University of Kentucky Basketball Media Conference
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
John Calipari
Men’s Media Conference
Kentucky – 71, Vanderbilt – 62
Q. EJ (Montgomery) seems to be starting to figure things out a little bit. What’s he doing better? What’s next for him to get to where he needs to be?
JOHN CALIPARI: He finished first in a bunch of the runs. He’s starting to get in better shape. See, that conditioning is really hard, and it hurts, but that’s how you build the stamina to build your confidence, so you don’t let go of the rope and you don’t surrender. You just keep fighting. The other guy that finished first for the first time this year in the runs was Tyrese (Maxey). He outran Immanuel (Quickley). He told on himself. He’s finishing in the middle all year. Why would you have ever finished in the middle if you could have finished first? He told on himself. Now, he still had lapses in this game, but he still was more aggressive, and he made some plays, things that he hadn’t been doing.
And then I had to ask, you know, what was today? What did you learn about my team when you watched this game? Oh, this is great when I ask you guys questions because you really don’t know the game, so I’m going to ask you again. What would you, what did you learn about my team? You need Nick (Richards). Come on now. We have one out of a hundred. It’s really good, it’s a good percentage. You need Nick (Richards). And what happens is he gets in foul trouble on dumb fouls. You can’t do that to us. We need you on the court. He is in unbelievable condition. The difference in the second half — and now I got to tell you, this is what’s great about a player-driven team. What did we do at the end that you said, wow, that’s pretty good stuff? Did anybody watch the game by the way? The lob? The lob? We were going to run a play and Immanuel said, let me set the back screen, put the other guy down. Player-driven team. I said, all right, let’s do it. So, when we got the first lob, did you see him point to me? And you thought it was me that did it, like, Great job, Coach. No, he was pointing. I told you. And then we ran it three times and dunk, dunk, dunk. That was Immanuel Quickley. That was not me. And that’s where I want this to go. Why do you think I didn’t go crazy in the first half? And I didn’t in the locker room either. It’s their team. It’s your team. You want to lose? Go ahead. It’s your team. I’m fine. It’s your team. If you play harder and put it on them a little bit and make them make tough plays, you’ll get back in it. You’ll be fine. If you choose not to — now, one of the assistants went crazy, but I didn’t. And again, it’s, you know, this is a hard game and I knew they would make shots. Now, you understand, their last three games they didn’t, and I said it, they would make shots today. And they did in that first half and even some in the second half. Made threes and Jerry (Stackhouse) did a great job of having them play in a way that affected us. But we, they played harder than we played in the first half. So, you, you’re losing the half. Second half, I thought we competed pretty good.
Q. To follow up, is there any significance, you said Immanuel (Quickley) wanted to set the back screen. A lot earlier in the season Immanuel (Quickley) came to you and said, Let me take the last shot. Is there a difference there in the growth?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, let me just say this. We put him in — we let him — we played through him and Nick (Richards), and then what was happening is they kind of leave Tyrese (Maxey) and he makes plays. But, no, I just, I want them to understand this is their team. If they have any suggestions, bring it. Because I — if it’s their suggestion, I’m not saying no. We’ll go with it. Like, let’s go. You all agree? All right let’s go. Make it happen. The press, they liked it. I said, How did you like it? We worked on it a little bit. Now we got to get better at it. They liked it. It just changed up the game a little bit.
Q. For a team that has older guys than you normally do, is it more or less surprising that it seems to play to the level of competition both ways, good and bad, sometimes?
JOHN CALIPARI: They’re not a bad team. I’m telling you what happened. If you watched all their tapes, one thing happened, they missed a ton of threes. They were shooting 15 percent from the three-point line the last five games. Well, guess what? You’re not going to win then. Everything else they did, the way they defended, the way they played, the stuff they ran, they just missed shots. Did they miss them today? Does that surprise you? No. They’re going to make them against us. Teams that, they had — you know, it’s just what happens, and I expected it. But it’s, one of the things, one of the staff was mad at halftime. I said, Look, they’re not machines. They’re going to have games like this. We got to figure out how we get through the game. And they weren’t great.
