Kentucky Basketball Previews Virginia Tech
UK MEDIA RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
PRE-VIRGINIA TECH
DEC. 15, 2017
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
John Calipari
On student manager Kevin Massey’s graduation …
“First of all let me tell you, I’m getting a lot more credit than I deserve. I did go see (him). I went back up to see him. I did tell him, ‘You get healthy (and) you come here.’ We helped him with the school, but the day-to-day stuff is what John Robic did. If I’m John, this is one of my best accomplishments, if I’m John Robic. I look it as though, he’s willed himself, Kevin Massey but he couldn’t do it himself. He needed his cousin. He needed his sister. The daily care and he needed someone like John that can be on top of it and I didn’t have that kind of time. Now I was always there to perk him up and grab the dog, see him at practice and I prayed for him every day. But John did an unbelievable job for him. He’s a miracle, Kevin Massey and a blessing because if you ever feel down or if you have been wronged or fate has intervened in a negative way in your life, go sit with him for an hour. You’ll be mad at yourself. Haven’t told him yet, but he already has a job offer. Somebody watched the video. It’s sitting on my desk, you get emotional with it, it’s in another city but they may be able to do something in Indianapolis. But, it’ll be neat when he gets it and when I see what his face and his family (looks like). You know it’s how this is supposed to be. This program is bigger than me. It’s bigger than any of you in this room. Why not leverage what we are doing here to help other people, not just basketball players, others? And I say it all the time, you cheat this position, whoever is in it, whoever is in this seat, you cheat this position if all you worry about is game tape, basketball, social media and news. You just cheat the position. This thing is a juggernaut that can be used for good.”
On if Sacha Killeya-Jones and Quade Green are able to play …
“I believe so. I believe so. Yes, but until game time – something could happen today. It’s funny they both got better and everything was going good and then they got to take a step back. The good news is we saw that Tai (Wynyard) can play, that Tai is good enough to do what he needs to do. And then the other thing is we went small and it didn’t look bad. So, we were able to see that. Quade’s ability to score – without him it hurts us. It is more than everybody understands. He is a consistent guy that can get buckets, it’s just in his DNA. That and not being there puts us in a tough position going into this game. Virginia Tech first of all, Buzz (Williams) does an unbelievable job. He’s been a good friend for a long time. Second thing is this team is the best 3-point shooting team we will face all year. Third thing, they draw fouls because they put their head down and they go at that basket. The other thing they do is they are going to press us. They are not going to come in here with all this respect and go back and play a zone or sag. They are going to press us. They are playing fast. Now we have been in these kind of games and two teams playing fast and it’s pretty fun to watch. They want to stretch the court. We aren’t walking it up, ‘here we come’ and that’s how they’ll play. They beat Washington by 30-20 somebody will give me the exact score. Twenty-five maybe, 26? And Washington beat Kansas on the road by 16, I believe. They went and beat them pretty good. So, you are talking a really good team. They beat Ole Miss on the road, down at Ole Miss. This will be a hard game. Look we are at that stage with this team, we win or we learn. That’s where we are. I’m not taking it any other way. We win or we’ll learn. And we are going to learn as individual players where guys are and as a team where we are.”
On how Virginia Tech can be in the top ranks in the country of getting to the free throw line, but also shoot a lot of threes …
“They drive the ball and they space out. They have three or four guys that can absolutely make threes. They’re looking for layups and kicking it out for threes and they’re getting to the line because of it. They have veteran guys. They have one freshman, but this is a veteran team that has done this in the ACC. They’re not afraid. They go on the road in big games. Their home games are craziness. This is plugged into our schedule at a time where we need to learn about us, and we will.”
On Jarred Vanderbilt’s workouts with Kenny Payne and the progress he’s making …
“He (Kenny) said he is (making progress). I saw Jarred yesterday. We didn’t really speak. I’ll just say it again – he’s not playing to help us win. We’re not going to do that. If I don’t think he’s capable of playing to the level he needs to play, then I won’t play him, whether he begs me to go in. We’re not just trying to put a guy in that’s going to damage him to win more games. I won’t do that. He’s going to have to be able to prove to me that he’s going to be able to go. I’m not saying he’s 107 percent, I’m just saying that he can go and compete at a high level and not damage himself.”
