John Calipari Media Opportunity Quotes - Dec. 16, 2021
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
CALIPARI WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
DEC. 16, 2021
MEMORIAL COLISEUM MEDIA ROOM | LEXINGTON, KY.
Head Coach John Calipari
Opening statement …
“Before we get started, let me thank all of you in the media for what you all did to help with the telethon. I say that because it’s over $4 million dollars right now and really, we’ve got shoes on the way for this weekend. So that’s another half a million. So basically $4.5 million. How many people do we have in this state? [Jerry Tipton: About that many.] Four-point-five million. That means every man, woman and child gave a dollar to this, which is incredible. We’re not a rich state, but we’ve got generous people with good hearts. And to have a local NBC affiliate do a telethon and you raise–I think by Sunday it’ll be $5 million. It ends Sunday, so if you wanted to go online and finish this out, it could be $5 million before Sunday. That is–well, it could be more than that because there are more shoes coming after that are probably valued at a half of a million or more. But there are 10,000 pair on the way now to help. All of the athletes and coaches that stepped up, and the athletic department and what they did to make the environment, LEX what you didm it was professional. It got a little sloppy at the end. We were grabbing mics and doing stuff, but I thought that–let me thank Kelly Craft, who helped me raise money. I called (her). She and I were manning the phones to do it and–to do something like this, you have to have matching dollars. You have to. They were friends and people in the community, across the state, the country, the world. I mean, it’s that kind of deal that happens. I also think it’s this amount of money because the people in this state. When we did Haiti, I mean, we cried watching the film. We did Superstorm Sandy and saw the stories we couldn’t believe it in New Jersey. And Houston. It affected Sahvir (Wheeler) and his family. But this is Kentucky. Yep, they’re American citizens, but they’re our citizens. To see and hear, unbelievable. Again, I want to thank the media because, if you don’t get involved to help us say this is what it is, it doesn’t happen. That’ll probably be the last time while I’m coaching here that I’ll thank you all for anything. But I did today and I need you to mark down the date so when you say, ‘You guys, I thanked you on December 16th, 2021.’ “
On if the matching dollars will make it $9 million …
“No, no, no. What you have is we’ve raised as much as we’ve matched. So, it wasn’t like we had $300,000 dollars we raised on the telethon. No, what we raised and matched. The shoe is separate from that. That’s why I’m saying we have $4.5 (million after matching funds). And if you throw both shoe things in that we’re doing, it’s probably another million dollars on top of the four. But these are shoes going directly to West(ern) Kentucky. Hopefully we get something where they’re there now because people stuff now. We need American Red Cross on the ground right now giving out money. We need people, The water, the shoes. The generators would be big. Temporary housing. Hopefully motels are in that area, but motels might have got wiped out. But maybe a hotel or two are saying, ‘We’re making this available.’ There are a thousand homes and that’s in one town. But this was, shew. By the grace of God. I told the team yesterday, ‘What if that had hit in Lexington where we have 350,000 people instead of 10,000? What would have happened? And who in this room could have been killed? Or had their house wiped out? By the grace of God, it wasn’t us.’ And I think that’s why people said, ‘Let’s help. Let’s do this.’ The people that, the matching donors, I just can’t thank them enough. If they want recognition, they will be, but most of them don’t. They don’t. But it’s–I hit the team after practice and before to thank them, and I thanked the coaches and other athletes because everybody wanted to be involved in this. Al right, let’s talk basketball.”
On his former players contributing, most of whom aren’t from Kentucky …
“That’s a good question. My guess is when it’s said and done, 25 of them will have given money, and it’s probably a quarter million dollars or more. I think right now – I didn’t look at the list – but I think it’s about 16 or 17 right now. But others have hit me, ‘I’m absolutely in.’ It’s going to end up being 25. And some of them may do it. You know, Jamal (Murray) wasn’t even from this country and he’s like, ‘I’m a part of Kentucky. That’s part of who I am.’ So, thank you for asking. Now let’s talk basketball.”
On the talk of UCLA not playing Saturday because of COVID issues and how his team is feeling …
“We can play both then. We’ll play one (opponent) one day and one the next day. We’re fine. Our kids just want to play and get the taste out of their mouth of that last game. I come back to, give Notre Dame credit and their crowd. Give them credit. We went 2 for 19 (from 3-point range). When a team goes 2 for 19, they lose by 20. We had a two-point lead with a 1:30 to go. Did not play well. Give the credit to Notre Dame. They did some things that kind of confused us. But it’s kind of like you’ve got five fingers and five fingers and the dike has a leak and the dike–all of a sudden we’re good and then all of a sudden one hits up here. I didn’t expect us to go 2 for 19, but that happens sometimes. But win anyway. A minute (and) 30 (seconds) to go, two-point lead, you win that game. And you know what, as a coach you win that game. But we didn’t. So now I grieve for 24 hours, bumped it off, here we go. We’ve made some–I’m experimenting with some stuff. We’re messing around. We had a couple of days. We’ll see. Still trying to figure out the team. Good group of kids. I told them, ‘This is a different place now. You go somewhere else and you lose games, it’s fine. Lose games here? It’s a totally different deal. But you know what? Playing in Rupp Arena when it’s packed is a different deal too. So, you’ve got the advantages and the disadvantages. Yeah, you’re on the main stage but you can’t hide. No cracks to jump in. You want to jump in the crack and is it over yet? Can’t do that here. Cracks are real tight. You can’t jump down. You’ve got to perform.’ But, we’ll see. Ohio State is really good by the way. And obviously they beat Duke who beat us. So, they’re really good. They’re really good, really physical. They’re a veteran team, so just like Notre Dame. Notre Dame ran their stuff better than we ran our stuff. This team runs good stuff, and I told Chris (Hotlmann). I said ‘Coach Holtmann, you’re running good stuff.’ And they know what they’re trying to get.”
