John Calipari Comments On Upcoming UK-Valparaiso Game
UK MEDIA RELATIONS MEN’S BASKETBALL
Kentucky vs Valparaiso Pregame Presser
Head Coach John Calipari
On the challenges of facing Alec Peters of Valpo …
“Twenty-five points and 13 rebounds, and if you foul him he’s 94 percent. He’s knows how to score baskets. He steps back, he fades away and scores. So even if you guard him and do a good job, he can still score. Other than that, it’s just another guy. Twenty-five a game, man. There’s more pro scouts coming to this game than even the last game.”
On what Kentucky needs to do to stop Alec Peters of Valpo …
“You go to church and light candles and stuff. He’s one of those guys, literally, if you double team him he fades away and can still make it. Try to keep him from catching it and try to go at him on offense, but they do a good job. You ready for this number? In four years, he’s never fouled out of a game. Well, how could that be? Because if you post him they double team, and if he gets into any kind of foul trouble they go zone. Smart coaching. So he’s not fouling. You think, well, maybe we can foul him out! Yes. In 120 games he’s never fouled out. You may be right, but I don’t think so.”
On responding to the UCLA loss …
“You mean Sunday? We had film session on Sunday and we practiced yesterday, and they’re fine. Look, it is a process. For 24 hours I mourn, and then I’m good, let’s go. Next game. Who is it? Then it happens to be this one. Why did we schedule this team? I have no idea. This is going to be an extremely hard game for us to win. They have three seniors, two juniors. You know what they did a year ago. They came back to be together. Well coached, terrific zone. I saw them play one game all zone. I don’t think they’re going to play us all zone, but I saw one game they played every bounce was a zone defense. It’s good. I’m more worried about my team. I know how good they are. This isn’t one where you walk in and say, ‘OK, you know, let’s just get in here and play this game.’ I’m going to try hard to get a better rotation. I told them, ‘You guys don’t do a good job of subbing yourself so we’re going to have a rotation, and you just have to live with it.’ It may cost you a game or two along the way but it gets you where the guys are more ready. I’d like to play the big lineup a little bit this game. There are some things we’ll try to do. We’re still learning about our team. What I told them is I didn’t think I had to do this, but if they’re not passing the ball like they normally do then we have to go to some offenses that force them to make three or four passes before they can even think about shooting. We did a little bit of that yesterday. You know, I have a great group, it’s just they’re young. They’re so young. You had one team inspired and one team that expected to win. That’s usually what happens, and it happened in that game.”
On Wenyen Gabriel losing minutes because of defensive lapses …
“He’s the greatest kid. He’s trying. There’s no one that can question his fight, his motor, him going after balls. He had five offensive rebounds. You know, he fought. He just has to figure out with my size, with my legs, how do I move my feet? The guy starts driving and it’s like, how do I even? He’s got to figure it out, and he’s got to do that. But, I love him. Like I said, we need to play a bigger team at times and I didn’t.”
On matchups going into the Valparaiso game …
“There are a lot of things that I learned that last game that I’d rather win in a close win than a loss, but you know what, now you’ve got this game. Now you have a team that runs the dribble drive better than I coached it at Memphis. They’ve got a 6-9 player that if you have a 6-6 athlete that can guard him, you’ve got a chance. Alright, we don’t have that. So, what do you do? Shove him right in the post, clear out the weak side with a small guy on him and throw it over the top? Really? Then they’ll put a guy that they know can’t guard him at seven or eight feet, they’ll square him up, and you won’t believe this, but he’ll ball fake you, ball fake you, drive it, and ball fake you until you leave your feet. Foul. Two shots. Now, you can write that and say, ‘Oh my gosh, he did exactly what Cal said he would do.’ He’s good. But they also have a kid averaging 16, the lefty (Shane Hammink), that’s tough. They’re a veteran team. This is good for us. It’s hard for all of us because we get so accustomed to, ‘We can beat everybody.’ Then you have teams coming in and it’s a back-to-back oh my gosh. ‘The world’s coming to an end!’. I’m walking in there today and I’m worried about my team. That’s what I can worry about. How do I make sure that we have a great practice today that leads to a great game? If that’s not good enough, you move on to our next game. I think our next game is in New York.”
On who can step up as a 3-point specialist …
“I think Derek (Willis), Dom (Hawkins), and Mychal (Mulder) can. You know we have enough. I don’t think that’s the issue. Again, I don’t want to go back to last week, but my team scores 92 points. You’ve followed my career. Created 18 turnovers. It was a wash on the rebounding but created 18 turnovers. You would’ve thought we won the game by 25. That was a defensive issue that we had more than anything else. Our matchup with (T.J.) Leaf was just a bad matchup, and he took advantage. We have young kids that gave up 3-point baskets. We’re one of the best defensive teams in the country and we gave up seven 3’s. They made whatever they made but now we go back to the basic, the drills and all the other stuff. I told them it’s not their fault. I got away from a lot of stuff because I got like, these guys are better than I thought. No, they’re not. Anytime I’ve ever thought that about a team, they know we took an L and we need to get back to where we were. Sometimes you take two L’s to get them back to where they need to be.”
