Kentucky Basketball Previews Arkansas
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS & PR
MEN’S BASKETBALL
ARKANSAS at UK PREGAME MEDIA
FEB. 9, 2021
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
ASSISTANT COACH JOEL JUSTUS
On how they compensate on offense without a “go-to-guy” …
“I think basketball, especially pertaining to your question on the offensive end, is something where you have a plan of trying to score baskets. I think there are ways that you can try to score baskets, whether it be some isolations – kind of like you saw us do at the end of the game the other night where we were posting the ball – to ball screens to try to get two guys to play one-on-one, or some sort of mix of all of those. I think for us offensively, you’re still trying to figure that out much like every single year when you have new players, when you have a group of new people playing basketball together. And I think that’s obviously a little bit of our struggles and I think that can probably go all the way back to potentially even the summer where these guys weren’t allowed to play basketball together due to the rules of everything they were presented with. So much of basketball is me and you, Darrell (Bird), playing together. I know what you’re going to do before you’re going to do it. You know what I’m going to do. I think you’re going to zig and you zag because we haven’t played together. I think that offense is such a – you would say – feel sometimes. And even from a coach in basketball can call the wrong play but the players can make a great play out of it just by making an individual play, just like the coach can call a great play and it just don’t look good because the players can’t make a shot. So, I think it’s a little bit game to game. It’s a little bit situational based on the other team and how they’re playing our big men, how they’re playing gaps, how they’re playing our ball handlers. I think for us it’s still continuing to try to figure out what bests fits this group.”
On what it’s been like as a staff dealing with this season …
“I think for me, and I can speak for myself, I find myself continuing to pinch myself that I’m an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky. I feel like I’m one of the more blessed people to work for a Hall of Fame coach that has a big heart, that cares about people, our staff included. I get to work with a group of young people that are driven, that want to be great in their profession, and I get to work with really good basketball coaches. If you’re in this sport, you are aware that you can have great seasons, you can have mediocre seasons or you can have poor seasons. I think that the reason that you get into coaching, the reason I get into coaching, is to provide a transformative experience for a young person or a group of young people that will change their life similar to the way mine was changed by basketball. We are all very lucky to even be playing this season, I think. Myself, I’m very lucky that I get to come to work today. Personally, I didn’t have to come or get to come to work for a period of time recently and it’s not fun. I feel that I am extremely blessed that I am healthy, extremely blessed to be able to work at a university that is world class in so many different areas, to work with a department, to work with great people, and to be able to sit down in front of – how many people are we looking at here, Deb (Moore)? – 22 people that care about what we do. And I get to go to practice today and work with a group of young people to figure out how we can achieve their dreams. So, John (Clay), I hope that answers your question, but when I come to work, I feel lucky and still driven to provide everything that I can to those 16 kids in that locker room to get to give them a great experience.”
On what is left to try offensively at this point …
“Well, Jerry (Tipton), I check my inbox every day to see if that Coaching 101 book comes in. I’m hoping that might be in the first chapter of that book. I think that what we’ve got is you’ve got to continue to go back and do what you always do, is you have to watch the tape. You have to see what you did well, what you didn’t do well, what individuals did what they were supposed to, maybe what they weren’t supposed to. And kind of going back to Darrell’s (Bird) first question, so much of basketball is based on what your collection of players on the floor does. So, if I’m supposed to be in a certain place and I’m not there, that changes how somebody else’s responsibility looks or how their performance is affected, whether that’s on offense or that’s on defense. We have to continue to go back and check on our game plan, how it was followed, how it was executed, and then we’ve got to prepare for obviously a very good Arkansas team on Tuesday. But really right now it goes back to continuing to find out what works best for our guys individually. How do we put them in the positions to be successful and then how does that match up from what we see on Arkansas on Tuesday.”
On what the mood of the team is right now …
“I think there is obviously some frustration. There is disappointment because they don’t like to lose. I think that would be from top to bottom is a group of guys that are working hard. They’re trying hard, they’re listening. We just need some success. I think that there are definitely some instances of success within the game. We just need more of them. We have to do some of them when a little bit of adversity hits. And I think with young people, young players, players on inexperienced teams, you start to see the kind of individualism creep in when there’s a little bit of adversity, and we have to continue to work with them on relying on each other when there’s adversity. If a team goes on a run, we can’t then worry about, ‘OK, my man can’t score.’ Or, ‘I have to go make a play.’ That’s when you really have to rely on each other. So, that’s something that we’ve talked about and we’ll continue to talk about. Like I said, we need just need a little bit of that breakthrough. We need a little bit of luck. We need a little bit of everything to kind of breakthrough at this point.”
On what the assistants are doing specifically for strategies for this team that are outside the box …
“I’m not 100% sure I follow your question. I think that we as a staff are always exploring different kind of strategies to win basketball games and to work with our players to help them become better players, to put them in a position to have success individually, to have success as a team. I don’t know that there would be a ‘Calipari way’ or a non-Calipari way. I think that Coach Cal is a Hall of Fame coach that has gotten to this point by doing things differently. I think if you go back and actually watch all 12 of his teams, they have not played the exact same all 12 years. I think that that is something that anyone is a basketball or a fan or media or coach, I think you can see that his teams have not been the same since he’s been here. I think he’s had different types of players. I think he’s had different types of guards, different types of big men. They play ball screens differently. They play offense differently. They’ve pressed a little bit more. They’ve evolved a little bit from a defensive standpoint. So, I think for us, we’re continuing to find the best thing for this team and that will be the same thing for next year and that staff.”
