Jan. 26, 2013

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Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari

Q. Couple seconds to go, were you nervous?

COACH CALIPARI: I don’t know, nervous, but you just, I mean, plays that happened, you’re just sitting there like, what just happened. Ball being thrown away, you know, some of the free throws.

But let me tell you, they executed the last when we were fouling. I’m not one to usually do it, but the way that game was playing, he would have made that three. There ain’t no question he would have banked it and that three would have gone in. So that’s why I decided to do that. But the kids executed, Archie (Goodwin) had a good foul and we rebounded the last one.

All that aside, folks, I was so proud of Alex (Poythress). I can’t begin to tell you. He is basically in his mind, been tortured to play harder, to compete. In other words, it’s like torture what we’re doing to him, just making him run, making him do individuals, pushing him, and for him to go out and make those free throws and come up with those balls and do the things that he did to help us win the game — and he smiled. That’s the first time he smiled all year, as he walked off the court, he smiled.

And so I was happy with him and I thought Nerlens (Noel) fought like crazy, too.

Q. There’s a sequence when it looked like you guys might have had six guys almost on the floor and you pulled off right before it happened; what was going on there?

COACH CALIPARI: You could have eight on the floor, but before they hand him the ball, you can only have five. So if the ball is handed in and you’ve got seven guys on the court — but I didn’t see all the stuff. Everybody was saying something. I just know when that ball was handed we had five guys on court.

Q. Along with Alex, does assistant coach John Robic get assist MVP; I think he yanked Nerlens off the floor.

COACH CALIPARI: Normally what we do is — and it’s not the kids’ fault. But we line up, one, two, three, four, five: Point guard, two guard, three man, four man, five man; on every time-out, that’s how we line up.

So if there’s two fives, well, which one of us are in? Okay, or there are two fours or two threes, that’s how we line up. I think we got sloppy in that time-out, and I got my staff after the game and said, you need to be responsible for that. So that may have happened, but again he was off the court.

Q. In terms of Alex, could you tell right away, was it something you could see early?

COACH CALIPARI: He’s getting it. All these kids are different. They are not machines. They have all been brought up different. They have all been coached different. They are all different, and our job is to help each one of them reach their potential and challenge them.

You know, you talk about success being a piece of mind knowing you’ve done your best. Today he can walk out of there knowing he did his best. Now that’s win or lose. He did his best. Now there’s some other guys that should not have peace of mind.

So they may look and say, I’ve got to do better, but that means I’ve got to practice better and I’ve got to go harder and I’ve got to do those things. But when you walk off the court and you have peace of mind, you don’t have to worry about winning and losing. Winning and losing takes care of itself.

Q. Under a minute left, Goodwin was not in the game, was there anything to that?

COACH CALIPARI: I don’t even remember. I just — I don’t know. He probably wasn’t in because I didn’t have him on — I didn’t want him getting fouled, so I just put the better free throw shooters on the court.

Q. And on defense, Jarrod Polson instead of Ryan Harrow?

COACH CALIPARI: Just size. And because it worked: Oh, Cal, that was really smart, you fouled.

What if a kid tried to shoot a three from half court and we fouled, and he goes to the line and makes three, on Jarrod; why didn’t you have him in the game? That’s coaching.

Whatever you do, if you win, you’re a genius; if you lose, you’re a goofball.

Q. Alex posted up strong. He also had that fast break through the press. What impression did those kind of plays make on you?

COACH CALIPARI: Well, I just want to see that competitive spirit in him, and that’s what he showed today. Probably played about three or four minutes more than he needed to but we had to have him on the court, because other guys weren’t performing, and he did fine — yeah, pulled it out, he did good.

I’m telling you, without him, we don’t win. 20 and 12 out of a freshman, in this league? And again, I’ve watched all five of LSU’s games, and let me tell you, that even Florida had them down but they started pressing Florida. Florida did not do what we did to that press. And they made a game of it, because of it.

LSU is going to win their games. They played how they have to play. They did not press as much as we thought maybe, but because we — it’s like Alabama pressed us. They did us a favor by pressing us.

But Johnny (Jones) is doing a heck of a job. Johnny O’Bryant was a bear today. I did not want to double-team him. We probably should have. I just chose to say, I don’t want to get those guys making threes, you know, so we didn’t. He got his points and rebounds. He did great. He played well.

Q. When you’re talking about Alex in the second half, for the first nine minutes, he didn’t get a shot; was that something he wasn’t doing in that time, something they were doing, or what?

COACH CALIPARI: I don’t know. I have to watch the tape. We may have run something to him and they took him away.

So what happens to us is we have six guys, basically, in double figures. Julius (Mays) had nine and Kyle (Wiltjer) had eight, the other guys all had double figures. So that means you have great balance, and he still had 20. I mean, those are the teams that are hard to beat.

