State Farm Champions Classic: Kentucky vs. Duke
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Kentucky Wildcats
John Calipari
Jacob Toppin
Oscar Tschiebwe
Press Conference
Duke – 79, Kentucky – 71
Q. (No microphone.)
JACOB TOPPIN: I think we fought, to be honest. We definitely fought. We were in the game. 37.7 percent from the field goal. That’s not good and we still were in the game. So like we just got to make shots. I feel like we had good opportunities to make shots, but they didn’t fall.
So we definitely fought as a group. I’m proud of this team and what we did today. We fought, but we didn’t come out with the W so we have things to work on.
Q. (No microphone.)
OSCAR TSCHIEBWE: That’s what you got to do. If you really want to help your team, you got to fight, so I came out and fight. So I was going for everything. I was doing my best. I came in to win the game. That’s why I was fighting. I cannot make anybody rebound them for me. That’s why I was going for everything.
JOHN CALIPARI: He had three jumpers he didn’t take that I was like telling him, Shoot the ball. He’s a really good shooter. But we got to still figure out how we get the ball to him closer to the basket. But he also can really shoot.
Q. (No microphone.)
OSCAR TSCHIEBWE: It is something we work on with the coaches and everybody because if you watch me these past two years I’ve really struggled with that. If you see the way we’re guarding it helps with not getting in foul trouble, but not good for rebounds, but something, again, we work on it because I used to go push people behind, but right now we work with the coach, I got to go side to side. When you go side to side you’re not going to get called for that. So I just go physical. I just feel you got to be using your head on every play.
Q. Duke went on a 22-5 run and you guys came right back and countered it. What do you call to do that and what do you think that says about the team?
JACOB TOPPIN: I mean, it says a lot. We’re never going to back down from a fight. We’re always going to play to the end. When it says 0:00 on the clock, that’s when we’ll stop fighting.
So no matter if we’re down, if they go on a run — basketball is a game of runs, so everyone’s going to have their runs now. If they had their run now, we got to go for our run. So we’re never going to back down from a fight. We’re going to always fight because that’s who we are. That’s what we work on. We work on fight and if you’re not going to fight, you can’t play this game. So that’s what we preach on.
Q. What do you think was the difference in this game, particularly in that big run Duke had in the second half?
JACOB TOPPIN: Defensively we got to be better, individually and as a team. That’s really pretty much it.
On the offensive end we got to execute better. We got to start making shots. Again, we shot 37 percent from the field goal for the game and that’s not good enough and we were still in the game, so that says a lot about this team.
Q. Talk about the challenge of Banchero tonight.
JACOB TOPPIN: He’s a very skilled player. Like, let’s not hide the fact that’s a good player. He’s 6′-10″, 250 or whatever he is. It was a challenge, but I like challenges. I take pride in my defense. There was times where I stopped playing and he got easy buckets and that’s on me.
But at the end of the day, we learned from it. We’re going to go back, watch film, and I’m going to watch film, and we’re going to see what we can do better as a team and as individuals and we’re just going to move on.
Q. What was it like looking out and seeing your brother and the Knicks coach and Knicks players, former Kentucky guys supporting you guys?
JACOB TOPPIN: It was just a surreal moment. Being from New York it’s a dream come true. Playing MSG where my brother plays all the time, it’s a surreal moment. I don’t know how to describe it.
Q. What can you and your teammates take from watching Oscar basically play himself to exhaustion trying to grab every rebound?
JACOB TOPPIN: I would say we’re used to it. We watch it every day in practice. He’s always fighting. He doesn’t take days off. He wants to better himself. And the way he plays in practice helps us as individuals and a team.
So he’s always been a fighter, he’s always been a hustle player, and he’s always been that type of dog to just go after rebounds, dive on the floor. He’s been that type of player. So it’s good for us and it’s good for the team.
Q. What did you make of what you saw tonight?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, we got it to four, and then we’ll watch the tape. Two shots blocked, and all I said all week, If you drive, just don’t get it blocked. Don’t even worry about making it because when that guy comes, the backboard’s free. We got two shots blocked. And part of this is, it was me, based on playing Sahvir too many minutes and I think he tired out a little bit. He had five turns in the second half.
