UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK at LSU
POSTGAME QUOTES
JAN. 4, 2021
PETE MARAVICH ASSEMBLY CENTER | BATON ROUGE, LA.
Head Coach John Calipari
On how his team battled with all the adversity they faced …
“I loved it. I loved it. And I told them after. And we also had a couple guys not play well on top of foul trouble, injuries, all the other stuff, and they didn’t stop. They kept playing. We had funky lineups in that we had never used before, which we started having trouble offensively. How do we play with this team? They’ve never been together. But, guys fought, and that’s all you can do. Guys made shots that they didn’t make. I was disappointed in how we started the game. We had a lot of guys that, it was almost like they were intimidated by the game. Well, you can’t play at Kentucky if you’re intimidated by a game. You’ve got just to go. Play. Shoot balls that are there. But, you know, again, I tried to get that timeout late. Joe (Lindsay) must not have heard me. I was right there in his ear screaming it, but maybe my voice is going. But, you know, again, for how we played and to be in the game, it’s, come on. I hate losing.”
On Sahvir Wheeler’s condition …
“I don’t know yet.”
On how TyTy Washington Jr. handled point guard responsibilities when Wheeler went out and what happened to him …
“I think it was. I think he cramped up. We played with whoever was left. I was trying to do anything I could. We had one or two bad turnovers, and that’s it, and that is why we were in the game. One was Jacob (Toppin) throwing the ball ahead lackadaisical to Kellan (Grady) and it gets stolen and a layup down at the other end, but there wasn’t many. The last play where the guy tips from behind. You know, I mean, OK. But we just didn’t have many live-ball turnovers, because if you do that against them, they score. They did a good job of getting back, but when Sahvir went down, he’s the engine on this thing. He gets us all moving. But like I said, the kids fought. Fought. I thought there was a lot of physicalness. Like, wow. Guys are getting knocked down – mostly our guys. What? And it’s free to go play. I’ll watch the tape. But they hung in and gave themselves a chance. A one-point game. When you start off the game 1 for 11 from the 3, 5 for 11 from the foul line, at halftime I told them, ‘Guys, think about it. And Oscar (Tshiebwe) didn’t play eight or nine minutes and we are down five. Let’s go win this.’ And that’s what I said at halftime. That’s my message.”
On how much it changes how he wants to play when Wheeler isn’t out there …
“I was just trying to get a W. I was going play to play, where normally I’m letting him go and he’ll decide what we’re doing. I ended up, you know. And then when TyTy went down, it’s a totally different ballgame there too. And so, you know, let’s just try to get it up the court and get into something and try to get a good look at the basket, which is not how I want to coach. But, you’re trying to win. You’re just doing what you have to to try to win.”
On if he revisits the idea of the two-foul sit-down run in the first half …
“Well, here’s why I would say the game would dictate it. If the game was getting away from us, then I would have put him back in. As long as we can say we’re going in at halftime with a chance to win, that’s how I’ll do it. It’s not to revisit. But if the game gets away from, there’s no reason not to play him. But it never got away from. I think Lance (Ware) is playing great basketball. Missed a bunch of free throws, but so did everybody else. I mean, how many did we miss today? We missed 10 free throws today. I mean, we’re one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country. We missed 10 in a – what was the final, five or six? – five(-point game). And, let me say this: I think one or two were front-end one-and-ones, so you can say we missed 12 – opportunities anyway.”
On if tonight was a moral victory in a way with all the adversity …
“No, no, no. No. We don’t have those here. I don’t coach that way. But here’s what I would say. Totally different (than the Notre Dame game) because we had a full team and went 2 for 19 from the 3. We were up two with a minute 30 and then turned it over and did some dumb things down the stretch. But, this game, you’re without your two best guards. And again, needed some other guys to step up and really fight. What happened this game, if you watched it close, you could tell who was in a fight mood and in an aggressive mood for us and who wasn’t in that mode. If you’re tentative at all, it’s hard to be aggressive. It’s hard to have fight because you’re tentative. And again, I told them, ‘I’m taking you out.’ And then I didn’t it in front of the team. ‘If he doesn’t shoot, I’m not playing him.’ And that’s why I went to Dontaie (Allen). I wish Dontaie would have taken that charge when that kid ran down the middle because I think that would have woke him up and maybe he could have hit a shot or two. But that wasn’t the issue. I mean, we did what we had to to give ourselves a chance to win.”