On the bigs defending out on the floor and perimeter against Virginia Tech …
“Well they may go small and now we know we can go small because we’ve done it. They have the one big kid where they sometimes take him out, now all of a sudden they’re 6’7”, 6’7”, 6’7”, 6’6” – but we’re okay. We can play that way too. Nick (Richards) has proven – the kids on this team are not getting the kind of respect nationally that they deserve and that’s okay. I don’t know if it’s peoples’ opinion or their hope. But as this season goes on, just like other seasons, you’re going to have players that are going to be those kinds of guys. What we’ve got to get them to do – my message yesterday was great players make really difficult plays look easy. Bad players try to make easy plays look difficult. Part of our issues with turnovers is that second statement. You have an easy play, why would you try to do that other? You’re making it look more difficult than it is. A great player makes a play and everybody goes, ‘Did he just do that? Play the tape back.’ That’s what great players do. We have players here that are still in that high school mode: ‘How difficult can I make this? I need to get an ‘ooh’ and an ‘ahh’ from the crowd. Oh man, did you see that?’ Well, it was a turnover. ‘But it looked good!’ We’re still in that mode, which is why we turn it over. I remember in 2010 when we turned it over like this, we were exactly the same. I had to sit John Wall down and say, ‘John, you don’t have to make 12 good plays. You can make one play. Make it normal and you’ll be on SportsCenter.’ Next game he was 1 for 9, made one play, ran down the middle, dunked the ball and that was the number one play on SportsCenter. The team cracked up. He was 1 for 9. When you’re that talented, you don’t have to make things difficult. You want everything to look simple and easy. We’re not there yet. We make a layup and think it’s a degree of difficulty – you have a breakaway layup.”
On Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wanting to be coached …
“The best thing is, and I don’t know if it’s Canadian kids or what, but the kid has a smile on his face every day. Jamal (Murray) had a smile on his face. Mychal (Mulder) had a smile on his face. Trey Lyles had a smile on his face. The kid comes in with an absolute – ‘I’m ready to go.’ He’s in the gym at night working. He knows he has to be more consistent shooting. The team needs that from him. When you have him, Quade (Green), Wenyen (Gabriel), Kevin Knox, and now P.J. (Washington) shooting the ball better – all that other stuff. Let’s worry about defense now. Let’s worry about rebounding. You have to be able to make shots, and he’s one of them. His decision-making right now – he doesn’t understand who he’s playing against sometimes. Instead of just shooting the ball, the easiest thing you can do is shoot it. If you miss it, there’s one of two things that can happen. What would they be? (Reporter answers: It could go in or you get the rebound). Or they get it. There would be three. We make it, miss it, and they rebound it. We rebound it, so two of the three are good. Shoot the ball. Quit trying to make wrap around passes. Just get it off the backboard. That’s a daily statement to him. They have habits that we’re trying to create new ones. His new habit is instead of a wrap-around (pass), he’s going to shoot it. But he’s getting better. This will be hard one for him because this team – downhill runs. He’s always been able to use his length and just turn and run with the guy. You can’t now. Now you have to stay in front of people. Now you have to retreat and make it a tough two. It’s all stuff we’ve worked on, but this game is going to show where we are on the dribble drive. Where are we guarding the three? Where are we making easy plays? Where are we when a team presses us? What are the things we need to work on?”
