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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 2, 2014John CalipariPIKEVILLE – 68 THE MODERATOR: We'll have an opening statement from coach and then take questions. JOHN CALIPARI: 29 assists and in a game where guys could have tried to get their own, it's the only way this will work if they really want to share for each other. 25 what we would call one mores, I have a shot, but he has a better shot, we need to let that one go. You know, we did not settle for 3's in the first half, we just did what we had to do. I'll tell you what, I got to give it to them. They came out of the gate making shots and playing and they weren't afraid. We were just too big. What I'm happy with is that because we were too big, we threw the ball where we should have, in the post. Q. How do you settle on the two groups and what did you think of that tonight? JOHN CALIPARI: I didn't think Alex played as well as I thought he should have played in the blue/White. And as much as I didn't want to put two young kids on one group, I thought it was better for Alex and Trey, I thought it would be better for him, too. Trey is still behind. Trey wasn't doing it for the summer he didn't do the Bahamas, he is just starting. So, he's still a little bit behind and you see he's still pretty good. But he stepped in the hole a few times because he ran up‑and‑down, got tired and went to jump and just stepped in a hole. He didn't jump very high. So, then he dunk that last one. I left him in because I just wanted him to make some plays and shots and but it was ‑‑ I liked it. I thought Andrew was ridiculous. Andrew wanted Dominique to shoot that. He wanted 10 assists. He threw that ball cross court and Dom was wide open. "Shoot it." And he passed it to Alex, who made the shot. And, but, he had nine assists, and I'm guessing four hockey assists. In other words, he threw it ahead quick enough for that I could throw it for a pass. So he was outstanding today. Q. Speaking of communication in the first half, there was one time when Tyler threw the ball into Dakari. He went over a double team, and I heard Tyler shout out, coming from behind. I don't remember ever hearing that kind of communication on the court last year, is that what you've been striving for? JOHN CALIPARI: A friend of mine came in, the coach up in western PA and watched us practice yesterday. And he said, last year at this time, you were coaching effort and intensity, passion, if you remember. And he said now you're just coaching basketball. It's a big difference. So, while I enjoy it a lot more, I'll do the other if I have to. But that's what happens when you have veterans back that get it and understand and have young kids that are hungry and are listening and watching. They're learning from each other. Dakari made a free throw. How about that, too? Q. Was there any part of the game that was exposed that would give you concern that is something you might need to work on? JOHN CALIPARI: Probably should have one more platoon. I would probably feel better with three platoons, rather than two. Q. What can we make of what Karl ended up doing, just because he was kind of towering over everyone or is that ‑‑ JOHN CALIPARI: You can say what you want, but, you know, Dakari didn't get that many baskets, and part of it was Andrew was spoon feeding him. But, the other part was he was running the floor, he was active, he was getting to where he was open. He made his free throw. I mean, Karl can play. Now he broke down definitely a couple times, and I told him and Devin, if you guys want to score the ball, you will defend or you'll be out. You're not taking all the ball shots, and then go back and let a guy run by you and dunk on you. It's not happening here. But they're young. I thought Devin played well. I love his speed up‑and‑down the court. See, Devin‑‑ if Devin thinks he's going to get two points, you can't believe how fast he is. He will run‑‑ he will outrun world class sprinters to go get that ball. Q. Speaking of which, how well do you think your guys kept the pace, kept attacking? JOHN CALIPARI: There was one segment where we backed up a little bit and we'll show them on the tape. But short of that, I thought they were really good. We didn't press and trap the whole game, but we pressured the whole game. And there are games we'll press more. I like the rotation the way I did it, because if that veteran group comes in the 8 minute mark or 7:45 mark, I can finish a game with that group with one or two subs if I choose to or I can go back with that other group. And again, I got to figure out how we finish games, it looks as though the best five free throw shooters should be on there, Karl being one. Maybe Trey being another. And probably the twins and Tyler. That will probably be a finishing team. I would imagine. We haven't tried it yet, but that's what I would imagine. Q. How much do you feel like they have progressed from the exhibition games in the Bahamas? JOHN CALIPARI: Physically you're looking at a body you're saying, my gosh‑‑ his dad said, I can't believe this is my son. Karl Towns dad saying the same thing about him. The twins dad looking at their sons like, whoa. Dakari, you look at him running up‑and‑down the court, he's as fast as anybody. This kid is flying up‑and‑down the court. Now the question is, can we sustain it. And by doing it this way, we, we can sustain stuff. Now we'll look at the stats, guys played all about 20 minutes and we'll equate these into 34 minute stats. If they had played 34 minutes, if it was a normal college starter playing a lot of minutes, what would their numbers have looked like. That's efficiency. We'll look at some rebounding efficiency. Which is how many offensive rebound attempts were there, how many did you get. Defensively the same thing. And I think when you start looking at those efficiencies, you're going to see a different look at these guys. And I thought that, again, I loved Andrew's aggressiveness on defense and how he passed the ball and got guys involved. One team can switch pick and rolls, the other team doesn't have to. We can fight and force down and it's kind of like playing two different styles of games when you play these guys. Q. You talked a couple weeks ago about let's see how we defend the three‑point shooting and ‑‑ JOHN CALIPARI: Tyler was going crazy early in the game. There's two things, if you were watching, we were so big it's hard to score around the basket. And you say why? Well, there's two seven footers on each group and there's a six‑eight guy that puts his head on the rim and there's a six‑ten guy with long arms. So there's three guys like that on this team, but there's also a guard that's six‑six on each team. So you got to beat us up the court in transition. I thought we did a fairly good job. They got in the lane a couple times in transition defense, but they, we were so big they didn't really get baskets at it. I think they made two or three transition goals. At the three‑point line is the other one. And then the other side would be try to get to the foul line. I don't think you're going to get a drive into the rim. I don't believe so. Q. Would you prefer to have a 30 second shot clock for this team? JOHN CALIPARI: I didn't even notice it. 24 would be fine. Q. Can you rate the two platoons, the first versus the second one? JOHN CALIPARI: That's kind of like ‑‑ that's like a boxer, you got a lefty jab and an righty coming right over the top to knock somebody out. And they're different in how they play. What you saw is Michael came out of the gate and they were flying, and then each sub I made, each time by the third sub and then the fourth sub, all of a sudden you see them missing eight straight shots. They were making every shot for awhile.  We left them open and they made it. And that's the whole point of what we're trying to do. Play fast, don't be in a hurry, though we're playing fast. If we can score quick, we will. If not, let's create a good shot. If we get a shot and miss it, let's send three guys to the glass and rebound. If we don't rebound it, they are not getting a transition basket. You run back. If you don't run back, I'm subbing you out. If your team's not running back I'll sub all five. We're not giving up three‑point shots. Make them drive into our teeth of our defense. I mean, if you watch, you're saying, well, that's how you should play, you're not real smart, that's how you should play. You're right. I mean, just normal watching a team that's what you would see. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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