well, 25 percent of the time we gave them the ball and 60 percent of their points came off of our turnovers or second chance shots. I’m not trying to be sarcastic, it’s just really hard math to overcome. If 60 percent of the opponent shots come off of offensive rebounds and turnovers, and then on the flip side, in essence we shoot 60 percent. It’s just bad math, so you’re constantly fighting uphill. But I thought that was the game. It is the game, but I also think that that is why they’re eighth in the country. You can study their numbers, 27 percent of their points entering today were off of turnovers, 21 percent of their points were on offensive look backs, so they were a little better against us specific to that.”
On his view of Kentucky basketball…
“I love them. I love Coach Cal. He’s an early entry hall of famer and that’s only happened six times in the history of the game. So, to have a coach that’s inducted into the hall of fame, I have the utmost respect for him. It’s the best job in all of basketball at any level and I don’t think there will ever be another head coach to do a better job at the best job than Cal. I love their team. I think they’re getting better with each passing game and similar to what Justin Robinson said, I think our game plan coming into the game based on what they had done was the right game plan specific to our roster. They shot 50 percent from the field and made more free throws than they’ve ever made thus far this year and our turnover rate is too high. So the combination of that is a seven-point loss.”
On Hamidou Diallo’s 3-point shooting…
“I think that he’s a great athlete and a very good player. But in general, they made 11 3-pointers. We were not playing this game specific to personnel; we were playing this game specific to their team. I think in some respects it kept us out of rotation, because once you get into rotation with a team that’s as long as they are and as potent as they are in the point against a team of our build, you’re just going to constantly be in a bind. I feel like we did a good job in our rotation, but they made more 3s than they made all year and that was the gamble.”
On playing last four minutes without Kerry Blackshear…
“It’s just part of it. I thought we played great when we were small in the first half. I thought the officials were perfect, I though each one of his calls were the right call and we didn’t have another choice. But I felt Chris Clarke was very good in the first half. I though he was very good for the game, but I think our team is comfortable playing small.”
On Kentucky making 11-of-22 3s …
“If someone would’ve told me they were going to do that I wouldn’t have believed them. If we played again tomorrow, I would still play the numbers. If it’s a talent contest, they win every game. So, there has to be some level of scheme or strategy. This is their team and this is our team and based on the numbers, we believe this is the right play. So, if we played again tomorrow, and I know we’re not, I would do the exact same thing. But a credit to them, they almost tripled their 3-point makes. They were averaging four coming into this game.”
On what is making Justin Robertson so difficult to deal with …
“I think he continues to progress still. I think the pace of play when he is in the game, and obviously that’s most of the time, he has a very good Billy Tubbs. When I was a kid, he was the coach at Oklahoma and I was a manager at (Oklahoma City University) and I would drive to Norman to watch them practice. I know that you know their players better than I do, but they were really, really good. And he would always say, ‘Buzz, their glide speed is really important.’ He was just talking about, hey they just scored and here comes the ball. Five (Robinson)’s glide is really, really good relative to the pace that we want to play at. We spend a lot of time in pre-practice on the way we play, but a lot of how we play is based upon where the tag is coming. How we prep for Kentucky is, we knew they would utilize their length, as they should, on every ball screen. I told them at halftime they were going to start switching because Five was doing such a good job taking advantage of it, and they did. We were beating that, so they went back to a hard hedge. His glide is perfect, and he’s constantly reading the help. He’s never reading his defender. He’s kind of past that, and in a ball screen, because we rep it so much and he’s played it so much since he’s been here, he’s not reading their coverage. He’s reading the help behind it because the help behind it is where the tag’s going to have to come. I think we ran it maybe twice in a row, maybe we ran it three times in a row. Empty side ball screen with KJ (Kerry Blackshear Jr.) and Five’s reading the guy in the corner, so as he comes off the screen, based off of what that guy is doing, it’s going to KJ and KJ scoring. He’s spending more time watching tape. He’s doing much better job as an upperclassman of, I need to help do what Buzz is asking, and saying and doing it in his own way. The growth of he and Chris (Clarke) over the last ten weeks has been really, really good.”
Virginia Tech Student-Athletes
#5 Justin Robinson, G
On Kentucky’s defense…
“They’re long, they’re athletic. I think we had some turnovers by ourselves that we just gave them, but they’re a good defensive team. It’s just something we’ve got to learn from.”
On how much pressing they were expecting from Kentucky today…
“Good amount. Their 2-2-1 gave us little fits at the beginning. But then you realize to just settle down, learn from our mistakes early on, get on them and be a little different.”
On what today’s experience will do for them later on down the road…
“Overall, it’s a good test for us. Good road experience. We play in the best conference in the country. It’s what we see every day, night in and night out. There’s no awe in the situation in playing at Kentucky. I think it’s just something we’ve got to learn from.”
On wheter VT conducted something differently defensively or if Kentucky just got hot from 3 today…
“I think we executed our game well; they just hit open shots. That’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re a good team and that’s what you do. I think it’s just something we have to watch in film and just take it as a team and see what we did wrong.”
On shooting 58 percent and still losing…
“We had 19 turnovers as a team, as you know, me leading the way. Just something I’ve got to do a better job of controlling my team and getting our turnovers down and just taking the blame for what we’re doing. I think, overall, we know we’re going to get the shots that we want, practice shots. And we play how we play, so I think it’s just something that we have to execute as well as we’re doing.”
On how much it took out of them giving up nine offensive boards in the second half …
“We studied the numbers coming into the game, we knew that they were averaging 12 offensive rebounds and 12 points off of those rebounds. I think maintaining the second half as well, I mean the first half as well, but the second half kind of killed us. The overall idea of us having so many turnovers and them having offensive rebounds is what killed us.”
#13 Ahmed Hill, G
On if they had to change the way they got their 3s because of Kentucky’s high ball screen…
“Yeah, you just have to play more under control because of it. It wasn’t just easy passes. You have to make sure you move to get certain spots.”
On what today’s experience will do for them later on down the road…
“I think it was great. I think our team learned a lot. We learn from the little things like turnovers. We shot the ball well. We played extremely well, I thought, as a team. But, we just turned the ball over a little too much.”
On how much it took out of them giving up nine offensive boards in the second half…
“It takes a lot because that’s basically the game. That’s what we prep for, just to take our steps and get the rebounds. Once it doesn’t go that way then we’re just giving them points, because we got them to miss and shoot and then give them another chance for that shot. That’s the easiest shot because they’re right there for a layup. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
