Kentucky Basketball Previews Texas A&M
UK MEDIA RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK-TEXAS A&M PREGAME MEDIA OPPORTUNITY
FEB. 9, 2018
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
John Calipari
On experimenting with different lineups …
“I hate to do that with like six and seven games to go, but we’re still – it seems like every team in the country is struggling, and the veteran teams are the ones who are doing well. We’re all probably trying to do the same thing. How are we going to get this, the dots – cross the t’s, dot the i’s, connect everything. The kids are trying. It’s just, it’s not easy.”
On if Texas A&M qualifies as a veteran team …
“Yeah. Now that they’re healthy, they’re winning games. They were a top-five team to start the year and now they can go on a run of games and all of a sudden you turn around and they’re back to being a top-10 team. It’s like Tennessee, they’re very – they’re a top-15 team. They’re a top-10 team. They came in and beat us. (We) had our chances. This will be a hard game. It’s on the road.”
On the team struggling to earn assists …
“We’re still not there, and part of it – when you miss all of these shots, like wide open, guys miss shots, Those are all assists. So, when you miss seven or eight or nine that are wide open, and even if you make four or five of them, it makes a big difference in your assists. Some of it is that. Others are still not as willing as we need them to be. But, we’re going to keep working on it.”
On league opponents trying to slow UK down offensively …
“Not all of them. There are some that are going to play us fast. It’s good though because in the NCAA Tournament, that’s the way the game is going to be played. It’s not going to be run up and down the court and go crazy. It’s just not going to be. It’ll be a little closer to this, so they’re learning. We’re figuring it out. Late-game stuff we still have to get better at. Understandable we’re not where we need to be.”
On the shooting drills and conditioning at practice …
“Here’s the thing I know that you don’t do. You keep working on it. You get them to focus. You do numbers so that they can see improvement. But you don’t, whether it be foul shooting or shooting – if you make a big deal out of it, it gets worse. This should be a good shooting team, BUT we’re so long and active it doesn’t need to be a great shooting team. There are teams out there that really have got to make 12, 13, 14 3s. We’re not one of them. But, we’re a good shooting team that’s just not making shots. I hate to tell you, they’re open and some of them are missed badly, and that worries me with some of these guys. How did you miss that that badly? What is – where is your mindset right now? Because most of shooting is in their mind.”
On if some of the players don’t have confidence shooting the ball …
“I don’t know if it’s confidence; some of it’s shot preparation. They’re not ready to shoot. We had a guy standing straight up, the ball came back to him, and he and to dip, go, bang, and then the ball missed badly. I would say that was more of the preparation than confidence. But, you know, we should be a better shooting team. Look, we have time. I’ve been through this with a couple teams here, and I haven’t lost any faith. I’m looking around saying, ‘I’m not worried about anybody else in the country. Let’s just get our thing right.’ And it’s not game-to-game; it’s, are we getting better? If we’re getting better the rest of the stuff will start taking care of itself. We do have to get better late in the game. Some games we’ve been pretty good, other games we’ve been pretty bad. We’ve got to get more consistent late in the games.”
On if the team needs a little positive reinforcement now …
“We need to win a game. You’re right. Like to, but what if we really play well, something crazy happens and you get beat? You move on to the next game, but you know we’re getting closer. Just stay with it, and if you happen to play poorly and win a game, you have to say, ‘Guys, it’s a great win, but this is not going to do it. It’s not what we’re doing and where we’re trying to go with this.’ You want to win every game, but when you’ve got a team this young, it’s just are you getting it? When are we really going to get what we’re trying to do together?”