Q. You’ve kind of made no secret of leaning on Tyrese (Maxey) because you know you’re going to need him down the stretch and you talked about, I’m going to keep going at you and if we lose this, you know, we’ll deal with it, but how have you managed with him in particular the balance between —
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, it’s been harder on him, because, look, things that I’ve done in the past, I’ll go to, but sometimes they don’t work and I got to get away. So, at Texas A&M I did. I just said, We’re going at you and if you want to win the game, you will, and if we lose it, I’m fine. So, he went turnover, missed shot, turnover, gave up a three, and I said, You know what? Let’s win this game. And then I went away from him. But now I don’t want a cop out. I don’t want you to make an excuse. I don’t want — I want you to say, All right, I’m not right, right now. I used to get on Karl Towns. And if I said to the team, Who do I get on harder than anybody? They would point to Karl (Towns). You ready? And Karl (Towns) would go like this (Raises arms in the air celebrating). Two days ago, I said, Who am I getting on harder than anybody right now? They said, Tyrese (Maxey). And they all pointed to Tyrese (Maxey). And you know what he did? (Looking down at table sadly.) Kids are all different, but I do know this. If a guy that cares about you, that loves you is doing everything he can to help you for your future and what you’re doing, you personally, and you can’t take the coaching or the aggressiveness, you probably are not ready. The guy that loves you, that’s going to do whatever he can to help you, will put you in great position, is going to — and that one bothers you, you’re not ready. But I think today was a big step. Now, I’m going to say it again. He finished first. Here’s the other thing he did. So, all season in practice when I put him against Ashton (Hagans), Ashton (Hagans) will demoralize you. He will demoralize you. Like, he’ll go and play so hard that you just want to stop, Let me go, and I got a hamstring. Two days ago, he went right at Ashton (Hagans), defensively went into his grill and scored on him and did stuff. And I’m like, Where has this been? Why have you settled for less than this if this is who you can be? I’m going to tell you why. It’s really hard. It’s really hard. It’s much easier to finish in the middle of the pack, let a guy dominate you and think it’s okay. He’s learning. He’s young. He’s a young kid. And the biggest thing, like I said, I love him to death. I think he’s, he’s good right now, but I think he’s not even touched where he’s going to be in another month. If he stays on this path and accepts where he is, that it’s because of him, no one else. And I think he does.
Q. Back around Christmas or before you said, I’ve got to figure this team out. Talking about the ownership element, is this team where you thought it would be right now or is it ahead of schedule? Behind?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, the only thing I would tell you that the officials that threw me out at Arkansas I need to kiss them on the lips, because they did us a huge favor. Where we became empowered and it became a team driven by players instead of me and them looking — they’re down at half and they come in at halftime looking for me to give them a bailout. And I’m, like, Hey, guys, you didn’t play hard. Nothing else. If you want to win, talk to each other. So, but having a team empowered this early, here at Kentucky, is unusual. It is unusual. Now, we probably, people are acting like, well, you got all these veterans. A sophomore here is like a grad student somewhere else. So now we got all these veteran guys and they’re playing pretty good. Biggest thing have I is I play with three point guards. I got three point guards on the court at any time. And they’re kind of big and they guard, and they can score, and they can interchange. I mean, it’s an advantage. But what did you learn about the game today?
Q. We need Nick (Richards).
JOHN CALIPARI: You need Nick (Richards). You guys learn. Very coachable.
Q. Ashton has been turning the ball over lately, what do you see there?
JOHN CALIPARI: He just gets sloppy. I mean, make the easiest play can you make. He had four at halftime. I don’t know what he ended up with. He had one in the second half, yeah. He had four in the first half, which were, What are you doing? Like the pass he threw long, he could have thrown it to Immanuel (Quickley) who could have thrown it up the court and he just threw it into the guy’s arms. What are you doing? But let me tell you, it’s hard when a kid fights like he fights and plays as hard as he plays and pressures and does things, it’s hard to, you know, like I got to call him over and say, Come on, I know you’re playing hard but that’s — I’m trying to promote him as the best point guard in the country because I really believe it. Can’t have five turnovers though. Have two. Have two.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS & PR
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK vs VANDY
JAN. 29, 2020
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Players
#3, Tyrese Maxey, Fr., G
On Cal’s coaching …
“Coach Cal is the most confident to me. He just tells me that I can do a lot better. He always tells me to go out there and play like he knows I can. I just go out there and try to do that.”
