KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN
RUPP ARENA AT CENTRAL BANK CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
OCT. 29, 2021
KENTUCKY HEAD COACH JOHN CALIPARI
Q. A lot of chatter during the preseason about the transfers, the freshmen. Did it surprise you at all that Keion Brooks Jr. was the guy that stepped up and jump-started the game for you?
JOHN CALIPARI: He played good. Way better, way more skilled. I think Davion (Mintz) fought. I love what I saw from Davion today. He didn’t make any 3s. What was he? One of five. In a normal game he’s going to make more than 1 of f5. What I would tell you, 20 assists, nine turnovers, the way we’re playing, the speed we’re playing with, is pretty good. We held it at times. Instead of a drive, pass, pass, drive again, we went drive, pass, and that guy tried to make a play. We got to keep working on that. The biggest thing came out of our interior defense where in the second half, Jamal just went crazy. Twelve out of 17. Again, we got to figure it out. I’ll be honest, I have not zeroed in on it, but I told them after the game, If you can play interior defense, you’re going to play for us. So you want to play? Play interior defense. I know Oscar was out. Hip has been bothering him, so I left him out the rest of the game. But it doesn’t matter. We had other guys. We tried two or three different guys to say, ‘Let’s go, let’s see how you do.’ Didn’t do very well. Short of that, there was some good stuff.
Q. Do you expect CJ and Jacob to be ready for the Duke game? Where do they fit into this?
JOHN CALIPARI: We don’t know yet. I mean, Jacob (Toppin) practiced like one day. But we’re coming down to the wire right now. It will be hard. CJ (Fredrick) has not started yet. It will be hard. But if you ask me, we get to eight, there’s a couple guys. It’s just how it is. You want to play more guys. Just got to play better. I mean, again, Sahvir (Wheeler), six and one. The great thing is TyTy (Washington Jr.) had 18 points on nine shots. What? And he didn’t get the ball early in the game. He wasn’t, like, involved. He never wavers, just plays, which is great about him.
Q. Bryce Hopkins said the other day what he was looking for in this game was cohesion, how well they played together. Especially on an opening night, how well do you feel they shared the ball and played as a unit?
JOHN CALIPARI: There were times that they needed to make one extra pass, and the guy that got it–you have to understand, they’re trying to establish who they are, too. It’s natural. It’s not selfishness, I’m trying to get this. We’re trying to get to where the ball moves a little bit more, we keep driving. We did it later. But, yeah, I come back to we didn’t turn them over as much as you would like to, which you got to give them credit, their guard play. They played well. Their big guys literally did not turn it over and got shots up every time. We’ve got a ways to go. There was good stuff, but it’s glaring to me what I got to do now. Forget about Friday, Tuesday, next Friday. The path that this team has got to go on is what are we going to be perimeter defense wise. I thought Sahvir did a great job of fighting screens. We got some other guys that were running gaps. We’re not playing that way. We got beat on the bounce. You guys and ladies know how much we work on staying in front of a driver. We just didn’t seem to do it.
Q. You’ve talked about wanting to be a speed team this year. Looked like you were trying to push the pace. Did you live up to your expectations today?
JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, the only reason we started pressing the way we were doing it is I just wanted to speed them up and get the game going the way we wanted to. How much we’re going to press, I don’t know. I like that we can press with our guards like they can pick up and play. You’re not going to get beat on a dribble, they’re going to stay in front. But we ran. What happens when you play with that kind of speed, it’s usually about 12, 13 minutes into the game you’ll get a little bust-out. Then in the second half, about the 10-minute mark, 11-minute mark, 12, in there, you get another bust-out. It just wears on the other team. You just keep running. Like I said, I thought we had a couple guys that didn’t play with the kind of motor they needed to all the time. It’s not just making shots. It’s flying up and down the court. Again, if a guy is playing you, you’re struggling to guard him, play him before he catches the ball. May not deny him, but you’re going to control him a little bit instead of him controlling you. That takes a high motor. You can wait till he catches it and try to guard him. I’m just saying it’s not the kids’ fault. I told them afterwards, how much have we worked on interior defense. We’ve been more scrimmaging, and the main reason is we gotten guys and they like to compete. We’re getting stuff done. But the breakdown of the defense we have to get back to what I’ve done normally. Again, if we’re what we could be defensively, we could be good. If we’re not defensively able to turn people over or if we’re not able to have interior defense, it’s hard to win unless you can score 95 and hope they score 93.