But TyTy wasn’t playing well, and so I just stuck with who was playing well. So he got tired. TyTy played the way he did because we kind of wanted him to. Like, this kid is, we’re playing exhibition games, he’s shooting nine and ten shots. You’re supposed to be a guy that can go get baskets.
So I will take responsibility for some of the plays that he made. And I just said to him, You know, kid, you don’t have to make every shot. You just can’t miss ’em all. You got to make one or two. And he just was missing a bunch of shots, and if you watched him play, that’s not him.
But this was a moment kind of game and for us to be in that game when our better players did not play well and their two really good players played really well and we had a chance to win. That’s crazy. So shooting 37 percent, we’re still working on post play for Oscar, but I’m telling you guys, he can really shoot the basketball. And so when he passed up those foul line shots, I’m like, he passed up three of them, like shoot it.
I thought Kellan played well. I thought Davion played well. The game was a funky game for Daimion, but I think he’ll be fine.
Q. I know that the turnovers were high in the second half. What was it like having somebody like Sahvir run your team —
JOHN CALIPARI: Oh, and he’s in huddles talking. I mean, he’s directing. He’s taking, he’s doing — look, when you have a downhill runner, he’s just got to get comfortable with our guys, and Oscar has never been, they have never thrown lobs to Oscar. Everything was a bounce and a mush, you know, and now all of a sudden, we’re trying to get him — you notice, he laid ’em in versus dunking it.
So we got a lot of work to do. But you have to have a post presence if you’re going to win. That’s where you shoot a higher percentage. We missed a bunch of shots that I’m, like, wow.
But give Duke credit. I mean, they kept us in pick and rolls, and again, I should have gone to forcing down the sideline earlier than I did. Not our kids’ fault. I told them after, that’s on me. But I loved our fight. I loved our competitive spirit. And that’s what our program is always been about.
Now, some guys got to step up. Like, when you talk about, I’ll just throw a few years ago, Tyler Herro, no one, he was a four star. He played in the McDonald’s game. Some of you, oh, we knew it. What are you talking about?
Keldon Johnson. We knew this. But all of a sudden what did they do? Whoop. And then all of a sudden we get a chance to win a national title. They weren’t there early. This team has some guys, I don’t know which guys will do it, but they got to step up. I said, they got, their two top-five players played like top-five players. Now if you want to be them, then step your game up. I think we’ll be able to do some of that, but it all starts with fight. I’ve got to do a better job in scheming defensively and what we’re going to do, but I’m, like I said, I walk away, I wanted us to compete against ourselves and do stuff — we only had 13 turnovers. Like you think we had like 40 turnovers, we had 13. But we had 15 assists. And one kid had seven. Think about what that means. And he had a bunch of them late in the second half.
Q. Keion played 16:40, that’s a lot of minutes fewer than any other starter, he didn’t have foul trouble —
JOHN CALIPARI: He was struggling to guard Paolo.
Q. It was purely a matchup deal?
JOHN CALIPARI: No, did you watch the game?
Q. I had to write on the first game in the first half.
JOHN CALIPARI: There you go. So tell him what happened.
Q. You coached a lot of really good freshmen, Paolo —
JOHN CALIPARI: Really good. Really good. He’s really good. Great kid, great family. Really good. You almost, you can’t — we had too much respect for him. We backed away and now he shoots. No. Make him make basketball plays. I kept saying it, but we’re afraid, so they kept backing up. Now Jacob seemed to go guard him and make him spin and do some stuff. But I even said prior to the game, they’re going to iso him. I thought they would short pick and a step-up screen and short roll him to the foul line and let him play there. Well they played him on an elbow and they played him in a short corner. It was the same idea. And then we were like, Okay, how are we going to do this. And it was a tough matchup. Keion didn’t play that bad it was a tough matchup. We wanted to try to win the game.
Q. You recruited Trevor and Paolo pretty hard —
JOHN CALIPARI: Trevor not as hard, but.
Q. Was it hard —
JOHN CALIPARI: Recruited Roach. Recruited Griffin. Probably recruited Williams. We got beat on all of them.