On if he’s found anything new in player combinations that he likes …
“Well, I liked the fact that they competed. There’s a competitiveness with it. We’re still – I’ll do some stuff today just to try to see what it looks like and try to get guys comfortable playing together. Jarred (Vanderbilt) just joined us and it’s been hard because you’re trying to get him in but you’re trying to figure out where to play him and how to play him. And Quade (Green) comes back now and now he and Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) together look pretty good on the court together. We haven’t had that in a while. You know Nick (Richards) played better last game. We haven’t had consistent play out of any player and that’s why it becomes game to game. You’re just trying to figure out who is playing well, what group is playing well, and that is an added issue that we are having right now. And again, if you are playing within three to five percent of who you are, it’s fine. But when you have these fluctuations, it’s hard on everybody. Like, it is hard on every other player on the team. And being more consistent, being more prepared for the game, being more focused in preparation, pregame routine; maybe you need to change it. We are talking all that stuff. These guys are so young. Now I’ll ask you because I know you really don’t know anything, but when I ask you this question – ‘Why would NBA teams and NFL teams play music during practice?’ How about we ask the retired one (Alan Cutler)? Why do you think they do that? [Reporter: Because that’s how they shoot when they are screwing around with themselves so it’s a comfort zone.] Are they singing the songs in practice or are the concentrating on practice and it maybe gets them in a different mindset? Are they dancing? So the music is playing in the NBA practice facility and the guy is dancing. No, they are not singing the rap song. There are guys who go out with headphones and they shoot with them on. They are not singing; they are trying to block everything out and get themselves in a zone. Before Philadelphia played New England, you think they were joking around in the locker room? You think there was joking around in the locker rooms to lighten things up? And if somebody did, what would have happened? There would have been a scuffle in the locker room. See, we don’t – all this stuff is like new. They’ve never been like this is how you do this. And when you explain it to them, they kind of, ‘Oh.’ And I’ll say it again, I got great kids. I’m just trying to figure this out. We all are. I’m trying to figure them out. They are trying to figure themselves out. They are trying to figure each other out and we are getting better. Our defense is getting better. We got to make some shots. At some point you are going to have to drop some shots. And the games that we have really played well, we made some shots. And they are all capable of that. I’ve got five guys in there that are capable shooters, more than capable shooters, but we’ll see. Today’s practice gets us ready. All I want them to worry about is today. Don’t worry about tomorrow, next week, the following week, the conference tournament. Just worry about today. Let’s try to get better. Thanks.”
Kentucky Players
#5, Kevin Knox, Fr. F
On how the team feels going into Texas A&M …
“We came off of a tough loss to Tennessee, but yesterday we had a really good practice. Really got after it. A lot of conditioning. Played a lot of five-on-five just to get some more playing time together. We just tried out different lineups yesterday too as well. Like I said, I think it was a really good practice. I think we feel pretty good going into tomorrow.”
On how they have been handling the losses …
“Just staying focused. We’ve all lost games throughout our whole lives so we just know we’ve got to be able to prepare for the next game. Be able to move on, focus on the next game, like I said. I think the big thing with us is just making sure we stay focused, prepare because this is a hard conference and with a young team were going to experience some tough losses. Make sure that we stay positive and we just keep moving on.”
On what’s keeping them from being successful l…
“I think there’s a lot of things going on with this team. But like I said, we’ve just got to be able to stay focused. This team is going through a lot right now we’re really young. Everyone is experiencing a lot of things. Coaches are making sure that we stay positive with each other; we keep picking each other up. We’re not negative or nothing like that. Just make sure we’re staying together as a team and make sure our jell is still there.”
On if he can recall what “a lot of things” are…
“People say we have a problem passing the ball, so we’ve been really working on that the last couple of days, making sure we get each other touches, making sure our point guards are passing the ball. I’m passing the ball. Everybody is just passing the ball. Making sure that everyone like I said is getting touches. Throughout the offense we’re all getting shots that we all like. That’s something that we’re really working on as a team. I think that’s something that could really help us.”