Q. Twentynine 3-point attempts tonight. Is there a number you would like to see the team average from deep?
JOHN CALIPARI: My son said to me, ‘We took 29 3s.’ I said, ‘What was the percentage?’ He said, ’37.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m good with that.’ You shoot 37, 40%, you probably should shoot 29 3s. My thing is, if you watch this, I imagine a lot of teams watched this, they’re going to say, ‘We’re taking away 3s.’ It ain’t all bad for us because we are a driving team. We will try to get to the rim or hard closeouts. I love it how we play. They will be saying, ‘They didn’t throw it to the post.’ We need to work getting Oscar the ball more. We haven’t done that enough. Let me just put it this way: we got a lot of work to do.
Q. About the 3-point shooting, Keion I think is 23% in his career before this, how much has he improved that over the course of the summer? Is that a weapon?
JOHN CALIPARI: He’s improved all of that stuff. My thing, and I keep coming back to him, your skill set is really elevated. You’re going to think I’m crazy. I liked when he was screening the ball because then he would step back and be wide open. Normally you’re trying to corral the ball. If that guy can shoot, he steps back, you got a problem. I kind of liked what I saw today. Again, got to fight, rebound more. Like a couple he rebounded, he was tired. He looked to pass it. When you rebound it, you go with it, you’re the point guard. He did it later. He made a pass. I think he got Davion a layup. We’re even faster if those guys can bust it up the court and then make easy plays. But he’s gotten better.
Q. Another one on Keion. After the Blue-White Game, you suggested there’s two spots that you’re really looking at for a bunch of guys to compete. Is that how a veteran should step up? He probably heard some of those comments.
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, I’m not just saying it to the media, I’m saying it to them. Davion helped himself today because of how he guarded. It’s not a secret if the you’re watching the same game I’m watching, you say, ‘He really guarded. Cal has said 50 times, the guys that fight and really guard and will dive on the floor and go rebound, they’re going to get more minutes.’ Well, he’s gotten more minutes. He was one for five from the 3. Doesn’t matter. You can stay on the court if you defend that way. If you’re breaking down defensively and you’re one for five, ‘Let me stay in. What? This ain’t Communism, man, you got to come out.’ This team needs an interior defender other than just Oscar. Who is it? I don’t know. Jacob raised his hand. I said, ‘Okay, it can be you.’
Q. A big game for Wesleyan. What is it like to host an in-state game like this?
JOHN CALIPARI: This was a great game for us. I told coach, I said, ‘You guys bullied us a little bit.’ I said, ‘I love it because we have to play the exhibition game based on finances for the tennis program and all the other programs.’ Most teams are doing what? Playing scrimmages. When we play an exhibition, we got to get something out of it. Most of it is I got to learn about my team. I learned today. There’s some glaring issues that we got to deal with. But I saw it. If we didn’t play a team that would battle us, we would never know. You get into your season and you’re like, ‘Geez, we’re not like we thought.’ Today we learned. I’m hoping it helps them, their pride, their confidence in what they could do this year. Their guards were quick. We had to fight to stay in front. I thought we did a fairly good job. I would imagine a couple of their guards said, ‘I was surprised they could stay in front of me because they’re quick.’ They only turned it over 12 times. We were pressing them, trying to wear them down. Didn’t wear them down. Wore us down, I think.
Q. Tonight we saw a pretty evenly distributed set of minutes. No one went over 25. Going forward, do you continue to plan to use such depth?
JOHN CALIPARI: Why do you think I played all these guys? Why do you think I played that many, instead of seven or eight? Who would play for defense. I need to know who’s defending, who is going to fight. It’s your choice. How about this? I’m a college professor and I’m giving them the answers to the test. Here it is. I’m telling you what it is. Well, ‘I can’t play that way.’ ‘It’s not a problem, I still love you, you can stay with me at my house, I’m just not playing you that much.’ You got to fight. You cannot give up on plays, that’s not acceptable here. ‘I did pretty good offensively.’ ‘So did he, and he fights more.’ You play them all. Everybody got a chance. Now we’ll watch the tape. ‘If I would have played more.’ ‘You would have got less rebound, so don’t tell me that. You got your minutes, what did you do?’ Who took advantage of their minutes? Who do you think? Name one. Davion took advantage. He didn’t start. He could have pouted. He didn’t start. Who else took advantage? You could go down and say there were three or four guys. You’re just looking offense. I told them, I need dogs. Who are the dogs? C’mon. Show me who you are. ‘I don’t play that way.’ ‘Okay, I got it, you just move back a little bit.’ I tell them every day, the first fight you have is with yourself. Can’t fight somebody else unless you fight yourself. Fighting yourself means you don’t stop when you feel like stopping. If the energy is raised, you raise yours even higher. It’s physical. My physicalness is going to be even more. That’s how you begin to fight other people. The fight doesn’t mean fistfight, it means I’m going to battle. Either he gets it or I get it. Who got it today for them? He fought more than we fought. That’s just how it is. So we’ll learn.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
VS. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN
OCT. 29, 2021
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
UK Student-Athletes
#12, Keion Brooks Jr., Jr., Forward
On his performance beyond the arc and if this is something to expect going forward …
“Yeah, I’ve been really working on expanding my range, my teammates are giving me open looks behind the 3, my job is to knock them down. Really it just comes down to reps, reps, reps, constant reps.”
