Calipari on SEC Teleconference - January 2
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS & PR
MEN’S BASKETBALL
SEC COACHES’ TELECONFERENCE
JAN. 2, 2020
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
John Calipari
On his team opening conference play …
“We’re getting better. That’s about what I can say right now. Guys are trying. We’ve had two months to practice. I’ve been tough. I’m like my UMass days the last couple days. Got to back up a little bit now. Got a tough opponent. Coach (Cuonzo) Martin has got these guys playing. They’re defending. Made 16 3s last game. I’m talking about Missouri. Tough road.”
On if treating the Utah game like a win and the Louisville game like a loss is about keeping the guys on an even keel …
“Well, I coach at this place called Kentucky where everything is life and death around us. Trying to get the players to worry about getting better. This isn’t college football (where) if you lose three or four or five games early, you’re done. It’s not what it is. It’s about how do you get your team playing their best and in the right frame of mind in March. Second thing is trying to get the fans to think different. This is a different deal here and it’s not us playing with a veteran team of players that are seniors and juniors and ‘Here we go, we’ve done this before.’ And all of a sudden you start and have a disappointing start. This is totally different. I knew the schedule would be hard. You lose some games you think you can win; you lose win some games you think you can lose. And all of a sudden, OK, now we’re in league play. What I’m trying to explain to my players is league play is totally different than nonconference play. The year we were 38-0, we opened up with Ole Miss and Andy Kennedy brought his team in here and they had us beat. His guard (Stefan Moody) cramped up. They tried so hard they cramped up. The kid was making 3s out of his mind. We won in overtime. In overtime at home, our opening game. And then I think we went to LSU and should have got beat and won in overtime. I mean, league play is totally different. But I’m trying to keep these kids thinking about, are you getting better? Are you listening? Are you becoming a better teammate? Are you playing the way the team needs you to play? Are you so concerned with yourself you can’t play for us? All those kinds of things that—kids gotta grow up fast. You can’t pout here. You can’t be a baby. Babies gotta sit on the back of the bus. You’ve gotta sit on the bench and watch us. You’ve gotta compete and play.”
On how successful he thinks he’s been with changing the way the fans think …
“They’re all with me. These fans, it’s amazing how they support me. They never question me. The great news about this job is we’ve got four million coaches because that’s how many people we’ve got in this state. And it’s part of this job. I want to be transparent. I tell them on radio. I do it everywhere I can. I’m transparent about what we do and how we’re doing it. And let me say this: Our fans last game—I raised my arms a little bit like, OK, time to get into this. I didn’t go crazy. I didn’t stomp. I didn’t do a backflip. I just raised my hands, ‘Come on.’ And they went bonkers and had a huge impact on that game. That’s our fans. Now, going forward, we may need that. The last five minutes of every game, no one sits down. Stand up! Forget about the score! Stand up and get these guys finishing games! We’ve shown a will to win against Utah, against Ohio State, against Louisville – all of the better games we’ve played. So we’re moving the right direction; we’re just not close to where we need to be right now.”
On his impressions of Missouri and what they’re doing better since a tough loss …
“Well, even the tough losses were against good teams. I mean, they played in those games too. They got behind in a couple games and had to rush back, but they’re playing physical. They’re collapsing on defense. They’ll block shots. You’re not getting, like, open, clear looks. That’s not how they play. They’re running good stuff. They’re moving the ball. Their multiple pick-and-roll actions. Coach Martin is good now. He’s as good as they get. They play to his personality, which is grit, ‘Let’s go, we’re bringing it. We’re not afraid. Let’s do this.’ It’ll be a really hard game for us to win.”
On the league being wide open after some tough losses …
“How about the great wins? How about South Carolina going to Virginia (and winning)? How about our Michigan State win to start the season off? I mean, you overlook. Yeah, we’ve had some stumbles, but we’ve got a bunch of teams that are young in here. But I’d say Auburn is out ahead of us. I am so happy for Coach Muss at Arkansas. I saw Jerry Jones in the box when Arkansas played up here (for football) and I said, ‘You guys have no idea what kind of coach you got. This guy is as good as they get.’ I’ve coached against him in FIBA. I watched him in the NBA. And all of a sudden, they come out of the gate. They’re not afraid of anybody. It’s interesting to see what’s happening. Florida is going to be fine. They’re like all us, trying to find a way for a minute, but they’ll be fine. I feel bad for my good fried Rick Barnes losing his point guard (Lamonte Turner), but he’ll figure it out. And you want to know why I know that? He always has. He’ll figure it out. And then you go right down the line of all these teams. There’s no one that will walk into Rupp Arena and we will say, ‘Alright, we can get this one.’ There’s not one team in this league. Again, I’ve been in this league a long time and I’ve said early on when we were getting three teams in, this is going to be a six-, seven-, eight-bid league. And that’s what we’ve become, which means you can lose any game you play. You can win any game you play, but you can lose any game you play.”
On Arkansas being 11-1 after being picked 11th in the league …
“I expected them to play a different way and to play with a toughness, swagger. He (Eric Musselman) is giving freedom to his guards, which is their strength, and those kids are responding. I mean, they’re playing small ball, but who cares how you play? It’s about winning, and guess what, they’re winning. To go to Indiana, who was 11-1 – 11-1 now – to go to Indiana and be down in Assembly Hall and come back and win, I want to know how many teams have done that in the last 10 years. That’s what you should look up. And my guess is, they were either up when they won, but they were never down 10, 11, 12 with eight, nine minutes and come back and win. I can’t remember one but go ahead and look it up because that stuff – that’s about coaching. That’s about execution at the end of games. All that kind of stuff that matters.”