On how much input Calipari seeks from the assistants …
“I think that we’re always trying to find the best kind of avenue or the best way, like I said, for our players to have success. I think that’s always a very collaborative kind of effort from Coach Cal, and I think that’s something that I’ve learned from him is that he’s always very open to having a discussion. We’ve had three phone calls before 10 o’clock this morning as a staff. So, I think that’s one of the things that’s his strengths is that it’s not all on him. It’s our staff. We talked at halftime of the football game last night. We’re all in this together. We’re hand-in-hand. We’re trying to, like I said, get these young people to achieve their dreams, to achieve success, and I think that will happen. Whether that happens today or tomorrow or Saturday or whenever, I think this is a group of people determined to get better and to do it sooner rather than later.”
On talking to the team about being in games with the teams at the top of the league standings …
“Yeah, we have. Coach talked yesterday to them about it. I think you can take a look at the tape and you look at that we’ve been in those games. Really, with the exception of the Alabama game here that one kind of got away from us a little bit, but definitely down in Tuscaloosa. The game at Missouri was one that you’re right there. Even the one the other night against Tennessee. Arguably your top teams in the league and you’re in the game. You’re having success. I think for the most part we were following the game plan, and our biggest thing right now is to just kind of find that spot when there’s a little bit of adversity that hits us, instead of us fracturing, all right, now we come together and we rely on the team, we rely on each other. That’s the toughest thing to do for young teams. It’s when difficult things happen that we don’t kind of get into our own little worlds that we rely on each other. Those are things that are very tough to teach. Those are tough things to learn as a player myself. I think for us we just have to continue to try and instill that confidence in them to then have confidence in each other. Sometimes easier said than done, but that’s our job.”
On if young players have to see it happen to believe in it rather rely on “hero ball” …
“I mean, Darrell (Bird), I might disagree with you a little bit on that. I don’t know that I would say that it was like hero ball. I think it’s more of a, you know, with this group its they do want to win. They want to do well. The way that some inexperienced guys think is, ‘Well, I want to win so I can go make this play. I’m a good player. I have confidence. I want to go make this play.’ I don’t think that’s a hero or a necessarily selfish (play), I think it’s them not knowing or not understanding at this point in their career or being able to have done that in the past. When you are the best player on the floor by far in your high school or your grassroots team, you can just put your head down and go make a play. Now there’s better coaching, there’s other really good players on the floor. It’s going to take a team effort, you know, at times. Sometimes that’s shooting, sometimes that’s creating, other times that’s being in help-side defense and not saying, ‘Well, my man’s not going to score right now. I’m going to help you or I’m going to do something to help the team.’ That’s really something that we’re focusing in on now. How can we continue to become a better team?”
On Arkansas …
“They’re a team that’s obviously playing better. They’ve got an exciting style of play. They’re mixing games a little bit with some of their defenses. There getting some of their younger guys, not even their younger guys, more guys who maybe weren’t even playing earlier in the year that have stepped up. I think for us, it’s going to be a game that we’re once again going to have to have some guys make individual plays. We’re going to have to play great team defense. I think if we can guard, you know, keep the ball in front, compete on the backboards, get out and fly a little bit in transition, I think we can have some success. But it’s a game I think you can hone in on both ends of the floor today. Once again, give our guys some confidence in the game plan and hopefully we come out ready to play tomorrow night.”
On Arkansas’ offense spreading Kentucky’s defense out and attacking off the dribble …
“Well, I think ultimately it comes down to that. You know, with how good of a team defense that we’ve shown we can be. I think there are plenty of positive, kind of takeaways from our defensive success. You’re not top 20 in Ken Pom (Ken Pomeroy)–you know you don’t trip and fall into the top 20. You’re doing some good things defensively. So, what happens then is when you do have a good defensive team, people’s actions were broken down and they just kind of turned to one-on-one. That’s really kind of basketball on both ends of the floor. At some point, the play is going to break down and it’s going to be, can you get a stop or can you create for yourself? Can you create for a teammate? I think we’ve got to be ready, like every game, to guard the ball. Coach Musselman is historically done a really good job of finding mismatches. So, we’ve got to be aware of that heading into the game of, where are the potential mismatches? How do we – and the emphasis on we – how do we help each other and work together so that we don’t get kind of exposed by their offensive game plan?”
On Arkansas’ Connor Vanover and potential challenges he presents …
“Yeah, that will be unique. Obviously with his size and length around the rim, I think they do some unique things defensively to keep him around the rim. Offensively, he can stretch the floor as well and shoot jump shots. Probably not going to get a lot of blocked shots with him around or on the perimeter. But I think with all big guys, offensively you’ve got to find ways to attack their body, to take away that height and that length. I feel good about where we are right now with some of the things that we’ve discussed early on and we’ll get after it today in practice and see, like I said, how our guys look with the early game plan.”
On Keion Brooks Jr.’s performance against Tennessee …
“Yeah, I think Keion’s performance the other night was something that we all had hoped to have seen from him maybe a couple of months sooner. Obviously, the circumstances that have presented themselves, much like they have for other guys on this team this year. Nonetheless it was exciting to see him play well. It was exciting to see him leading in timeouts. Other people don’t see, or fans, or if you all don’t see that’s what this team needs. We need someone that’s telling guys, ‘Hey, we need to take that shot.’ We need someone that’s saying, ‘Hey, let’s get this stop right here. Let’s get a couple of stops. Let’s pull together.’ Keion has the ability to do that the same way that he has the ability to get 20 and 10 in a game. So, yes, I think that does. It gives us confidence. Hopefully it gives Keion and his teammates confidence as well. That we can build off of that as we head into a nice little stretch of games here as we finish up the regular season.”
