Dec. 28, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
Q. Yesterday you talked about play like a team, face adversity, how would you
COACH CALIPARI: I thought they did good. Thought we grew up today. It was a very physical game. You know, there were times they were looking for calls and I just said, they are not the game is physical, just play.
It got to 53 53, I got upset because a couple guys started, that looked like were going to lose, and then you’re out, you’re not on the court, I’ve got to take you out. Just play. You know, just finish the game out.
Playing without Julius (Randle), I thought Alex (Poythress) was unbelievable but he’s been doing it in practice. He’s never been like this. And I thought he was great. Julius in the first half was good and Andrew (Harrison) finished the game, did a pretty good job, James (Young) rebounded the ball. Dominique (Hawkins) was good. Dakari (Johnson) was better. Dakari just missed three balls. If he had gotten all three of those balls, I probably played him another ten minutes, he didn’t get any of the three, they were right there, just grab those, but I thought he did a good job.
Again, guys, this is the youngest team I’ve ever coached, ever. I’m learning. Believe me when I tell you, I’ve never coached a team this young and so there’s so many things that we’re doing, trying to figure out, as we go.
But you know, the one thing I want to tell you, please, all this stuff about, you know, doing it this way, doing it another way. This is not two basketball teams. Please, stop. Cal way; there’s no “Cal” way. There’s no “Cal ball.” This is about those players.
Last year, Louisville was better than us and if they had played us again they would have beat our brains in again. Two years ago, we were better than them twice and we were better than them, and we beat them twice. Well, young, old, ugly, pretty, doesn’t matter.
Now, if we play them again, I don’t know if we are good enough to beat them again. I know in this environment we were the better team today but all this stuff about the way he does it, the way they do it, the way this is that’s all, just please stop. Quit wasting your time.
This is about players playing as a team. This team is becoming a good team. We haven’t been all year. Now we’re starting. You know why? Because they knew if they didn’t play together, they had no shot in this game. They had to play and do their job. Still broke down. There were five or six, we walked out of a timeout when we had that ball in front of our bench, we were supposed to be in a line. They decided, well, we can just throw it in. Oh, really. And they threw it in for a layup down the other end. So we have those kind of plays that a young team doesn’t think it’s important in certain areas.
But I thought Andrew in the second half played well, James Young did some good things. Again we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. Didn’t make our free throws, but neither did they, thank goodness.
Q. What kind of step is it just from a standpoint of, it was going so well for Julius in the first half and not to have him at all in the second and to have so many other guys respond?
COACH CALIPARI: I didn’t even recognize he wasn’t there. I just coached the game. We have enough guys. I thought Dakari was good today. I thought Dominique was good today. Alex was outstanding. Willie (Cauley-Stein) gave great effort and played a lot of minutes. We wanted Willie to do I knew what Willie could do defensively but we want him to be an offensive player, too. He’s got great feet, he’s got great hands. He’s getting better and he’s going to want that ball.
Now we had two guys, now you have him he and Julius and I thought Julius was an absolute beast in the first half, the greatest play for us, we went to post him and they fought like crazy, but they fought like crazy, the ball was thrown out, we threw it back, and then it came back and he re posted again and we threw him the ball in the third when he fought a third time, spun through the middle and made that basket. He grew up.
Normally he would kick the ball out and just stop or go like, this hope the guy would make a 3. I mean, you know and Andrew at the end of the game I thought grew up, did some good things and ran our team.
Did we look more like a basketball team today? We looked like a basketball team. Here is what was on the board today: Look like a team. Play like a team. Fight like a team. That was the keys to the game. There was no, let’s guard your pick and roll. Let’s do it, just the team. We have to be more like a team and they were that today.
Q. You mentioned Andrew there, down the stretch, free throws didn’t go in, but he made one great play, the drive, the spin, pump fakes and another drive, same baseline
COACH CALIPARI: Got to make those free throws, though, and you notice what he had to do late in the game is make him take it out of bounds. You miss two or three free throws, we are not throwing it to you, and he took it out, threw it to James and James made one of two thank goodness. You miss two, this thing could have got hairy.
Q. On Andrew Harrison making progress.
COACH CALIPARI: He did, but he still has a ways to go. Now, what I liked when the game was on the line and the game was in the balance, he made good plays. How about the pass he makes to Alex? He could have tried to shoot that. That dunk basically put it to 10 and kind of put it out of reach.
Q. 53 53, talking about James Young, he had a couple scores, got a rebound, got a steal
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, he was good.
Q. Is that the kind of plays you’re looking to make when he’s not shooting well?
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, and what I’m telling you, Dominique went in and made two or three plays just by hustle next to the goal. Now, why aren’t my 6 6 guards doing that? He’s in there, just fighting like crazy, and it’s a great lesson for us. You know, because if we can get our whole team playing that way, we become pretty good.