On how Kevin Knox has responded after going 1 for 9 and if it was good for the soul for him …
“And seven turnovers. Well, this week he heard it maybe 15 times. ‘That’s how hard you go. Do you understand you were 1 for 9 and seven turnovers? It was against Monmouth. I’ll give that to you. But you were 1 for 9 and seven turnovers.’ Here’s the thing about what I love about coaching where I am: Like, these kids are held to a high standard here and these kids are held accountable and they’re called out and we keep it real. We protect them. If they lose a game, you know I’m not going to blame a player. You guys know how I am. But, to be able to really go right to the jugular and say, ‘You better start changing.’ When they leave us, that’s not how this stuff works. Either you’re good enough or you’re not, and if you’re not good enough it’s somebody else. Their chance right now to be absolutely challenged amongst each other – like, my thing is, if you care about the team you’re going to push your teammate. If you don’t care about the team you’re going to try to joke around and make everything light because you don’t understand. If you care about the team, you’re going to push each other. Every day is like having to give them new stuff. But I’ll tell you what, they’re trying to please us, they’re trying to please me, they’re trying to do what we’re asking them to do. Some of them are seeing their self. Like Wenyen (Gabriel), he’s playing like Derek Willis now. Now all of a sudden he’s a different player. You’re not John Wall; you’re more like Derek Willis. But defend and rebound on top of doing that kind of stuff that he’s doing. Hopefully, like I said, hard game for us to win. Really hard. And this team is a tough-grinded, fly up and down, shoot 3s, get to the rim, come at you, try to be the aggressor, and we’ll see. We’ll know after the game where we are.”
On how much Knox ran this week after the mistakes he made vs. Monmouth …
“No, he’s getting better. Look, when you think – it’s kind of like golf. The minute you think you have this thing licked, then all of a sudden, ‘I can’t make a putt. I made every putt last week. I can’t make …” And then all of a sudden you look and you’re like, ‘Uh oh, I’ve got a tap-in,’ and your partner says, ‘Why don’t you just tap that one in. Just go ahead, you’ve got it. It’s one foot, you’ll make that.’ And all of a sudden you pull the one-footer. Now all of a sudden you’re like wigging out. Well, this game is that way, and that’s why you always respect the game. And if you’re going good, you fight like heck and try to get better. Thanks. “
Kentucky Players
#32, Wenyen Gabriel, So., F
On Coach Cal telling him to play like Derek Willis …
“He was just saying to try to create plays less and more just look for your shot, and when you have an open shot make sure you take it. Basically, that’s what he means by that.”
On where he sees this team maturing …
“This team, we’re just coming together. We’re starting to learn our roles as a team, and obviously starting off early we don’t know exactly how he wants us to play. As time goes on, we’re getting better. Guys are starting to step up more and we’re starting to get more comfortable on the court together.”
On if Virginia Tech will be UK’s most up-tempo game of the year so far …
“I mean, according to how they play, they play really fast, they’re a high-scoring team. So, obviously we’re going to have to try to limit that, but we play fast too. It should be a good contest tomorrow.”
On Coach Cal saying the players aren’t getting the respect they deserve and why that is …
“I think because of the teams we’ve played so far, they’re not giving us enough credit for the difficult teams we’ve played against, and because of how young we are. But the stretch is about to get a little more difficult. We’re about to play some even better competition as we go on and we’ll get more chances to prove ourselves.”
On if the young guys know about Camp Cal …
“I told them. It should be really hard this year. We’re going to go at it probably three practices a day. I think this is the time of year where we really start to get better.”
On if they are eager to face this step up in competition …
“Yeah, yeah, because we think highly of ourselves as well, as a team. I think we deserve more credit than we’re getting, so we’re going to go out there and try to earn it. We see this as an opportunity we can do that for each other.”
On at what point the light came on for the freshmen …
“I think probably when we first played against Kansas was one of the big games they got to see. Just the feeling, high intensity of the game, all the people watching. Just the feeling of the fight in a big game like that. I think that’s when it really started to hit and some players on our team really started to get rolling after that.”
On if he’s ever played against a family member or friend since he’s been at Kentucky, like Gilgeous-Alexander is with Alexander-Walker …
“Not in that sense, like a cousin. That’s family right there. Actually, one of my old teammates is on Virginia Tech too. I get to play against him, that should be fun – Wabissa Bede. But I think that should be real fun for Shai tomorrow.”
On what it’s like to face a family member or friend …
“You just play your game (and) what the team asks you to do. Shai has been really good this year and he’s been trending really upwards as the last few games have gone. I think he’s just going to come out with a ton of energy right there and you’re going to see it on the court tomorrow.”