On how finishing first in practice translates to the game …
“(Coach Cal) just knows what I can do. I believe in him, and he just tells me to finish first in every single sprint. He said that I feel a lot more confident when I go out on the court, and that’s what I try to do.”
On Calipari being hard on him …
“He told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to coach me as hard as he can. He called me into his office a couple of days ago. He told me it doesn’t matter how I’m playing; he knows what I can do. And he is never going to back off of me.”
On turning the game around during the second half …
“Just our competitive spirit and then Nick (Richards), honestly. He had two fouls early, and then to have him on the court always helps. And to just go out there be competitive defensively and get multiple stops in a row.”
#4, Nick Richards, Jr., F
On Coach Calipari saying he needs him …
“Really? I think he’s over exaggerating. I think we have a lot of good pieces on our team. Ashton (Hagans) is a really good point guard. Immanuel (Quickley), he was the one that called that last play in the end which was basically back screening for the lob. I think we’ve got a lot of good guys on our team. EJ (Montgomery) is playing really good now. He’s turning the heat up. Tyrese (Maxey) played really good tonight. Keion (Brooks Jr.), Johnny (Juzang), they all played really good tonight, even Nate (Sestina). He did a lot of stuff on the court that’s not really showing on the stat sheet.”
On Coach Calipari not saying anything bad about his performance …
“He said that? I’m just happy he’s my coach.”
On being surprised by Coach Calipari’s positive words …
“He’s always hard on me because I know he always wants the best for me and always wants to push me in the right direction. That’s why I said I’m just happy he’s my coach.”
On his early fouls …
“There were two early fouls basically two minutes into the game. I can’t do that. Even if I was the seventh man on the bench coming up, I can’t do that getting two fouls in two minutes. That’s really bad.”
#23, EJ Montgomery, So., F
On the difference between the first and second half tonight …
“It was just energy. We came out flat, and the second half we just go out ourselves together and came out stronger.”
On Coach Calipari’s decision to let the team figure it out on their own …
“We’ve just been talking about being player-driven. We have to just go out and figure it out ourselves.”
On his improvement in practices in terms of conditioning…
“I’m just trying to run my hardest in practices and things like that so I can get in better conditioning. We have conditioning tomorrow, so we are just trying to get better every day.”
Kentucky Men’s Basketball
Lexington, Ky.
Jan. 29th, 2020
Vanderbilt Head Coach Jerry Stackhouse
On how he thought his team played tonight …
“Our team is growing. I have no complaints on how we competed tonight. They came out with a lot of energy. Obviously, playing in this building, there’s great energy. We came out and worked on the things that we’ve talked about over the last few days. We had some mental lapses in the last game, we came out and corrected some of those. We saw the ball go in the hole a little bit, which built our confidence. In the second half, we had a little bit of fatigue. Nick Richards came back in the game and became a big presence for them with his ability to get on the offensive boards and finish above the rim. In saying that, I have no complaints about how we competed tonight.
On the younger guys on the team playing well at Rupp …
“They performed well. We went to Auburn early in the year and that was a spirited environment, just like here [Rupp]. This was a great test for them. Obviously, in the second half, we hit a low offensively. They had a bit of a rhythm, they [UK] make some tough shots. Everything that was marginal didn’t go in our favor today, which happens when you’re on the road. You must be prepared for that. Hopefully, we continue to grow and know we must continue to get better. We also must play harder, especially when we’re on the road, as opposed to playing at home.”
On if Nick Richards looks like an NBA big man …
“Absolutely, I think he has all of the tools. He’s still working on his game. I just see how he has improved. You can tell a lot about the guy when you look at his free-throw percentage, how he’s improved each year. That lets you know that he’s focused on improving and getting better. The sheer ability to play above the rim, set screens and roll, crash the offensive boards. The best Nick Richards that you’re going to see isn’t going to happen while he is here, at Kentucky, he’s going to be a guy who’s ceiling is going to be a lot higher at the next level.”