Q. But seeing those guys that you recruited so hard thriving.
JOHN CALIPARI: Paolo’s the one that we recruited so hard. I’m fine with it. I don’t take this stuff personal. I hope he does well and I hope we play him again and he doesn’t play so well. But his dad is Italian and he’s an Italian citizen. So am I. I got a passport. And I still didn’t get him. I don’t know. So, but you know, I mean, he’s good. The thing that they have done right now is he’s in better shape. And they took him out for a long period of time, I don’t know why they had him out a stretch.
Q. Cramps.
JOHN CALIPARI: What was it?
Q. Cramps.
JOHN CALIPARI: So he’s not in shape.
(Smiling.)
Q. With this potentially being your final year against Coach Krzyzewski —
JOHN CALIPARI: No, no, we’re hoping one more. But go ahead.
Q. In that case what will you remember about your battles with him?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, I remember one where we got beat so bad that I told the guys in the last five minutes, If anybody fouls or stops this clock, you’re finding your own way home, I want to be out of this building in seven minutes.
And then the other time Tyler Ulis just totally dominated the game and we beat them. We may have beat them a couple times, I don’t know, you would have to tell me. I know we beat them with Tyler Ulis. So may have beaten them another time too.
But you know that you’re going to have a well-coached team, his players are going to want to win the game, so are mine. That’s why you have this kind of game. He said to me after, This is like a post-season game. So but we, the coaches, I don’t know if they, if you — we got him a, we got — the three coaches together, because none of us are going to be able to do anything here, so we did a Zoom call. And Bill Self said, Cal, why don’t you get us a bottle of Pappy for him and we’ll all chip in, which they didn’t chip in, just so you know. So we got him a bottle of Pappy — you guys know what that Pappy Van Winkle? We got people that don’t know in this room. Well look it up. Okay. I sent, when we gave it to him it was, If you don’t drink bourbon — and I knew he didn’t — but if you don’t drink bourbon, you save this and when I retire you give it back to me. He came up to me prior to the game and said, My daughter saw this and said, You can’t get this. And I knew he didn’t know. He was like, Hey, nice bottle, pour it out, you know. And I would have done the same, but now I live in Kentucky, so I know what bourbon is. And I need some bourbon right now, to be honest with you.
But I think it was an enjoyable game that we learned, hopefully they learned. We got to have some guys step up. I got to — I can’t play Sahvir how many minutes did I play him?
Q. 38.
JOHN CALIPARI: Can’t play a guy 38 this early in the season. So he should have played about 32 and he would have been fine, he wouldn’t have had those turnovers. Not his fault, that’s on me.
TyTy, he took more shots in this game than the two exhibition games. And part of that was me saying, Look, I want you to go at these dudes. So…
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
114598-1-1248 2021-11-10 05:51:00 GMT
State Farm Champions Classic: Kentucky vs. Duke
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Duke Blue Devils
Mike Krzyzewski
Trevor Keels
Paolo Banchero
Press Conference
Duke – 79, Kentucky – 71
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, happy Wednesday and yeah it was just an amazing game tonight. I mean, it felt so good with the Garden crowd and playing against an outstanding team. I mean, they’re tough and we’re tough. It was a big-time game, really big-time, and our guys really fought through a lot of adversity.
Four of our guys got cramps in the second half. Two of them had IVs. Paolo you had an IV, right, and Wendell. And so our bench had to come through. And A.J. really gave us a big lift. And I think that was one of the keys to the game. And Theo. Thank goodness we have him with his physicality. And for awhile Paolo carried us offensively and then Trevor took over.
But we have a good team. It’s a young team and it’s their first big game. I mean, we have, for them to come through like that. I’m very proud of them. Wheeler’s a problem for us and Tschiebwe. Holy mackerel. 19 rebounds. John’s got a really good basketball team.
So we’re proud of our win and we’re 1-0 now. So let’s see what we can do.
Q. Paolo, outside of your obvious physical skills your court presence and poise seemed advance for your years. How important was that to your success on the floor?