On the opposing team giving him open looks throughout the night …
“This team with so many skilled players offensively, people are willing to give up the ball, there’s no need for you to hunt your shot. If you play it the right way the ball is going to find you in your areas and in your spots, then it’s on you just to make the shots. I think there was a couple times that Kellan (Grady) came off and threw it back to me cause he saw two good looks, Sahvir (Wheeler) also got me some good looks in transition, even Lance (Ware) got me some good looks as a big. He got me a good look that I missed. Play it the right way the ball is going to come to you, and you have to make your plays.”
On what he learned from this team tonight …
“I learned that we’re just not as good as we think we are. We got some stuff we need to tighten up, but we have a good team in terms of spacing the floor, getting in the lanes, and finding the right plays for each other, sometimes the ball stuck a little bit but for the most part I thought everyone was doing their part. It was just a good test to see where we are at this point. I think going forward we can tighten our mistakes and we will be a lot better.”
On the tempo of this team and how he sees it going forward …
“There’s a little adjusting but we play conservative in practice, you have point guards like Sahvir (Wheeler), Davion (Mintz), and TyTy (Washington) and push the issue, it just makes it easier for the rest of us. Coach Cal is encouraging Bryce (Hopkins) and myself and the other guys that can rebound to get it and go. He doesn’t want the point guard running them down and slowing them down, we can get it bring it and push it ahead, that’s the way we practice and will continue to play.”
#4, Daimion Collins, Fr., Forward
On playing against another team for the first time …
“I mean I feel like we did good, we played hard, gave it all we had and you know just did what Coach told us to do, so I overall think it went pretty good.”
On playing fast-paced basketball …
“I enjoy playing fast-paced basketball, that’s part of the reason I came here because I know Cal (Coach Calipari). He’ll play fast pace. I know that the people we have around here can play fast too, and I like that.”
On Coach Cal’s message after the game …
“He told us we did good and stuff like that, but he told us we gotta get better on our interior defense, so he did that. He told us too many guys scored too much in the paint, so he told us that.”
On Keion Brooks Jr. …
“He played great tonight. He came out on fire. He did everything he was supposed to do, so he played real well. He’s a great player, everything he did out there he does in practice every day, so I wasn’t surprised.”
#2, Sahvir Wheeler, Jr., Guard
On how the team shared the ball …
“Yeah, I think we did a pretty good job with the assist totals. I believe we had 20 assists as a team. I mean, that says a lot. Multiple guys who had more than one. Guys are sharing it. We didn’t have many turnovers, especially in that second half we kind of cleaned it up. And as long as we’re sharing the ball and making one more pass, being unselfish, good things are going to happen for us on the offensive end.”
On how the team can force more turnovers …
“Yeah, I think some of it we didn’t want to gamble. You know, teams like that. If you gamble and get out of place, then they can linger around. They can stay around. We just want to be solid, making sure they will limit them to one shot to be able to run in transition. So I think that was a little bit of it, but we have some spurts we’ll be able to get stops you know sometimes great defense isn’t always turning the ball over, or making them turn the ball over, I should say, sometimes great defense is limiting them to one shot take, making them take a contested two or contested 3 and rebound the ball and getting out and playing on a break. So, turnovers don’t always equate to great defense.”
On the 20 assists to just nine turnovers stat …
“Definitely, we all shared the ball. No one had more than two turnovers. That’s a great thing. That’s a great number. I know that number could get even better because I know all of us missed some shots that we usually make. Just the first game jitters, anxiety, playing against somebody else. All that’s going to get better the more we play against somebody else.”
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK vs. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN
OCT. 29, 2019
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Wesleyan Head Coach Drew Cooper
Opening statement …
“Honestly, there were some significant mismatches. We did our best and I was happy with our physical effort. I thought the adrenaline got the best of us and there were some possessions where the ball would fall through our hands. On the bench, we have to watch the film, but it seemed like a dozen times, but it was probably closer to three or five. I thought there were four or five good swings throughout the course of that 40 minutes that could’ve gone in our direction if we would’ve just come off with the 50/50 ball right in front of us. But those things happen, and I thought the adrenaline was unlike anything that a lot of those players had experienced before. I played this game when I was at Thomas More in the 2017-18 season, and I don’t remember coaching against a team that is so rock-solid and so athletic and so explosive at every spot. Keion Brooks wasn’t exactly on the top of our scouting report, and someone like that is going to lead you in scoring. Then you have guys like [Kellan] Grady who are capable of 30-point nights. They’re very talented and it was tough for us, but I’m happy with our effort. We’re thrilled that UK had us down. It’s monumental to our community and to the city of Owensboro, so this game meant quite a deal to our school of 750 people. We thought we represented well, so we’re very appreciative to the University of Kentucky for having us.”
