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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 2, 2018

John Calipari

Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky - 86

IUP - 64

JOHN CALIPARI: We'll build and we've got a couple days to prepare for this next, which is going to be a hard game. Now it appears it's going to be even harder than I thought.

Q. Coach Lombardi said you guys shot a lot of threes, he was hoping you would shoot many many more than you did. Do you think you got a little beer muscles there with the quick start from three and maybe took too many?
JOHN CALIPARI: There were three or four that post ups were there that we didn't throw it. And here's what I would say, this team may be -- not that that's all we'll do, but this may be a post-up team. So then we'll play to our strengths. We'll make people figure out if they're trapping or how they're going to play these guys. And but there were three or four plays that I can remember Quade had one on the wing in front of us and P.J. had the guy on his back throw him the ball. Another one we had Nick had it and I think it was Tyler again moved the ball to the other side of the court when the guys in the post -- just throw it in there and we'll play off of it. There's all kind of ways to play this game. Rebounds, I want to run and fly and play open and -- but if there's, we get in that half court and we can play that we, we probably need to some. But I don't mind 22 3s. I mean last game we were 1-13 and I told you that's not who we were. But 22? That's fine. 18 to 22 is probably who we are. We're going to play teams that are trying to get up 40 threes. That's how they play. We just don't play that way.

Q. Travis Reid had a double double tonight. How much of a comfort is that for any coach to have somebody that seems fairly consistent with it?
JOHN CALIPARI: No. I thought he played really well. Rebounded, fought, played hard. The biggest thing for us, we had some straight line drives, not as many as last game. We had lack of communication on some pin downs, on some handoffs, on some screens and fades and it included P.J., Reid, Keldon, I mean I could go right down the line, Ashton. Like if you are in trouble you yell to your teammate and they will pick up your man. You don't just lay on the screen and give them a three. We did that today. But Reid is one that usually is going to talk and he's a veteran and he knows what you're talking about coming out of timeouts, he's huddled the team. I thought P.J. played well. P.J. did some good stuff and made free throws and would have liked to have seen him rebound a lot more, but if you watch that team they did a terrific job of blocking out. That's the team that you could tell one of their things is the shot goes up, you're getting your man, and everybody blocks their man out. That's how they played.

Q. What do you think of your point guard play tonight, and what do you want to see from those guys going forward?
JOHN CALIPARI: I thought it was okay. I mean it was good. They're two different point guards. Probably got to get -- Immanuel went from being too aggressive on the ball to not being aggressive enough. There's an in between we need him to be. I still think we still have a couple guys being a little anxious. And I keep telling them, you can be anxious or you can be excited, it's about the same physiology, so why not be excited? Be excited about playing, not anxious about making this play or that. Just play. I thought Ashton did some good things, they kept him out of the paint which is hard to do for him.

Q. Is it weird with the Duke game coming up on Tuesday, just how much attention is on the football team and the big game coming up tomorrow?
JOHN CALIPARI: Who do they play tomorrow?

Q. Georgia.
JOHN CALIPARI: Oh, I'm just kidding. Well, I'm happy. And I'm happy for Mark and his staff. I'm happy for those players. I'm so happy the guys that came back can say it's an experience that I'll live with the rest of my life. They're a team that feels good and confident about themselves. I mentioned Mark has empowered the team. When your wide receiver comes up to you and says, let me run this punt back, and you go, go ahead for it kid, go. They didn't do it to be selfish. Someone else told me that the tight end, they were going to change a play and he said, no, no, you run it, I'll make this catch. I'm happy for their quarterback, how he played -- I mean, these guys are balling now and Georgia's really good, like Georgia's really good. You ready for this? We're really good too. Our defense, woof. So it should be a great game. We're not going to practice around that time because I know I want to see it and I'm imagining our players will want to see it so they get a chance to go over.

Q. Those last two minutes everybody seemed to get a jolt of energy after the tangle up with Ashton. What did you feel like that was missing from the rest of the game that energy that competitiveness from everybody but Reid?
JOHN CALIPARI: No, but here's what you find out. Every team we play it's the biggest game on their schedule and they're so excited. And this team was excited about playing us. They came out with high energy and what we got to do is forget about them, we got to come out every game we play. And let me tell you it's really hard to do. It's hard to do. But that's who we are and that's what it is to be playing here. So I -- no, I think we need a little more energy defensively compared to some of these teams and how they're playing. And we're going to find out. I mean, the game Tuesday is going to be great for film to really watch who need to work on what. Individual matchups, you know, playing fast, defensively taking chances, denying, playing, you got to have to get open before you catch that ball you better know and so there's some good stuff. I'm not sure like I said after today, I think we got a ways to go, but that was a good team, a team that beat Morehead and Joe's right, no one wants to play them. Back in Pittsburgh no one will play them. They won't play them. I don't even know why I played them, to be honest with you, I must have lost my mind. When I saw the Morehead tape I was thinking, what was I thinking? No good deed goes unpunished. Just know that. Remember that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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