Q. This is kind of silly, but why did you take the gym shoes off in the second half?

COACH CALIPARI: Just not comfortable wearing them. They were new. By the way, I’m going to sign both shoes and auction them both off for the American Cancer Society. So that will be on the website — what’s the website? CoachCal.com. Thank you, Jerry. (Laughter).

Q. When Noel came out with an injury, seemed like Wiltjer really went to the board a couple times really strong.

COACH CALIPARI: He did. Kyle’s playing better. You know, we didn’t make our threes today, and that gave them an advantage, but Kyle, you should see him in practice. If I let you guys all in in practice, you would walk out of there and say, wow, I love watching Kyle practice.

Now, he didn’t always do that. And I asked him, “Why did you change? What happened?”

He said, “I was embarrassed after Vanderbilt and I didn’t want to be that player.” So he’s dunking probably 20 times a practice. He’s flying up-and-down the court. He’s talking to his teams. He’s having fun. He’s showing leadership.

The one thing I told our guys, the one thing for all of us, the greatest development in our history, is the ability to understand, I can change my attitude, and I can change my habits. And when I do change my attitude and habits, it changes who I am.

We have got some other guys that I’m just, I can’t get them to understand, you’ve got to change your attitude and you’ve got to change your habit. Now, bad attitude doesn’t mean — or an attitude doesn’t mean you’re bad and you’re talking back and all that. It may be an attitude toward work; it may be an attitude toward being a teammate; it may be an attitude toward accepting your role, all kind of things.

But when you know, I can change my attitude, and I can change my habits, and that will change who I am and what I’m about; I’m just trying to keep telling these guys, you know, that, and have fun playing. They are playing like they are afraid to lose, and I’m telling them, I’m not afraid to lose. And if you win, who is going to get the credit? They will.

And I already told them, if we lose, who is going to take responsibility? I’ve been here four years now. I will take responsibility. I’m not putting it on a player. So just play. If we lose, it’s on me. If you win, it’s about you. But these guys are young.

What happens is, they make a mistake, do you see their heads go down? And then they go up, give an offensive rebound and a basket. That’s what 18-year-olds do. They are so into how they are playing, not what they have to do to the team. It’s not that they are selfish. It’s that their whole life has been that.

So we are working on it, and slowly, we are working on it, and it’s nice to walk out of here with a win. It would have been an ugly L, we gave, just like every other game, we are giving people a chance to beat us.

But we should be gapping the game, but that’s who we are and that means I’ve got to come up with — foul this guy before he shoots a three; stuff I don’t like to do, we are going to have to do. Because, again, I’d like to say, some of the games we have coming up, I hope they are close, too, because we have got some tough games coming up.

Q. There’s been a lot of teams at the top of the ranks that have been losing this week. Does this year strike you as more wide open than usual in that any team, regardless of seed, if they get hot, they can do a lot of damage?

COACH CALIPARI: I keep telling everybody, when you watch games, you just say, you know what let’s just get right. We have got to get this thing right. I’m not worried about another team. I don’t care who wins or loses. If I get this team right, we’ll be fine.

We are not right, right now. You saw, I mean, we are still not — you’ve got to get out of your own self’s way. You’ve got to get out of your own self’s way, so you can bust through.

In basketball or any sport, it’s not play to play. You have to have amnesia. You miss a shot; amnesia, forget it. You turn it over, amnesia. You can’t let it affect the next three plays. That’s what we’re doing, folks.

And we talk about it; we address it; and we show them: “I got it, I got it.” And next missed next layup, what, head down, jaw back, gave up a three.

“That was your man.”

“I know, but I was picking up the ball and I was trying to go and the bike went and the apple hit me in the head.” (Laughter).

“What? What did you just say?” I mean, that’s — it’s like — but that’s who we are. We are this young team, and I wish they were moving faster, but I’m so ecstatic for Alex. I’m ecstatic how Nerlens is continuing to grow as a player. Now we have to get some other guys to catch up.

Thanks.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Kentucky Student-Athletes

#22, Alex Poythress, F

On what was different for him today in his play…

“I was just trying to be more assertive in the game and trying to make plays for my teammates. I was just trying to make the tough plays, going after the tough rebounds and stuff like that.”

On if he is playing the way he thinks Coach (John Calipari) wants him to play…

“No, I just went out there and played basketball today. I was just trying to have fun and play basketball the way I’m used to playing.”

On the effort put forth to show emotion on the court…

“It’s not more of an effort, you really just do it. You know, when you are playing hard it just comes off really.”

#10 Archie Goodwin

On his thoughts of how Alex Poythress played today…

“He played so efficient.  It’s hard for us to lose when he plays like that.  Coach Cal has been really hard on him about playing better.  It’s not that he has not been playing good it’s just a difference when he uses effort, then he has a really good game like this.  Everyday in practice he has to do a lot which has been building him up for a situation like this.”

On how he feels about Coach Cal taking responsibility for losses…

“It let us just play ball.  Of course he is going to take the credit (for UK’s struggles) because that is the kind of guy he is.  Him taking the credit for us losing just shows the type of character he has, he is all for his players.  When a loss happens he doesn’t want us to feel ashamed because he feels it is his fault.  In reality we know it’s our fault.”