On Kentucky’s shooting and cohesion …
“They shot 59 percent. I’m watching our team, and I thought that our effort physically was very, very good. We talk a lot about continuous effort on our team, not standing up and resting. I think nothing jumped out to me that said Kentucky Wesleyan just didn’t compete. That said, you’re going to shoot 59 percent when you take those shots. That was what was so frustrating about the night – every offensive possession for them, every shot that went up, it was really the right shot. It was in rhythm. It was off ball reversals. It was off of one more pass. It was at the rim. I didn’t detect anybody on UK’s roster that was out there with an agenda other than getting the best shot, and that was very frustrating to us. Anytime you play a team that’s as athletic as them, when they shoot 59 percent, the score indicates that.”
On how playing at Rupp and against UK helps the team going forward in the season …
“You’re obviously going to be tested in any way. Getting the ball reversed for us is a big part of our offense. Against lesser teams at the Division II level, you can get the ball reversed pretty easily. Tonight, every time they got the ball from one side to the other, they really had to work at it because of the length, the athleticism, the way some of the kids on Kentucky’s roster can shoot the gaps and be at the gap in a split second. That was very difficult for them to just reverse the ball. We talked about defensive rebounds. If we were going to keep their lead on the board to single digits, we were going to have to battle every single time. We did that. Again, they still ended up beating us on the boards. They were up by 12-15 most of the game. It tests your spirit because it would be very easy for a team with little personality to go up and down with them for a few minutes and get so frustrated and it takes you completely out of your game. We hung in there for 40 minutes. Our best stint was around the four-minute mark, and that’s indicative of a team that was tested physically and spiritually and put that behind them and responded, and I’m very proud of our guys for doing that.”
On working hard for shots, especially during the second half …
“Jamil Wilson was a very calming influence for us tonight. Jomel Boyd was a very calming influence for us tonight. You’d have to ask our guys that because they’re the ones out there performing. From my chair, it felt like our roster saw these guys making a couple of plays. Ben Sisson said, ‘I can do that.’ And there was a time there midway through the second half where Ben Sisson called it, faced up, and did his deal that he does in practice every day. We kept Keegan Brewer in the last minute of the game because he does that in practice every day and he was comfortable getting in there and making that play. It took a few of our upperclassmen stepping in there and making some plays with a tremendous amount of toughness and the rest of our roster followed suit. It wasn’t any amount of strategy that took our field goal percentage from what it was in the first part of the game to the second part of the game, it was really just a team that got a little bit more comfortable and felt like they could do this play. That was good to see, and it was a good response from them.”
On facing a UK team with so many veterans…
“I think that they had the opportunity and the scholarship money to go out and sign some veteran guys who have won a lot of games at a very, very high level. Between Grady, (Sahvir) Wheeler and Oscar Tshiebwe, they’ve done that. It’s my belief that when you have experience and have guys that have been there and done that before, it can make for a quicker assimilation. I think they have the opportunity this year to do that. They look very, very polished. I don’t think they were enthusiastic out there. I thought they represented themselves very well – just their general sense of body language. That’s a mature team, and older teams are going to be better at that stuff than younger teams. We’re looking forward to rooting them on as the season goes on.”
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK VS. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN
OCT. 29, 2019
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Wesleyan Student-Athletes
#2, Wyatt Battaile, Senior, Guard
On the experience of coming to Rupp and what they hope to take away …
“It’s a great experience. I’ve got to play here a couple of times before, in high school. Playing UK is completely different, obviously, and it’s a step up in competition. We’re all just grateful they were able to have us and we had a chance to compete tonight.”
#4, Jamil Wilson, Fifth-Year, Guard
On the experience of coming to Rupp and what they hope to take away …
“I was blessed to play here a couple of times in high school. I think it was a good learning experience that we’ll take moving forward and showed that we can compete with anybody. Going back to our conference, it’ll give us a lot more confidence now.”
#21, Jomel Boyd, Junior, Forward
On the experience of coming to Rupp and what they hope to take away …
“This is a great, great experience for us, and this is my first time being here. I thought we played very well. I have a whole lot of confidence in us going into the season and coming together and making plays.”
On getting 29 points …
“When I first heard that we were playing the University of Kentucky, my first thought was that they are just like us and that we needed to come out here and compete. It wasn’t just 29 points – it was a team effort. I credit my teammates for finding me and thanking the coach for seeing that and we just kept it rolling with that.”