On how he thinks Wenyen Gabriel and Derrick Willis will improve defensively …
“Try to stay in front of the guy. When he drives, just be somewhere in the vicinity in front of him so he’s not driving and shooting a straight-line layup. That’s probably the first thing. After that we can work on some other stuff.”
On whether Sacha Killeya- Jones will be expected to play tomorrow …
“I was playing him in practice and two minutes in he got hit and cut on the eye. I told him, ‘You’ve got buzzard’s luck, kid. I’m trying to put you in there and play you and you get hurt.’ He was out there today, and he was early. He’s fighting. He’s so young. It’s like having Isaac (Humphries) last year. These guys are so young that sometimes you forget. We will see.”
On what he feels the recent loss at home will do regarding seeding …
“I don’t think it does anything. You all are just not used to us losing at home. What I want you all to understand is that what we have going on here is not normal. In the history of the game, it’s not normal what is happening here. So no. When we are who we are supposed to be, we’ll be fine. We weren’t. As a coach, I need to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on and keep trying to move us. I’m still learning how we should be playing, and I’m still trying to figure that out. Malik Monk went nine, 10 straight possessions without a catch. So? Anthony Davis and Karl Towns did too. But you know what? He still has 23 and he missed a layup. Passed another layup and he would’ve had 27. We’re really not taking every shot. There’s a lot of stuff. I played him and De’Aaron (Fox) too many minutes. I played Isaiah (Briscoe) too many minutes.”
On how the players lost their minds a bit in the first close game …
“They didn’t pass. You saw as an unselfish attacking team, everybody was trying to get their shot until the very end of the game where we drove and passed to each other extra passes. We drove baseline out of bounds three times. What? Why would you go that way when there’s nothing there? When we drive baseline, if a guy doesn’t shoot the ball, he’s wrong. In my way of coaching, if you drive baseline you shoot the ball or don’t drive baseline. You don’t drive baseline to pass because you have nowhere to go except that corner. If they take it away, it’s a turnover, and I don’t like the percentages. If you shoot it then we might rebound it. I like those percentages. Or how about this, it may go in! It may go in. We may rebound it. You may miss it and they may rebound it. Two of three of those us and I’m good. But you drive baseline and you’re shooting. So why did that happen? Well, again, guys kind of lost their minds at times. Defensively, I think Wenyen was anxious. There was an anxiety about the game and it was understandable. Let me say this, I heard the Cleveland Cavaliers lost three in a row. One of the things they said was that they had defensive breakdowns, which were their biggest issue, but they’re world champs and everyone is giving them their best shot. We live with that every game, too. One, not only do they give their best shot, but the second part of it is they play loose. They’ve got nothing to lose. No one else wins in Rupp Arena. They’ve got nothing to lose! Just shoot balls, fadeaways, hooks. Just do it! If they don’t go then you weren’t supposed to win anyway, and if they do then we’ll keep the tape for your grandchildren. That’s what we go against, especially in Rupp. And we’ve still done what we’ve done. Now we’re going against another team of juniors and seniors who are very, very skilled and in tune with each other. They are a terrific team. Now we’ve got a bunch of young kids. Let’s see if we’ve gotten better and see how we do in a game like this. Just so you know, I’ll grieve for 24 hours. I’ll be sick for 24 hours. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and it is a process. I’ve been doing it here now for eight years, and every team has been different. It is a process. I get like you where we should win every game we play. We should go 82-0 and win every game by a ton, but then I wake up. I say let’s go and just get back to it.”
On how he grieves after a loss …
“I’ll sit in my chair and tell everybody to leave me alone and watch a little TV. Watch one of my Alaska shows. Watch one of the war stories and get inspired. I have the dogs. I let the dogs come around me, (but) no one else. The dogs can sit with me.”
On when he knows when it’s time to stop grieving …
“Twenty-four hours. I let it go for 24. There’s two things when you know you’re ready to get out of this: If you can’t enjoy winning and losing is really miserable, you need to be out of this. Winning, for me, I get great joy in winning for the team and everybody. When losing becomes just the next thing, you need to get out too. You’ve lost it. For me, it may look like, ‘Oh, he’s really calm.’ Yeah, I’m going right to my chair when I’m done. Leave me alone. I don’t want to eat. I don’t need anything. I told the guys, ‘If losing doesn’t hurt, you’re going to lose a bunch. Now, the other side of it is when you win, it doesn’t matter who you beat, you better be happy. Overtime, bank shot against a team you’re supposed to win by 30, you win, enjoy the win.’ ”
