Nov. 15, 2012

After opening up with two games on the road for the first time since 2002-03, the Kentucky men’s basketball team will return to the friendly confines of Rupp Arena on Friday at 7 p.m. ET against Lafayette.

Gameday Information
Barclays Center Classic Kentucky vs. Lafayette Fri., Nov. 16 – 7:00 p.m. ET Lexington, Ky. Game Notes: UK | Lafayette
Coverage
Gameday Live: Online video, audio, blog and stats TV: FS South/UK IMG Radio: UK IMG Gametracker Live Audio Text Updates

Kentucky suffered a 75-68 loss to No. 9 Duke in its last outing. Freshman Alex Poythress exploded for 20 points and classmates Nerlens Noel and Archie Goodwin both contributed 16 points on the night. Goodwin became the eighth UK freshman under Calipari to begin his career with consecutive double-figure scoring efforts. Noel has posted two or more steals and at least three blocks in both of his first two career games.

Lafayette enters the matchup with a 1-1 record following a win over LIU-Brooklyn on Monday. The Leopards and Wildcats will meet for the first time in program history on Friday.

Scouting Lafayette

Lafayette has opened to a 1-1 record to begin the 2012-13 campaign under 19th year head coach Fran O’Hanlon. The Leopards are led by freshman guard Bryce Scott who is averaging 23 points per game thus far which includes a 30-point effort in an overtime victory over LIU-Brooklyn.

Friday’s meeting will mark the first contest in the series’ history between the two squads.

Media Opportunity – November 15, 2012

Head Coach John Calipari

On Ryan Harrow’s health…
“He’s doing better. He worked out yesterday, but he’s just not ready to go 100 percent. I just told him, ‘You are only going if you are 100 percent.’ He worked out with our strength coach in conditioning.  He said he did pretty good but not right yet.”

On if Ryan Harrow’s health is completely physical or if pressure is involved…
“We don’t think so but we are just telling him, ‘You’ve got to get energy. You’ve got to get your energy up; you’ve got to play at a higher level.’ He will be fine.

On if anything came back from Ryan Harrow’s blood tests…
“No, I just want him back you know we were a little bit short last game. But the same time you have to look at the kid’s health first and just get yourself right and let’s go.”

On if Ryan Harrow is being held out of practice…
“If he’s not in there today then he’s not going 100 percent. I just got off the treadmill so I don’t know. He knows unless he’s ready to go you know, and I’m happy he’s working out with the strength coach and we will go from there.”

On this year’s signing class…
“Well we put out a press release so I will let you guys take it from there if that’s alright. So I don’t have to rehash all that stuff. We’re excited about it don’t get me wrong, I’m jacked up about it.”

On how Archie Goodwin played…
“Not bad, just still plays too fast, gets himself out of control. There were easier plays he could have made a few times. I went through this with Tyreke (Evans), they have to see it on tape, they have to learn and he will be fine.”

On Nerlens Noel leaving his feet on defense…
“He’s leaving a little early but he was aggressive. What we’re not doing is when he goes to help somebody no one is helping him. That’s the issue, it’s not Nerlens. I was really happy with Nerlens and everyone can say well they are leaving their feet and that’s why the basket is open. No, we did the same thing last year, but when he left his feet someone got his back. Now we got guys when he leaves his feet they are running the wrong way. You got to go that way and go get that ball. And if you are a big guy it should be easier, if you are a small guy just make sure his guy doesn’t get it. If you watched, it was his man that got that offensive rebound probably four times that were critical. We’re just learning, we’re not to the point; we are trying to figure out how to be a helper. The next step is to be the helper’s helper, then you can be the helper’s, helper’s, helper. We’re not quite there yet.”

On Nerlens Noel doing the right thing by leaving his feet…
“He didn’t do it that often. He did it a couple of times. How many blocks did he have? Ok, he had three blocks and probably left three or four other times where he didn’t get it, and they know he’s not getting any help, so they didn’t even try to make baskets because there is no one helping him. So that’s not Nerlens, he and Willie (Cauley-Stein) are both doing the same thing. That’s the rest of our defense but again we are so far behind, there are things that they exploited, there were things we were able to see, it was two good games for me to learn about my team.”

On what he learned from the two games…
“We are a post-up team, we are a pick-and-roll team. Kyle (Wiltjer) cannot get the shots on his own. We are going to have to help him. He did not play as hard as he needed to play and he saw it on the tape. If he’s not getting shots off then he won’t be on the court as much. I’m not mad, I love him. But he better figure out how to get shots off. If he can’t, then he won’t be on the court as much.”

On what they can learn from tomorrow’s game…
“(Lafayette) plays great stuff. They go a lot of pick-and-roll; they slip pick-in-roll, so if you get lazy its baskets. They can shoot the 3, a lot of back doors; they run our stuff, but they do it higher, instead of the dead corners, they are doing it on the wings doing exactly that so if you get lazy you are going to pay the price. They are going to hold the ball a little bit, yet they score 80 points a game, but they will run the clock down if they have to. It’s what we need right now, we need a team that plays well together offensively, really plays off the defense, not running as many quote plays, doing a few actions to try to get shots off. They will shoot the 3, big men will shoot the 3, their four and five, probably two of their better 3-point shooters. They area well coached team, they are going to play some zone, we need to face zone. They will play man-to-man, but they will switch a lot and do stuff that we need to see. They are going to double team the post; we need to see it to see how we play. It will be a good game and a hard game for us.”