On the lift Jacob Toppin gave them …
“Oh, he was terrific. All energy. He was terrific. Blocking shots. Rebounding balls. I haven’t looked at the stats yet, but without even looking at them, he did well.”
On if LSU did something different to slow down Toppin after the first half or if it was something Toppin did …
“I’ll have to watch the tape. I know he missed some shots. Sometimes you make them. It’s kind of like Kellan. Kellan was 0 for 7 in the first half. I don’t know what he was in the second half, but sometimes they just miss shots. They’re not robots, they’re not machines. They don’t play well all the time. And I said that after: ‘If you didn’t play well, that’s fine. Just play better next game.’ But, you know, my thing to them was, ‘I coach, you play. If you’re not going to compete and fight, then I’ll put somebody else in. But your job is to get in there and do that.’ And we have a team that—now we have to see what happens, but we’re a little bit down in numbers now.”
On Grady not getting shots late in the second half after his hot start after halftime …
“Yeah, not having Sahvir or TyTy in that lead position finding him. I thought Davion (Mintz) did fine, but he’s not a point guard. He’s more of a scorer. That’s just what he is. But I’ll tell you he fought, Davion did. He fought on defense. He did some good stuff.”
On if he has seen Toppin consistently improve like his brother, Obi Toppin …
“Yeah, he has, Kyle (Tucker), but the biggest thing is, part of that is maturing, becoming a young man and becoming a man to be that guy. It’s taken him some time. He’s got some immaturity, but it’s gotten way better. To be confident – I don’t know if you all ever really listen to what I’m saying – you cannot be confident if you’re not competent. If you’re not good with the ball and you’re not a good shooter, it’s hard to be confident. And there’s one way of doing it: Get in that gym. And he’s been working. Lance has been working, spending extra time. That’s why I was really surprised he missed all those free throws. Tough loss for these kids. I mean, they wanted to win. They know what went on. Guys had a chance. Some guys weren’t ready for this moment, but that’s all part of growth.”
#0 Jacob Toppin, Jr., F
On how he thinks he and the team played …
“Without Sahvir, it took a little toll on a little bit, but we had to adjust. I think we adjusted a little bit, but definitely without Sahvir today hurt us a lot. And down the stretch TyTy was cramping up or whatever was happening with him. So, we lost a couple guys but we still fought and we still didn’t come out with a W, so we have things we need to work on, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
On how he thinks he played …
“I always emphasize how I’m an energy guy and how I’m always going to bring the energy and do anything I can to help my team win. But, obviously we didn’t get a W, so we all have things we need to work on, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go back and watch film and see what we need to fix.”
On how he has grown maturity wise …
“That’s been a word that he (Calipari) used since I came on campus because, like I said, I’m an energy guy on and off the court. So, I bring a lot of energy and sometimes I can get goofy a little bit and I’m not locked in anymore, so he always goes back to that word – maturity – to make sure I’m 100% locked in when I’m on the court, when I’m trying to learn what I need to do to better myself and help myself do anything I need to do to help the team.”
On if they had worked in practice at all of not having Wheeler and Washington on the court at the same time …
“Yes, we do work on situations where TyTy and Sahvir aren’t in the game. When we go five-on-five, Davion is usually running the point and we have a team where TyTy and Sahvir are not on it, so we definitely work on it. But, in game it’s different than different. The intensity is different. The pace of the game is different. Everything is different. So, you can work on it, but at the end of the day the game is always going to be different.”
On how the offense is different without Wheeler …
“It’s definitely the speed. We definitely can continue to get into transition offense, but the speed that he brings to the game, even though people try to sag off, he can still get into the paint and find others, and his defensive accountability is very low. He is very good on the defensive end. He doesn’t allow a lot of points on the defensive end. He’s very disruptive on the defensive end, so that’s something that we lacked in today’s game. But things happen. We can’t do nothing about it and we just have to move on and figure out what we need to do.”