PAOLO BANCHERO: Just being under control and then I just have ultimate trust in my teammates, so I don’t have to over-think. I don’t have to try and do too much because I know I got a lot of trust in them, so it makes it easy for me, makes it easy on all of us. And I think we all kind of have that poise on the court. So I think it’s a team thing and, yeah, we just stayed together and stayed poised as a team.
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think a big thing for Paolo is how strong and comfortable he is with the ball. To have his size and he’s, it’s just unique in that way, and he’s got a good head. He’s got good parents. They raised him hard.
Q. Trevor, college refs love to call charges and with your strength, how were you able tonight to use it to your advantage without using it to your disadvantage of getting it then blowing over guys?
TREVOR KEELS: I just say being under control. That’s one thing they preach. I use my body a lot, so you get in the lane, you got to, you can’t just go in there full steam ahead. You got to read the defense. I think that’s what I do well.
Seeing my players at the corners, seeing if I got kicks. So I would say being under control is the key to not getting charges.
Q. Trevor, we’ve heard so much about Paolo. Everybody has, right? You haven’t heard that much about you. Is this is, have you thought about that, kind of this being a coming out party for you a little bit?
TREVOR KEELS: No, that’s not something I really get caught up in. I just want to win. So I knew when P went out somebody had to step up and that’s what I did. I kept looking at the score and I just made sure we was up and we was winning. That’s something that I look at all the time. I don’t really care about my points or nothing like that. It’s we come out with the victory.
Q. (No microphone.)
TREVOR KEELS: Yeah, that’s definitely when I go kill mode right there. We went on 26-point run we just told our team, we got to put them away right here, stepping on their necks. Coach was telling us, like, keep fighting, keep fighting. They’re going to fight back. They fought back. That’s a great team. They got good players. They fought back, but we stayed under control in the game and we came out with the victory.
Q. What does it mean to you to get a win in your first game against such a big program as Kentucky?
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah, seeing that clock hit zero with us with more points than them was a relief, man. Like, we wanted to get this win, especially for coach in this first game. It was a big game for us coming in. We felt like we had a chance to make a statement with this game and come out and play well. So that was what we was thinking about coming in and we are happy with how we played.
Q. Did Madison Square Garden and the crowds, the bright lights, and everything live up to the hype?
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah. No, it definitely did. I don’t know, it’s almost like you get lost in it. Like, it don’t even really affect you just because like you literally get lost in it. That’s what it felt like. We was just out there playing and it was a great crowd, it was loud, energetic. There was, when they went on their run, their crowd started getting loud, and then we responded and then you could hear our fans getting loud. It was just a crazy environment, something I never experienced before, so it was fun.
Q. You mentioned you guys felt like you could make a statement in this game. What statement do you think you guys made?
PAOLO BANCHERO: Just that. We’re a great team. We’re going to play together. We’re going to play hard all 40 minutes. And, yeah, I mean, we’re going to play like Duke.
Q. (Question about cramping.)
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah, I’ve never cramped that early in a game. I have cramped before. It’s not really a problem for me, but yeah, I never cramped that early. But I got to figure out why that was. I thought I was —
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We have to figure that out.
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah, but it wasn’t fun, but it is what it is. You got to adjust. And Trev, along with the rest of the team, stepped up and we was able to pull it out.
Q. Paolo, what did you think of Tschiebwe as a rebounder and Sahvir Wheeler getting to the rim?
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah. Tschiebwe, we knew he was going to be on the boards heavy coming in. And, I mean, we did what we could, but obviously that’s what he does. So, I mean, he was on the boards heavy. He was challenging us, the bigs, and made it hard for us. A lot of respect to him.
And then Wheeler, he was, I really like his game just because he’s always under control. He had control of the team. You could see it. I think he had 10 assists, yeah and, well, yeah, he had 10 assists and was hooping and was under control. He was a floor General.
Q. So much has been made about all the transfers in college basketball, fifth year guys. Kentucky’s got a whole bunch of transfers. Do you feel like you made a little statement for the freshmen and young guys?
TREVOR KEELS: I mean, our team, we got four freshmen. We got a transfer. One thing coach did was bring us there early in the summer, and that’s something, that’s how we built our chemistry early. We all liked each other. We all hang out off the court. I think that was the big piece, just always being around each other, and we all trust each other.