On the game plan in the first half and how they executed …
“They run a lot of motion where they have wings that like to turn in to the paint and we didn’t want to get off of Richards’ body. I think if we had help with the bigs that we normally do, he would have had slips at the rim. We had our guard who was up top help and the first time he helped, (Tyrese) Maxey hit a three at the top key that bounced up near the backboard. We just played the percentage. We were aware of (Immanuel) Quickley and aware of (Nate) Sestina, both of those guys are really good three-point shooters, around 40 percent. And then you take Maxey, a guy who is shooting 30 percent. They stepped up and knocked down a couple tonight too. We played the numbers and they beat us tonight.
On the good shooting in the first half …
“We’re playing guys heavy minutes and I think if we look at Scotty (Pippen Jr.), Max(well Evans), Saben (Lee), Dylan (Disu), all of those guys are 30 plus minutes. Our depth isn’t there right now. We tried to get a few minutes from guys, Matt Moyer came in and gave us some good minutes. Braelee Albert did some good things for us. I just think we just need to try to take more timeouts to try to help them rest a little bit, but I think they might have needed it at the end of the game but that’s something you battle with as a coach. The media timeouts were good for us. We haven’t been shooting the ball at all for the last three games. We’ve been pretty bad, and for us to get a little confidence to come in here and see it turn for us a little bit, hopefully that’s something that can continue.”
Things that the Vanderbilt needs to work on …
“Well, I think you know you’re not worried so much about the streak and all that type of thing, we’re focused on our young group. Obviously we had some setbacks and we fought. Two weeks ago we were a different team. I thought we were a team were fighting for top three, four in this conference. You know we were heading in that direction but adversity set in a little bit, but again, now we have what we have and we’re going to continue to build with that, what we have. Obviously there was like a real glaze in everybody’s eyes a couple weeks ago when Aaron (Nesmith) went out and I think now they’re starting to see, okay we can still do something with the group we have. It’s going to take a big effort from everyone, night in and night out and we’re going to have to make shots, but if we could defend the way that we are capable of, that will give us a chance to hang around and eventually string together maybe a few games for us this year. Our guys are fighting and they’re learning, but I think they take the approach seriously and that’s all you can ask for, for a young group like this. They’ll get better and we’ll have better days ahead.”
The effect of team momentum when Dylan (Disu) went out …
“He was all over the place tonight. I think he was shooting the ball well, rebounding the ball really well, he was protecting the rim, had a couple chase down blocks and different things. Like I said, marginal foul calls that changed the game for us when he had to leave the game. I brought him back earlier than I probably should’ve but he still came back seven, eight minutes because we couldn’t afford to have him out of the game. Again, like I said, those are the things you deal with when you go on the road. You have to be ready and prepared to do more than enough, but I thought he was really good all night.”
Vanderbilt Student-Athletes
#1, Dylan Disu, Fr, F
On the game overall …
“I definitely think we grew a lot tonight. We’ve had a rough stretch of games where we have a good first half and then come out flat in the second and let the other team go on a run, then we find ourselves down on the board. I think we grew in that aspect because we fought the whole game.”
On Coach Stackhouse encouraging shooting …
“I’ve grown out of passing up shots I know I can make. They always tell me to shoot my shot because I think everybody is getting more comfortable and see what I can do.”
On double-double in Rupp …
“It was cool. I was on a big stage and it’s a place I’ve always dreamed of playing in. Truly a surreal feeling and I had fun, but of course, I wish we could have taken home a win.”
#2, Scotty Pippen Jr., G
On what changed in the second half …
“We stopped getting stops. We had a little lapse on offense and we weren’t able to make shots. But in the first half our defense kept us in the game, really.”
On potential areas of growth for the team …
“We play five freshmen, so we’re a young team. Saben (Lee) is a junior, Max (Evans) is a junior, Ej(ike Obinna) is a sophomore. So, games like this, close games against teams that are older than us, really help us mature.”
On how Kentucky is different from other teams they’ve played …
“I would say they’re better athletes, they’re bigger than most teams. Defensively, they have better shot-blockers, and just all-around better players.”
On how he talks to his dad (Scotty Pippen) about basketball …
“All-around on my game, defensively, offensively. He tells me to play hard, and defensively he tells me to play smart.”