On how he thinks Sahvir Wheeler will respond …
“He’s making shots yesterday and I stopped the practice and I look at the team and you know what they say? We have a comment that we make and excuse me when I, ‘Do that shit in the game.’ That’s what we say. Like they do something and it’s like, ‘Woah, woah, woah. Do that in the game.’ But there’s going to be great challenges because of the physicality. I may even play Lance (Ware) and Oscar (Tshiebwe) together at times. Just two bruisers against their two bruisers. Let’s see what happens. They’re in a good spirit. I had them text me how they can help the team. I had a friend of mine call me and say, ‘Your teams have always had a swagger. They’ve had a swagger in the warm-up line. They had a swagger.’ When I watched that Notre Dame game, I didn’t see it, and I told them, ‘What would lead somebody to say they don’t have a swagger? Your body language, your body language. You miss a shot? Every one of you in this room. “Every one of you in this room, when your offense isn’t going, you have no swagger because you’re so into you. You can’t. What do you do to help us win when you’re not making shots? How do you create? When people watch us – the officials, the other team, the other opponents – they say, ‘Boy, these dudes have a swag to them.’ The other thing is you have to have confidence. You ready for the word? [Said intentionally slow with emphasis on syllables:] Competence breeds confidence. You’re 0 for 8, it’s hard to be a confident player. Get in the gym. What are you working on? What are you going to do in the game? Well, then do it in the gym.’ And they were great. I mean, the one thing I do is I try to keep it real with individuals and as a group. I told them I could make two out of 19 from the 3-point line shooting hooks. I did. So, they started throwing me the ball. I started shooting hooks. I made one out of 19, but I was one less than them, and I’m shooting hooks at my age. [Media laughs.]”
On how it plays on a player’s mind when a team doesn’t guard you and you are wide open like Notre Dame did with Sahvir Wheeler …
“Fuel. Use it as fuel. Use it as fuel. You can’t come down and try to shoot every ball now, but you’ve got to say, ‘You’re playing me.’ There’s different things we’re going to try to do if they get under ball screens, because I’m telling you, I have all the faith in the world in him. If we can figure this out together with him–and I’ve asked him, ‘Talk to me; tell me what you would do in the past.’ And my thing is, we figure this out together, the end of the day he should be one of the best point guards in the country. Numbers indicate it. He should be. He should be disruptive defensively. We’ve got to help him if they bring up a screener, so we’ve got to figure out what are we doing there. We’ve got to help him if they try to back off or trap off him. What are we going to do? What is his mindset? There is some stuff I’ve got to help him with. I mean, again, if there’s confusion, there cannot be an aggressive team. They’re confused; they cannot be aggressive. It doesn’t work. So, if they’re confused, who does that come back to? Me. If they’re confused, I’m not communicating well enough exactly how we want to play. But I’ll be honest with you, we’re changing and trying and doing (different things) and I’m confused. So, if I’m confused, they’re confused. So, we’re trying, like we do every year, how do we have to be playing in February and March to be successful. And all these games show us. We had a run of games where, OK, how do we separate. OK, how do we keep playing? OK, great. How do we play against ourselves? Great. Now we’re playing teams that, they’re veteran teams that will execute their stuff. What do we do? You better execute. You don’t have to make every shot; you can’t miss them all and win. You look across the country, if someone goes 2 for 20, they’re losing – by 20. We had a two-point lead with 1:30 to go and we gave it away.”
On the late-game execution …
“Well, it wasn’t bad. We had the ball where we wanted, and he missed it. And then the 3 in the corner that he missed. So, we executed that, but we didn’t defensively in the last four minutes. We game them three layups. Like, literally they did not have to work for a basket. I asked the question, if we hold a team to 62 points, what’s our record? I mean, you think about my career here, when we get you to 60, 62—[Communications director Eric Lindsey: It’s 194-9 when holding the opponent to 63 or less.] Say it again. [Lindsey: 194-9, 63 points or less.] And we lost this game and [inaudible sound]. I mean, I get it because I didn’t think we lost many, but I didn’t know that was the record. So, let’s keep focusing on keeping people around 60, 65, but we’ve got to score. So, we’re trying to do some things. We can’t go through one guy. Even in this room, Jerry (Tipton) would double team the post. Even Jerry and he doesn’t know anything about basketball. But he would double team the post. So, if you’re saying we’re just going to throw it to one guy for 40 minutes, Jerry would double team. So, you’ve got to have other people step up and play and take over the game at different points. Please, that’s why I’ve always tried to have five guys in double figures, so Jerry couldn’t do his trap and take one guy away.”