On what his goofiness looks like to make Calipari believe that maturity is needed …
“It could be something as simple as whistling, to be honest. I whistled one time in practice and he got mad at me and yelled at me. But other things. Just not paying attention. Maybe laughing. Just simple goofy stuff that I usually do that I need to cut out.”
On why he does that “goofy” stuff …
“I don’t know. I’ve always been a person who likes to goof around, but obviously I need to change it, Coach Cal, he’s helping me change it. And it’s helping me. On the court, I’m being more mature, and it’s helping obviously.”
On if they can take positives from this game …
“A hundred percent. That’s the positive out of here, that we fought. We didn’t have Sahvir. We didn’t have TyTy down the stretch. We didn’t shoot the ball well. We shot 33% from the 3. That’s OK. It could be better. Free throws 100% could be better. So, there’s definitely positives. We were in the game with all these mistakes that we’ve done with all these missing pieces to our puzzle, and we still lost by five. So, can’t do nothing about it. You’ve got to move on, watch film, better yourself, better your team and just move on from it.”
On turning the ball over late …
“We turned the ball over. We were careless with the ball, and that’s about it. We were careless with the ball and it caused a turnover down the stretch. I don’t know what else to say about that.
#31 Kellan Grady, Gr., G
On how difficult it was to run the offense without Wheeler in the game …
“It was a huge difference. I mean, Sahvir’s our point guard. He’s the engine to our car, if you will, and he’s the guy who orchestrates our offense and kind of controls the game and gets us out in transition. So, it’s obviously a pretty serious adjustment on the road in an atmosphere like this when he plays three minutes and 53 seconds and we’ve got to adjust on the fly. But like I said, you can’t question the resolve and our fight.”
On what made the difference between the first half and the second half …
“I kept shooting. I didn’t get down. It’s hard to go 0 for 10, so eventually I had some faith that a couple would drop. The coaches told me to get my legs into it more. I was leaning a little bit, so I tried to be a little bit more shot prepared running off of screens in catch-and-shoot situations and just being down and ready. That obviously helped in the second half.”
On what Jacob Toppin brought today …
“He was awesome today. You guys saw he kept us in the game in the first half. He got out in transition, energy plays, couple second-chances points, had a few great drives. He was plus-five on the game. He was one of the few guys on our team that had a plus-minus. Without him, we wouldn’t have been in the game, especially in the first half.”
On the drought in the second half and if that was because of what LSU was doing or something they weren’t doing …
“You’ve got to attribute a little credit to LSU and some blame to us. They definitely adjusted to guarding our pin-down action and some of the actions we were doing to get shots early on in the second half. They started topping us on the baseline and making the catches a lot more difficult with our switches. Some of the clean looks I was getting early on, they took that away. But, we’ve got to learn how to win in an environment like that. It’s very hard to hear the call sometimes. It’s hectic. It’s loud. We’ve got to get five guys on the same page and be prepared to execute when the game matters. We did not do a good job of that down the stretch.”
On what he can take away from a game like this or if they throw it out because of the injuries …
“You don’t just throw it out because there is still a lot we can away from the game, both positives and negatives. Like I’ve said already a bunch in this presser, we’re a resilient bunch and we’ve shown a lot of resolve and toughness. We showed an ability to come out of halftime after really an abysmal shooting performance in the first half and have the capability to make some shots, but we’ve got to clean on execution, turnovers, getting key rebounds. It’s very evident that when you’re on the road, everything becomes that much more important, all the little things. And we didn’t do a good job with the little things tonight.”
On If there have been moments in practice where they have seen flurries like there was tonight in the game …
“Yeah, our whole team knows he’s capable. Oftentimes, what can really be a spark for anybody on the court, but you see it with Keion (Brooks Jr.) and Jacob especially, a couple of tipped balls, a blocked shot, a rebound in traffic, getting out in transition, getting a dunk. You can just see how that can ignite a real quality performance. That’s what happened with Jacob today. Like I said, he kept us in the game in first half.”
