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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 20, 2015

John Calipari

Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky - 78 Wright State - 63

Q. He knows what he wants to do, how he wants to play. Does it seem like he's different to you?
COACH CALIPARI: Who is that?

Q. Tyler.
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, we're just -- look, this was, Wright State played pack line, they played zone. They stayed in the lane. They spread the court. They picked one of my guys who couldn't guard the dribbler. And they hung around because of it.

Billy did a great job. They did what they had to to have a chance to win. They had a chance to win the whole game. I didn't think we played particularly well, but I got to give Wright State credit for having us play that way.

Q. Alex had a double double, I'm wondering if he came closer to the beast mode you're looking for?
COACH CALIPARI: I don't think anybody -- we just had a lot of casual play today.

Nine assists, 12 turnovers. I mean, throw it to him and we miss a dunk. Two guys are 20-22 from the line. And three guys are 2-11. I'm sorry -- where is Marcus Lee, because I thought he was 0-2. They only have him 0-1. The stat sheet is not right.

So have you a 1-5, a 1-5 and a 0-2. That's 2-12 from the line for three guys.

So again, this is going to be a process, folks. You tell me that looked like the No. 2 ranked team in the country. We're -- there's got to be 20 teams better than us right now. Couldn't throw it to the post. Couldn't throw it to the post. Skal couldn't hold a position. And we tried. So --

Q. Especially this early in the season, do coaches secretly like a performance like this following the big win over Duke, so that now you have their attention again?
COACH CALIPARI: No. I don't. I want us to just keep climbing. We took a big step back. Guys didn't listen. We're doing certain things and they just kind of broke it off and did their own thing. In a league game, we lose. Not winning a league game playing the way we played.

But, again, give Wright State credit. The things that they did, they played -- they put out a game plan, pack line defense, play some zone, spread the court, make them guard one-on-one. They're always going to have one or two guys that turn sideways and let you drive directly to the basket for a layup. Put Skal in pick and rolls. He'll back away. I mean, it's pretty good game plan.

Q. Seemed like Jamal couldn't quite get to the rim as easily as he could the other night. That all Wright State?
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, they did, but he chose in the first half to shoot all threes. If you're near the bench, as each guard catches it, what am I yelling? "Drive the ball" so you shoot a three.

I don't know what to tell you. But if you're listening, every time it goes to one of them, "drive the ball", before they catch it, so they have a chance to hear me saying it as they're catching the ball.

Q. How is Isaac and what --
COACH CALIPARI: He had a foot. He'll be fine. Dominic had a stomach virus. So Dom had a stomach virus and Isaac had a bruised foot. But he should be fine.

Q. I know it's disappointing, you say, but is it really all that surprising with a team that young this early in the year that kind of lay an egg like they did?
COACH CALIPARI: I guess. I'm just, you know, I guess when we think this is going to be easy, what we do is very, very difficult. Which is take young guys and try to make them a team, get them to play off of one another, get them to communicate.

When they think they need to, they do.

If they don't think they need to, they don't, because it's easier playing the other way. Just easier.

Why make me be an elite athlete if I can just stand here on the floor and try to bully my way around. Because it's easier than moving my feet and staying low or pushing up defensively without fouling and keeping people in front. It's very, very difficult to do that. Flying up and down the court, attacking the rim, why don't you just let me shoot threes, it's a lot easier. So what we're doing is very difficult. I know that.

But it's got to be consistent of what we are. We're attacking team on both ends.

Q. Is there anything you didn't like about the way Tyler played tonight and what did you like that you saw?
COACH CALIPARI: No, I didn't want to play him as many minutes as he played. But I said I want to win a game more than worry about not playing him. If we can't win without him on the floor, then he'll be on the floor every minute. And that means someone's not playing much. When he went out, we let them back in it.

Q. 50 fouls tonight, 54 free throws, is this part of the process that the game has to go through to get cleaned up?
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah. Yeah. When you drive the ball -- look, if the defense is in a good defensive position, in other words, you're square with that offensive player, you're both feet are facing, you're facing. If they drive into that, that is not a foul. Like throw your shoulder in, throw your head back. If he's in a good defensive position, that's not to be called a foul.

But if they open up their stance, you're not in a defensive position. You're in a run for your life position. That's when the ball handler's going to lean in and try to shoot it and ones. So now I want you to go back and watch the tape and see how many times my guys went into that position. And we have worked every day on it, staying like this and retreating and bouncing and playing. Very difficult. To open up the gate and try to run them down and act like I'm in high school and I'm going to block the shot. Very easy. You either foul or he makes a layup or both. Very difficult.

So, I like the rules. It makes you stay in a defensive position. If you don't, then they're calling fouls. I thought that, again, there was some pushing and shoving in the post that I was on, because it's not -- that's the rules. That's an absolute foul. And so there were a lot of fouls and there should have been.

Q. Is it surprising you that, a guy like Alex, this was only his third career double double and I think his first since the first game of his sophomore year?
COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, he's just got to build on it. He had a dunk that he wasn't athletically ready for. He had the last rebound he tried to grab with one hand. He got beat on the bounce a bunch. But to get a double double and start down this road, let's go.

Now, Marcus Lee had a double double against Duke. He didn't quite have a double double today. Now you tell me, I mean, again, that's -- I can sit here and lie to you and say this is the greatest thing and we got -- we were not very good and a lot of it was Wright State's game plan. Pack line defense, play a zone, see what they do. Will they settle, will they put the ball above their heads when you work it. Will they not be able to fight for post position. And that's kind of stuff that happened. They were not going to stretch out the floor on us. He did a good job with his team.

Q. How much more of that, maybe not pack line, but just the collapse and all that do you expect going forward?
COACH CALIPARI: I expected it up in Chicago. I just think that's how we're going to be played. Part of it is we're going to have to make some threes. Again, 2-10 today. We got pretty good three-point shooters. But still haven't found a rotation, whether it's Derek, whether it's Charles, whether it's Dom or Mike someone's got to be in that rotation. Isaac would have played a lot today. But we'll see.

Q. Two technical fouls on Murray in four games, is that something you got to work on?
COACH CALIPARI: I'm disappointed and I said something to him. We'll address it. He didn't say anything, he didn't swear or do anything, he just said, but he walked to the guy when he said something. You can't -- you got to be smarter than that.

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