On putting focus on a certain player …
“Well, Kyle has got to step up. The Maryland staff is like, what happened to him? Well he didn’t play as hard; he didn’t compete like he did against Maryland. Part of it is, we can’t expect our team to find him shots. We’re freshmen, we’re not going to do that so now it becomes he has got to get his or I’ve got to call some stuff to get some shots for him but it’s got to be a combination. We had some breakdowns defensively, but look, we rebounded with them, shot 49 percent from the floor, shot a fairly high percentage from the line. They made some 3s I wish we would have guarded, we stopped playing them a couple possessions and in a minute and a half it went from three to 10 and now you’re fighting. They called a timeout down 14 and we come right back, after that timeout we score, we score; he’s got to get another timeout. We did some good things.”

On Kyle running the floor …
“It’s everybody else; we’re going to work on that today a little bit. If guys aren’t sprinting we are going to stop and do some running. We’ve just got to get in the mentality; we just think it’s OK to jog the court. My teams in the past, you know how good we’ve been from defense to offense. You have to go like you are being chased and then you run and then you make plays. We’re like, ‘man that’s too hard.’ Again, I played guys 37 minutes that deserved to play about 25, 27 minutes maybe. So those extra 10 minutes, you saw it. Alex played about 60 percent of that game like he should play, he just didn’t, couldn’t sustain it, didn’t have the energy to sustain it, not the mental will power to sustain it and he shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t. We’re asking a lot of these guys.”

On Alex’s playing style …
“My choice is, am I going to dive on the floor, run or I’m going to jog, those are my choices. I’m going to really work to get this offensive rebound and go above the rim or I’m going to stand here and go back on defense. What choice would you make? Depends on how good you want to be. You’ve got choices in this game, how you’re going to play, are you going to dive on the floor or are you going to stand there and watch. He’s got to change some habits that he has, but that’s why we do what we do. Same with Archie (Goodwin) playing too fast, that’s a habit that he has, just taking it and going, putting my head down and going. Well you can’t now, you can’t play that way, yet we need you to attack and be aggressive. He’s got to learn, it’s hard, it’s hard for Alex. This stuff is hard. That’s why they said, the one thing is, they’re being challenged like they’ll never be challenged again. They’re being pushed; they’re in a situation where every game is someone’s Super Bowl. There were celebrations; we lose that’s what happens. This is all new, they’ll be fine. The greatest thing is, you saw them from Maryland to here, they got better. Now this one will be a hard game because it’s totally different in how they’ll play. Yesterday was a film day, we didn’t practice. We practice today, play tomorrow.”

On Julius Mays…
“I played him too many minutes. He couldn’t play that many minutes so now he goes under ball screens, he went under some screens, he stopped off of getting picked or handoffs, didn’t try to square the guy up. (Seth) Curry had his way with him. That’s why I tried to get him off of Curry; he was not supposed to be on Curry with a minute and half to go. That was not his man. One of the guys said, ‘you guard him.’ I think that’s my choice to make that call.  When I looked out, he’s on Curry. Curry made the last basket, ball game was over. What happened? Again, that’s all learning about who we are.”

#4, Jon Hood, G

On playing top-level teams to open the year …

“I think that is the way to do it is come in and play those types of games to start off. That gets you ready for the next few games that you have. Play games that you are going to play in March, and feel how you have to play in March and start playing that way sooner.”

On what the team has learned from those games …

“We compete and we don’t go away. We just have a lot to work on. We have to come in and listen to coach, and do what he says.”

On the big runs both Duke and Maryland had late in the game …

“That’s part of every game, every college game regardless of division. Coach Cal has always told us that. Every team is going to make a run. Lafayette is going to make a run tomorrow. And whoever we play after that they are going to make a run at us. Basketball is a game of runs and that’s the way that coach is teaching and talking to us. We just have to accept that and learn from it.”

#33, Kyle Wiltjer, F

On the film session following the Duke game …

“There were a lot of things to do. We had a pretty long film session the other day. We got to learn a lot about our team. Rebounding is one of them. Not giving up on plays, defense and offensive rebounding. Just playing hard the whole game.”

On Duke’s defense…

“Duke did a good job of getting to me on the three-point line and not giving me any easy looks. I just have to in the future make stronger and quicker moves in the post; when they are playing me out there (three-point line) getting more involved rather than just shooting 3s.”

On playing with the new freshmen …

“I think we fit in really well. We are starting to learn how to play with each other, with different line-ups in there. We just need to continue in practice working on our line-ups and becoming more familiar with each other so we can become a better team.”

#34, Julius Mays, G

On his first games at Kentucky…

“It’s totally different than what I’ve been used to. The way we are pushed here, the things we’re expected to do here are obviously different than the other places I’ve been. It’s been tough. It’s still a learning process for me. There were big crowds, but it’s not something I’ve never played in. Obviously coming from Wright State, it wasn’t an environment I played in on a nightly basis, but I’ve played in that type of environment before.”

On being a veteran on a young team…

“Early on I have wanted to be that steady guy because I know with freshmen it’s expected for them to speed up, maybe get out of control and make some plays you wouldn’t make if you were calmer. I think it’s my job to be the steady one out there. I take on the role, and I appreciate that the guys respect me enough to listen to me.”

On bringing intensity to the floor on a consistent basis…

“I feel like we should approach every game like it’s one of our biggest games. You don’t ever want to let up on any opponent. My thing is approach every game like it’s a Maryland or a Duke no matter the name of the team.”

On what he has learned about this team having faced a tough early schedule …

“I think we still have to work on making a lot of hustle plays, coming up with the loose balls, coming up with long rebounds and just learning how to close. That’s expected coming from a young team. When you’ve never been in an environment like that, not playing teams that are just as talented, just learning how to close the game out is important.”