Q. On James Young’s perseverance.
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, he had some breakdowns, but like I said, he fought. We ran or grinded out stuff and he got that pass on the wing made that 3, that was a big play, because they were making a run back at us. They make a 3, he comes out and he makes that 3, oh, big time play.
Q. I think Rick (Pitino) said that Julius benefits most from the new foul rules because he just lowers his head and goes towards the rims. How do you think Julius dealt with contact tonight?
COACH CALIPARI: It’s kind of like Shaq when he played, well, he’s so big, he should be able to take some of this, like the whack on the arms. Oh, he’s strong enough to hold on to the ball, grabs his elbow, so what. So he doesn’t benefit what you think.
Now, again, what helped us today is we could switch our bigs on to their guards, and I don’t know if anybody has been able to do that to him. That affected them. But you know again, I’ll say this, Dakari did pretty good when he was in there. So they are good. Let me just say this, they are really good.
What we our whole focus was, they have to turn you over to get those runs, and we have to be a good in the press attack and negate the press, and I thought we negated the press, and then you have to guard them in the pick and roll; if you guard them in the pick and roll, you’ve got a chance. And if you cannot negate the press and they are getting steals and dunks and 3s and all that, you are not going to beat them. They are going to beat you by 25. That’s what we tried to do, and I thought the guys did a pretty good job of it.
Q. This isn’t the first time Julius has had the cramps; is there something going on, because the first half he played so hard?
COACH CALIPARI: I don’t know. Three bags of IV and the Doc was squeezing it in. Try to get him in, because I was saying, get him back squeeze it (laughter).
Q. You talk about Alex, you were plus 20 when he was in the game, what was he doing well, because the numbers are not spectacular, but what was he doing well?
COACH CALIPARI: When he was in the game, he gave us one more defender, he gave us one more rebounder, he gave us one more guy who could switch on pick and rolls; and he was fighting them around the goal, so they were not getting any easy baskets and he’s playing within himself.
You know, the drive, where it I would like him to take a couple more jumpers, a couple one dribble pull ups into the lane. But he’s only now becoming comfortable playing at a high pace, high rate, with unbelievable intensity and sustaining it, first time in his life, so he’s just getting used to it.
But I really believe he’s going to get better and better, because he’s now, no excuse, he’s buying in, he knows he has to do it.
Q. How important is this win, if at all, heading into the extended break, and what do you hope to accomplish?
COACH CALIPARI: We’re practicing tomorrow so, I don’t know if it had any effect to that, but I am giving them off the rest of today until six o’clock tomorrow. So they are going to get 24 hours off.
We’ll be going three times a day until we play again. We’ve got to become a team. We have so many things we’ve got to work on.
And one of the things I told them prior to the game, what prepared us for this game was playing Michigan State, playing Providence, playing Boise (State), playing Baylor, playing North Carolina on the road, playing Belmont. That prepared us for this game. And so as much as I hate to say, every game I’m coaching is like a war, this team needed that.
Q. It seemed like you guys did a better job of containing their drives in the second half. Was there any sort of adjustment you made you talked about your pick and roll defense
COACH CALIPARI: That, and we had to get back. If you don’t get back, they are just going right through you. You know, again, they you’re talking about a team that’s worthy of their ranking, are not going to lose many games this year, are well coached. They know what they have to do to win. You know, the tapes I watched, they turn people over. They just didn’t turn us over today which was good.
Again, with a young team like this to be able to withstand it is pretty good stuff for us.
Q. How do you caution against this becoming fool’s gold that a young team doesn’t think that whatever ails them
COACH CALIPARI: Well, we were 3 for 14 from the 3 point line and we shot 53 percent from the free throw line, and we gave them a chance when we were up ten to still come back and beat us on some of the stuff we did. We have a long way to go. They know where they were, and believe me, I have nine, ten days with them right now, and they are going to know we have one choice and that’s get better. We have to get better.
Anything else? Happy New Year. The crowd was great. Crowd was here an hour before the game these people are crazy. Here an hour game, pushing an hour, hey give me my 16 inches, move the other way, I mean, it was crazy. I mean, it’s nut. But it’s great and I’m hoping they enjoyed it, they enjoyed the growth of this young team and just get away from all that well, these guys are young put the team together. And that’s what we should be enjoying right now. Thanks.
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#1, James Young, G
On his shooting today …
“I just had to keep shooting. That is what you have to do sometimes as a shooter. The coaches told me to keep my head up and to keep shooting, and I did. I tried to switch up my shots and that is why I missed some of the shots. Once I got my form down, I just kept the same form and shots started to fall for me.”
On the gameplan …
“The guards had to step up more. We had to play good defense and get it in the post as much as possible.”
On playing without Julius Randle …
“We wanted to win this. Some of these guys have never been in situation like this before. We just wanted to come out and play like a good team, and that’s what we did. Everyone was involved and we had a lot of energy. The crowd also gave us some energy and we responded with a win.”
