Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Question: How big of an impact will Enes Kanter have on this year’s team?John Calipari: Big. He’s not what DeMarcus was. People don’t realize how good DeMarcus is. When you talk about nimble, when you talk about skilled with the ball, (he’s got it). Let me say this, here is how I would judge a big guy: If he is 6-5, how good is he now? DeMarcus at 6-5 would have been really good. It didn’t matter that he was 6-11. You’re 6-11 and now I say you’re 6-5, how good are you now? ‘Oh, he stinks.’ Again, to judge (Kanter) against DeMarcus isn’t fair. I met with the Maloof brothers out in Vegas for two hours and I’m telling you they’re going crazy about DeMarcus. ‘How did we get him? He should have been a No. 1 pick?’ They’ve got him on the side of their building. He’s going to be fine. What we have, we’ve got good players. They’re young, they’re inexperienced. Our experienced players, Darius and DeAndre, have really improved. Larry Brown called me yesterday and said, ‘How is DeAndre?’ because that’s who he likes on my team. I said, ‘Wow, has he gotten better.’ It’s a kid last year that everybody told me to get rid of. I told everybody that in this style of play you’re going to see a different guy. We’re not going to be last year’s team. Can we win that many games? The schedule is tougher, too. I don’t know. I have no idea.

Question: So what does Kanter do for this team?Calipari: He’s another big guy. We’ve got a guy with size who can rebound. The one thing he does do is he rebounds with two hands. That’s something I usually have to teach. I don’t have to with him. He gets his paws on it.

Question: Is he more polished than the big kid at West Virginia?Calipari: That big is good, too, but he’s more like a four than a five.

Question: So how good are his skills around the basket?Calipari: Good, good. In the 17 days, the only time I saw him go like, ‘Wow,’ is when he played against Nazr Mohammed. Whether he was challenged, whether Josh (Harrellson) has him joking around, I don’t know. When he went against Nazr, he went to work. I went, ‘Wow, maybe he’s better than I think.’ So, I don’t know. Until I coach these guys (I don’t know). The one thing I was able to get with Brandon is that the kid is a warrior. He’s got a fire in his belly. If you don’t have a fire in your belly with me, you’re not playing. Either develop it or understand it. It’s hard for me to play you (if you don’t have it) because we’re going to be an attacking offense, an attacking defense and every game we play is someone’s Super Bowl. It’s been that way when I was at UMass, Memphis and now it’s even worse here. We were a Super Bowl in Canada. What’s that thing in Canada? The Grey Cup. It was like the Grey Cup. Our fans up there were great. It was great for them to be able to drive up there. Doron, the first game, was so bad. It was great. He didn’t warm up the right way. You are able to sit him down and say, ‘Now do you understand what we talk about warming up?’ This guy was playing for his life. It’s a game that he’ll take and keep for the rest of his life. ‘You want to go play like give me a hamburger before the game and it’s an AAU game, so you got your head handed to you. Wait until we’re in the SEC. Wait until we have to go on the road.’ So the next game he came out with a fire and a focus and he did it.”

Question: Does Darius have that same mentality? Calipari: He played better up there. He showed me some good stuff. Moving from supporting roles to starring roles, you just never know. It’s like moving those 12 inches from an assistant coach to a head coach. Moving from support to starring, whew. You make the game winner. You make that play, draw that foul. You make those fouls. You make the scoring play that helps win the game. They all have to play into that. Part of what we do in our drills is that. John Wall wanted to win every game that we did in practice. Everything we do in practice is scored, so one team wins and one team loses – every drill. Why do you that? Because I want to see who wants to make the winning basket. If they’re making it all the time, they’ll go into the game thinking I’ll make it. John Wall never made a winning goal, and he admitted it. I watched him in high school, I watched him in AAU, (he) never made a big-game basket. Here (first game). And he made many after that, seven or eight. That Stanford game, he wanted it. That’s what we teach. Last year, the guys that were trying to make the game winners were John, Eric, DeMarcus, and that’s who did it in the games. Now, this year, who is making those plays? It will develop in practice. And whoever makes them then, you want to see can you carry that over now.

Question: So is it a big deal that Brandon has made those kinds of shots in high school and All-Star games?Calipari: Oh, yeah. But it’s different here. What he did, what was so great, this kid worked so hard that if you’re on the team with him at times, it will tick you off. ‘Who gets up in the morning? Who is he trying to impress? He’s trying to kiss coach’s (butt).’ That’s natural. I don’t know if that’s being said, but I’ll bet you it was. And if it wasn’t said, it was thought. So when he went up that first game and performed like he did, I’m looking, ‘I don’t ever want to hear a word.’ I’m yelling it down the bench. ‘Anybody talking?’ ‘Whose talking? Is anybody talking?’ It proves that – it’s like DeAndre said, ‘I see him work, it’s getting me to work more. I spend more time. I stay after.’ That’s why I brought him here. Here’s a kid that’s going to have one year under his belt as he starts class this year. So after one year he’ll be at two years. And if he goes this summer, he’ll have another nine credits, eight credits. That’s what you want. You also want a guy that’s going to work. It’s what your culture becomes. To survive here, you’ve got to go like he goes.

Question: Have you ever heard a great player come in with great academic honors like Brandon’s bringing in?Calipari: No, but this is so unusual that I’ve never heard of it before. I’ve heard of kids coming in with a couple of classes but not here. But again, I’m going to tell you, of all the kids I’ve coached, I’ve had kids that have anxiety like he has, which is Derrick Rose, Tyreke, John Wall – they’re scared to death. What those kids do is they get in the gym, they’re so scared and have so much anxiety about ‘Maybe I’m not good as everybody says’ that they take it out in there. He is exactly the same. Now, he’s not as big as John, he’s not as fast as Derrick, he’s not as strong as Tyreke. He is who he is. He’s different. Every one of those guys is different. Eric Bledsoe is different.”

Question: Can you envision a four-guard lineup during the regular season?Calipari: If you’re playing Darius as a four, and even if he and Terrence are on the court together, that’s four guards. This offense, what you want to do is get the four guards. There’s a kid who is 6-10, he was a guard a year ago. Now he’s a big guard. Now he’s a real big guard. That’s what you want. You want guys with size who can play like guards. That’s what we’ll have, so it’s fine. Now you’re going against a guy that’s got a plodding player on the court who is 6-7. Well, we’re 6-7, but he’s a guard, Darius. So it’s basically where do you put them on the court to make them most effective? The bigger the better, the longer the better, as long as they’re skilled that way or we can teach them the skills that they need to play the spots that they’re playing.