On who the other guy is who could take over …
“You tell me. You tell me who you think it could be. [Tipton: Well, I think of Sahvir myself.] Good, so I do too. Who else? [Tipton: I think several of them are capable. It may be the matchup.] Perfect. But that ends up being, ‘Why did he play more this game,’ and ‘He’s not playing as much because—.’ And you’ll say – even you, Jerry, would say – ‘You can’t worry about that. You’re trying to win.’ Is that what you would say? [Tipton: Yes.] Maybe. [Media laughs.]”
On not matching Ohio State’s level of physical play in this game two years ago …
“We had the same kind of schedule that we had. We lost to Utah, and after the Ohio State game last year, I said, ‘We’re going to be fine.’ When I watched the tape of that game, we played some guys that later we did not play much, but my good heart, I was trying to get guys minutes and let them get in there and try and all this. At the end of the day, it’s not—it’s a meritocracy. That’s what—it’s merit based. Not communism. We don’t give out ribbons for everybody and we’re going to have to have some guys step up and play.”
On guys making too many passes and passing up open shots …
“I don’t believe it. What they’re doing is, I catch it and hold it because I want to make a play, when, if you move it, you’re moving the defense and that guy can make a play. ‘What about me? I want to make the play.’ So, they’ll catch it and do this, and by the time they throw it to him he’s guarded. So, whoever said that is—make a shot.”
On TyTy Washington Jr. saying sometimes they don’t want to throw it into the post and create a turnover but now they see what Oscar Tshiebwe is able to do …
“OK, good, so you misstated. That’s fine.”
On if Shaedon Sharpe can help this team when he gets here …
“Let’s just get him to campus. Let’s just get him here.”
On when Sharpe will be here …
“Shew, I don’t even know. What’s the date today? [Lindsey: The 16th.] I think he comes after Christmas. After we come back for Christmas, he’ll be back. Great kid.”
On if he is thinking about the postseason with this game …
“No. No, I’m not. Nah, it’s December 19th, 16th. No, it isn’t. But, you would like to win it. It’s a big game if we win. If not, just like last year or two years ago, we played them, we walked out knowing we were fine. So, this is one—it’s a hard game. I can’t tell you if we’re going to win or lose. You know when I’ll know? Yeah, when we win or lose. That’s when I’ll be able to tell you, ‘Yeah, we won that one.’ Or, ‘Yeah, we lost that one.’ This thing that you go through, new teams all the time, it’s a process, and I’m not trying to skip steps. I’m not trying to give them too much, but you’ve got to experiment to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. And, you have to know what makes you lose before you can win. What’s making us lose? What made us lose? Then you figure out from that, OK, now we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to score 75 points, so how do we get to 75? We only had five turnovers. We had five turnovers, which tells me maybe we weren’t aggressive enough. Maybe we didn’t drive enough. So, that last game, out of the rearview mirror for me. I’m on (this one). Really tough opponent. I love it. This is what we do here; we play teams like this. We’re not in the NBA, so it means we don’t play all teams like this, but we play more teams than other team in the country – games like this – in a Power Five league, and we’re in that part of our schedule. We’ve got tough games now. We’re Kentucky. What, do you think—we’re in the SEC, maybe the best league, and I would say the best league in college basketball. Can you imagine that? How many years have I been here? [Lindsey: This is your 13th season.] So, 91 years. Early on, we were getting three teams in. Now you’re talking eight, maybe nine teams in. You’re talking a group of teams in the top 25. We had six or seven (in the top 25). We’ve got to get into that too. It’s going to be hard. And like I said to the guys, this is what Kentucky—it’s hard every game we play. You know what I showed them was the scrum after the (Notre Dame) game, their fans rushing the court. You know what I said? ‘Every game we play on the road, what? You lose, that’s what (they’re doing), so why don’t we try to ruin their weekend? Because if not, you made their weekend. Because that’s what you’re going to see, the scrum. Here they came.’ I saw a guy go from the upper deck, run down, flip over, hit the—he hit his head on the pole, keeping running. His eye was bleeding, and he was going like this, and he looked at me and I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re bleeding.’ I mean, that’s what happens when you’re playing against us, and they’ve got to realize that. I do, and I love it. You know what I tell them? It’s like I said to. If I don’t get thoroughly booed on the road, it’s probably time to retire. I want that boo to be so loud that they try to take the roof off. And I look at the team, ‘We’re in the right place, let’s go.’ It’s just a mindset I’m trying to get these guys in.”