On how close the team is to being the best it can be…

“I think we still have a ways to go especially with one of our guys out right now.  Once we get him (Willie Cauley-Stein) back into the groove of things and continue communicating on the court and continue to figure these guys out it’s going to be something special.”

#3, Nerlens Noel, F

On his self improvement…

“I think all around game, defensively and offensively. Maybe more offensively, I’ve just been making shots and staying focused. Not rushing things and more skill into what I do.”

On Alex’s game tonight…

“Phenomenal, he came out these last couple of days in practice. He has just been picking it up a lot and getting more vocal. I thought that the key to his success tonight was the previous practices getting vocal and having a high energy level.”

On how close the most recent games have been …

“It’s just a couple of lapses really, just key turnovers that give them easy breakout lay-ups. Those really get them back in the game. We just have to mentally stay focused through that and just not really turn over the ball at crucial times like that. We will get better at it, just about mentally staying focused through the long stretch of a game.”

LSU Head Coach Johnny Jones

Opening statement…

“We knew coming in today that it would be a hard-fought contest. I knew, Kentucky coming off of a setback there at Alabama, coming back at home today looking for a win. We knew that they would be ready and that they would play tough and they definitely didn’t disappoint. They did those things but I was proud of our guys. I thought we played extremely hard in the first half. Unfortunately, down at the half, had to fight an uphill battle there in the second half but I thought we were able to chip away at their lead, thought if we could ever get a lead and force them to have to play from behind, it would help us. But, we were never able to put them in that position in the second half and the credit goes to them. I thought they did the things that were necessary down the stretch and made the necessary plays to win today.”

On whether Alex Poythress looked different in this game versus the previous ones he saw on film…

“I thought he played extremely well. I thought they went to him in the post area. I thought they did an excellent job of taking advantage of the size advantage he had, worked the angles and (he) made some big plays in there early and made it very difficult for us. At the same time I thought he was really tough on the boards. He was extremely long and pushed his way in and got some second chance opportunities in terms of rebounding the basketball and he got some offensive put backs as well. So I thought he was a big difference maker in the game today.”

On how Johnny O’Bryant III adjusted to change the second half…

“I thought we just needed to be more aggressive in terms of trying to take the ball at the basket instead of settling. I thought we allowed [Nerlens] Noel to bother us at times and tried to shoot around him instead of going at him. I thought Johnny did a much better job of being aggressive going at the basket in the second half. I thought it served him well because I thought he was able to score better.”

On whether it looked like Kentucky had six players on the court on the inbound play late in the game…

“That’s what it looked like. I thought that was what was going on. I wasn’t sure and we just wanted to ask the refs if there was anyway possible (to review). I thought the back ref had an opportunity to see. They were trying to get off the floor at the time that I thought the ball was in play but it didn’t happen. We’d had ample opportunities prior to that to make some plays so I don’t think that was the game changer there.”

On why he thought forcing Kentucky to play from behind would be in LSU’s favor…

“I just thought, in terms of their youth, if we could have forced them to have to play and if we could have gotten a three- to five-point lead and forced them to have to execute in the half court, I thought it could possibly be a little tougher for them. I think it comes with their youth, or lack there of, and we were hopeful to put them in that position but to their credit, I thought they did an excellent job of preventing that and made some big plays prior to not ever relinquish the lead.”

LSU Student-Athletes

#1, Anthony Hickey, G

On what adjustments were made in the second half…

“We put a little bit more pressure on them. We were able to make shots. Stuff was just flowing for us. We pressed a little bit and got our hands on some balls.”

On missing opportunities to take the lead…

“We let them get up on us in the first half, so that was on us. It went down to the wire, but they executed towards the end. They were able to make their free throws and finish out the win.”

On the play of Johnny O’Bryant III…

“I saw leadership. He wanted to win. I told him that this was just a regular game so just stay poised and be ready to play.”

On what they will take from this game…

“That we just need to stay together. This is not the end and it is still early in the season. We are going to fight until the end. It was a tough loss but it can’t be a setback.” 

#10, Andre Stringer, G

On Johnny O’ Bryant III’s performance…

“He started to get aggressive. I think he first, early on, didn’t know where the traps were coming from. (Nerlens) Noel was guarding him by himself, so second half he was able to regroup. He could tell how they were guarding him and he was more aggressive the second half. That’s why some buckets fell for him.”

On what kept them in the game…

“Defense. We got some turnovers, we got some run outs and hut a couple shots. We just sustained for the 40 minutes. We had a run there where we cut it to like two but we just couldn’t get over the hump. “

On what they’ll take form this game…

“Obviously, it’s a loss so it’s hard to find positive when you lose but we’re a young team. We’re a team that if we keep playing hard, we’re going to generate some wins. Me, being an older guy, I preach to our guys to keep their heads and just move on.”