On if it makes it more frustrating after almost turning a corner at the WVU game …
“It was a big game for me, but I’m just going to keep playing hard. The last couple games weren’t really my best games, but I just have to be able to go out and help my teammates as best as I can. The West Virginia game a lot of people thought was a breakout game, but I’m just going to keep playing hard and keep playing my ability and getting in the gym and getting up shots. I get more consistent. I’m just going to keep doing me and working hard and playing and hopefully it will come sometime soon.”
On how everyone thought the team had turned a corner after the WV game …
“That game we really fought back to come back from that deficit. A lot of people thought we played a really good in second half that game. I think we had another game where we came back; I think the next game we came back in the second half, too. The fight is there with this team. We’re really good at staying together towards the end of the game. We’ve just got to be able to put it a whole 40 minutes together as a team. We just can’t play one half. That’s something we’re getting better at. Being able to start games and end close games. Cal really wants us to start games off a little bit better. We’re going to work on that tomorrow just coming out with a good first five minutes and get some good buckets and be able to go up maybe 10 in the first half of the game. And then be able to finish the game as well.”
#32, Wenyen Gabriel, So., F
On the last couple days of practice …
“Practice has been really intense lately. We did a lot of competitive things. We’ve been going at it during late-game situations and going at it during five-on-five during practice. We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and we’re getting on a lot of shots up, too.”
On using negativity from social media as motivation …
“Of course you hear it, but you try to block it out. When you come to the team, you try to stay positive and focus on moving forward. The future is not going to be in the past.”
On never losing three games in a row under John Calipari …
“We should always have a lot going into every game. Obviously, the last game hurt and even the game before. So yes, the losses hurt, but we just use that as motivation. We don’t look it at as the streak, never lost 3 in a row. That’s not how we look at it. But every game should be a different challenge.”
On Texas A&M beating Auburn …
“I saw that they just beat Auburn. That’s a good win for them. Maybe that will just make this win even better for us when we beat them.”
On what they’re expecting for this second match up down low …
“They’re a big, physical team. That’s how they play basketball. We have to be ready to combat that, and I feel like we need to keep playing defense how we’ve been playing and hopefully we make some shots this game. We’ve been working on that and putting a lot of emphasis on it during our practices.”
On what shooting in practice entails …
“You can’t miss every shot. That’s the way we’ve been looking at it. We’re just getting up more reps. We’ve been focusing on conditioning and getting shots up when were tired.”
On labeled the energy guy and if his can help guys sustain energy …
“As you said, they have labeled me the energy guy and I think that’s what I do. When I’m playing my best is when I think I’m bringing the most energy to the team, so I would say yes, I can help guys sustain energy.
On if they look back at what went well the last time they played Texas A&M …
“We’re about to watch film on the last game right now, go over our game plan and talk about what we’re gonna do for this game coming up.”
On bouncing back in practice …
“It’s been very competitive. We’ve been going at each other – five-on-five, putting ourselves in late-game situations with the clock and trying to simulate those situations in practice.”
On Kevin Knox saying that they have been working on passing, everyone touching the ball and getting guys more shots where they like them …
“We’re trying to help each other score. I think we’ve been struggling offensively over the last few games, especially on shooting. I think our offense has been low motor recently and it shows on the scoreboard, so we’ve been trying to boost that up.”
On how to fix the motor …
“We have to get the ball moving. The ball moves faster than the dribble.”
On in Coach Calipari has them partaking in Adolph Rupp’s non-dribbling drills …
“We’ve done a few of those drills, but that hasn’t been the main emphasis on how we want to get the ball moving.”
On if they are pressure to winning for a good spot in the tournament …
“My mind is always on March. Every day, every game is on March. The losses aren’t gonna kill you, but we just have to focus on where we’re going to be at during March. So, we just have to get better every day. We have to stay positive there’s no time to dig yourself into a deeper hole than you need to be.”
On how to the offensive can getting better and get more shots up …
“Getting the ball moving more and obviously trying to run up the floor more when we have the opportunity. We have to play to our strengths and help each other score.”