I think that’s what’s put us different from other teams. Not a lot of people is doing that right there and that’s why I love the guys. They got trust in me. I got trust in them. Everybody just trusts each other.
PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah, we got two grad transfers. Theo stepped up big. I was in the locker room watching on TV. He was playing well. And like Trevor said like we came in here beginning of June and we got straight to work. We knew what the goal was right away. We locked in. Once the other guys came and joined like it was just, it just molded like literally perfect, like there was no hiccups really. Like, it just flowed real nicely and we’re a real together team so I think that’s what’s showing.
Q. How much do you think it helped that coach really didn’t have to be out recruiting this summer and could spend more time with his players and you guys during the summer?
PAOLO BANCHERO: That was a big help. We spent a lot of time with coach coming in. He told us that’s how it’s going to be. He wasn’t going to be on the road recruiting and everything. He was at his house. He was at every practice. There was no practices that he wasn’t at. So like you said, it just helped us build our relationship with coach and, yeah.
Q. You’ve had a lot of teams in the past that shoot from three. This is a really big team —
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We hope we could shoot better from three.
Q. — 1-13. How do you see that part evolving?
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I think you have to give credit to Kentucky. They really played good defense and they have depth, and they have old depth, so I thought they really did a great job of taking away threes and recovering. We did not do a good job of that in the first half and gave up six and then only gave up one in the second half.
But I think we are a very versatile team and we’re going to still develop. I mean what A.J. did today was big because three and a half weeks ago we thought he might be out for two months with a knee injury. He came back. He’s only been with us about a week and a half, and then when he came in in the first half, even Trevor, he didn’t shoot well. He was nervous in the first part of the game. It’s their first time.
A.J. in the second half, he gave us a lift. So if he comes around and then we got Theo and Mark. Joey did a good job, all of a sudden — we don’t know our team completely. We know our starting five and Theo, and we learned more about our team tonight.
Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I knew you wouldn’t give me a compliment, but.
Q. No, but do you feel like you have a feel for this team a little differently than you might have otherwise?
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, it’s a good point, and I do. I feel closer to this team where I know them than I have really in the last decade and I have been really close with teams. Last year was an outlier.
But I learned from COVID the value of preparation and relationships and we didn’t have them and we were not good. We were just very mediocre. So that’s why we brought the guys in as early as we could and that’s one of our succession plan things where John was going to take over and then he was going to recruit the kids that were going to play for him, and I told him, I said, You guys stay on the road. I’m staying in.
The other thing we did, we only have 10 scholarship players, so we didn’t go to the transfer portal for other players. We specifically told our guys that we’re not doing that and they’re our guys. Just a bunch of different things to build that level of trust and camaraderie.
Q. Paolo was obviously sensational in the first half, but when he went out of the game in the second half, you guys really made a push and got separation. How big was it for you and for obviously everybody else to have that run with him out of the game?
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, really big and, look, this kid right here is going to be a great player. He’s not a good player. Trevor is a great player. He weighs 230 pounds and if he was a running back he would know how to pick holes like, you intimated charge — he gets fouled. He doesn’t charge very much because he’s so low and has great body control. For three straight years he was probably the best player in the DC area. So he’s been in a lot of those summer games where it’s on him and he and Jeremy were teammates at Paul the VI.
But A.J. coming on today was one of the really good signs, really a very, very good sign, and how Theo played. Both he and Mark haven’t had any knee problems. We’ve kind of monitored that really close with tendonitis. So we just got to stay healthy and recover from this and I’ve reminded them they’re 1-0. It’s a long season.
Q. With Paolo, you’ve had a lot of great players. How good do you think this kid can be?
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, see, he’s a lot better than he was a month ago because he’s learned to play strong with the ball and not — he over-dribbled a couple times, but usually he’s been smart with it and he’s becoming a better athlete. He’s a special player and you can coach him hard. He’s smart. I would like to see him talk more.
What I tell him, I said, Why don’t you say what you’re thinking? Because he’s thinking good stuff and if he says it, that will help lead. Wendell does that. I think if those two guys will do that more we would be better. But he’s going to keep getting better. He’s the real deal. There’s no question about it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