On if he’s excited to face a tough opponent like Virginia Tech …
“Oh yeah, yeah definitely. I mean, this is definitely an opportunity for us to prove ourselves. Like Cal was saying earlier, we’re not getting the credit that we deserve. So, as a team, it’s a good opportunity for us as a young team. We’ve been getting better every single day, so it’s another opportunity to prove how far we’ve come.”
On if he ever thought UK would fly under the radar …
“That didn’t really cross my mind before, but it is what it is. It’s here right now and we have our opportunity to go out there and show ourselves.”
#22, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Fr., G
On how it feels to go against his cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker …
“It’s going to be weird. We’ve never gone against each other in a real basketball game. It should be a lot of fun and I’m excited.”
On how similar their games are …
“He’s more of a jump-shooting guard. I’m more of an attack-the-basket guard. We got a lot of the same—it’s basically the same height, same length. We both know what each other like to do and our tendencies. It’ll be fun going against each other.”
On one-on-one games against him …
“We’ve almost fought a couple times when we were younger, just because we were mad and stuff. But those games have always been fun.”
On whether they have talked this week …
“We talk a bit. We talked a little trash, obviously. We’re both just excited to get out there and put on a show.”
On how dangerous Virginia Tech is …
“We went through (the) scouting report a little bit. They’re really high-scoring and they’re really intense defensively. This should be a good match for us. It’s a really good game for us to be on our toes and ready to play. I think this will be a good one and we’ll get to see.”
On the key to defending a team with so many shooters …
“I think obviously take them off the 3-point line, make them put it on the floor and then have rotations and help and stuff like that. For us being so long, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
On learning from opponents shooting so many 3s against them …
“Yeah, we went through a couple things, like run-throughs in practices and hard closeouts and stuff like that. I think we’ll be ready for it.”
On whether it’s tough going against someone he considers his best friend …
“No, not tough at all. Once you step into the ring, you don’t really see friends. You’re just trying to win a basketball game and that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.”
On who would win their one-on-one games …
“Me, most of the time, obviously.”
On whether Nickeil would agree …
“Probably not, but he’s a liar.”
On the reason behind all his steals …
“Anticipation defensively. That’s probably the biggest thing, but obviously my length helps a lot with that. That’s just one of the things I focus on, stopping the other guy.”
On whether he has asked to guard Nickeil …
“No. I’m just playing the game and Coach will take care of that.”
On whether they look forward to an up-tempo game …
“Yeah, that plays into our favor, I would think, a little bit, getting up and down. But yeah, it should be a really high-scoring game and a fun game tomorrow.”
On his steals pace stacking up well in school history …
“I’ve seen it a couple places. My friends have told me, but I’m not really focused on that. I’m just trying to go out and win every game, win every possession.”
On Virginia Tech’s offense in light of the pride UK takes in defense …
“I think all of us know that they have a lot of guys that can shoot it and put the ball in the hole, but I think we also think we have the best defense in the country. We’re ready to accept the challenge and stop them from doing what they usually do.”
On how long he has thought about playing against Nickeil …
“Once it got put on the schedule, we were pretty excited. It’s just going to be fun. We’ve been dreaming about this our whole life. We’ve never really had a real basketball game against each other and this will be the first one.”
On the better trash talker between them …
“I definitely am the better trash talker.”
On whether Nickeil would agree …
“Yeah, he’ll agree with that one. He won’t lie.”
On the trash he has talked this week …
“Mostly stuff like ‘we’re going to win’ and stuff like that. Nothing too—I don’t want to hurt his spirit. I’ll let the game hurt his spirit. I won’t do the talking.”
On taking it easy on him …
“Just for now, until the game starts.”
On always smiling and Cal saying his Canadian players have had that in common …
“I have no clue. I’ve just always been a happy kid and I’m always smiling.”
On whether Nickeil is the same way …
“Yeah, he is.”
On whether Nickeil will be smiling tomorrow …
“No, after the game he will not be smiling.”