#22, Alex Poythress, F
On playing without Julius Randle in the second half …
“To be honest there was a point when I didn’t even notice that is just how deep our team is and how well we are playing. We’re just playing good and things kept flowing still and you look for him but we just kept playing hard and just proud that this team pulled through.”
On if the size advantage had an impact …
“I felt like it was because we try to crash the board hard and try to get second offensive buckets. I feel like it worked to our advantage.”
On the play of Andrew Harrison …
“Andrew played incredible today down the stretch. That is definitely what we need from our point guard.”
#5, Andrew Harrison, G
On today’s environment …
“That’s what you come to Kentucky for, to play the big games. It’s a great feeling and it is an even better win, but we are always looking to get better.”
On how he saw improvement from the team …
“Today we improved on toughness and playing as a team, everyone getting the ball and contributing to the win. We never got down on ourselves and really showed heart. We knew we had to bring it to win this game and we did.”
On what he does for the team …
“My team is counting on me to make some big plays and get those defensive stops.”
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
Opening statement …
“We had a shot in the second half and, missed free throws and a big defensive mistake in giving up the 3 (pointer). I give them credit, they did a good job against our pressure. Playing a couple of teams this year, from a physical standpoint, we are getting outplayed in the three, four and five spots physically. Never mind the execution-wise, we are just getting taken on the backboard, taken inside and we have to improve in those areas.”
On what Kentucky did after Julius Randle left the game …
“We did some decent things but we are making way to many technical defensive mistakes. I mean we are down four, we have a shot at it, and we loose a man coming off a curl, which is a simple play to defend. They may drive to the basket and get fouled, but leaving the guy wide open and not being with him on a simple curl is just not good defense.”
On what he would have liked to have seen from Montrezl Harrell today …
“He just needs to pick up the technical aspects of his game. He has to rebound the basketball better, in both the North Carolina game and this game he didn’t grab a lot of rebounds. He has to get on the offensive glass better. You can’t rebound from backs, especially when you are playing against taller people. You have to maneuver and be quicker than the other players.”
On the play of his backcourt …
“I don’t think Russ (Smith) played a particularly good game from a mental standpoint. I think he took too many ill-advised, quick shots and that hurts your defense when you do that. They played okay. They did a decent job. We aren’t going to get out-played in the backcourt, we are getting out-played in the frontcourt too much.”
On what needs to be done to get Chane Behanan and Wayne Blackshear more involved …
“Well Wayne (Blackshear) has got to stay out of foul trouble certainly. Chane (Behanan) has to catch the ball better and he has to make his moves without dropping the ball. He’ll get on the backboard. Chane will get on the backboard. The other guys didn’t get on the backboard. One of the big keys today was we said we had to rebound from the guard spot because Mangok (Mathiang) can’t block out Willie Cauley-Stein and would have trouble with (Julius) Randle. We had zero rebounds from Chris (Jones), Russ (Smith) and Terry Rozier at halftime. We said that was a big key in the game and we were going to try to block those guys out, but we have to rebound from the guard spot.”
On who stepped up big for both teams …
“I thought their three man (James Young) played great tonight. I really think he did. We gave him his left hand. I think (Julius) Randle is terrific for the new rules. He plays hard. I think they are a good team and they are going to get better and better. I though the Harrisons were very much under control. They handled pressure and didn’t force things. They showed much more maturity than what everybody was saying. I was hearing all of these things and I thought they showed great maturity tonight.”
Louisville Student-Athletes
#24, Montrezl Harrell, F
On what he learned from the game …
“We need to pay attention to the scouting report more. Everybody from the one through the five has to move their feet and guard. It hurt us a lot. We got killed on the backboard, and that hurt us a lot. Coming into the game, (Kentucky) got 50 percent of their shots back and it’s like nobody paid attention to that. They got a majority of their shots back and that really killed us. Hustle plays really killed us tonight.”
On UK’s height bothering them …
“That doesn’t bother us. We knew coming into this game that they had some of the same players they had from last year with Willie Cauley-Stein. Julius Randle is not as tall as Nerlens Noel. You can’t change their height. They played with more heart than us. They out-hustled us in this game.”
On how to put the win behind him …
“As far as a team, there will be some guys that will hang their head. There is nothing you can do about it. You can’t change the outcome of this game. We just need to prepare for our next game. We can’t change the outcome of this game. We can’t change the score, we can’t go back and fix our errors, we just have to go back and move onto the next game.”
#2, Russ Smith, G
On what they learned in this game …
“Shots just didn’t go in for us. They were shots that we normally make. I guess this is just one of those games. It happens. We just need to move on from this and move on to conference play. We play UCF in three days, so we need to prepare for them.”
On his shot today …
“It felt OK. It just didn’t go in. I started off slow, but that’s not why we lost. We missed a lot of free throws and rebounds. We didn’t rebound as well as we should have. I shot free throws for two hours yesterday and I was making 40, 50 in a row. I couldn’t make any (today).”
On why he thinks they lost the game …
“We didn’t rebound and we didn’t get defensive stops.”
