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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2018

John Calipari

Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky - 77, Tennessee State - 62

Q. What was working offensively for Keldon tonight?
JOHN CALIPARI: He was seeing gaps and he was seeing opportunities to go at the basket and was strong at the rim and did a pretty good job.

Q. How surprised were you they didn't take more threes and what do you think about the idea that they were even with you in the paint?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well they probably watched the tapes and said you know what, we don't have to take threes. Let's just drive the ball, which I thought they would do. My thing was they would spread the court, use clock and then try to beat somebody on the bounce. I thought they had a pretty good game plan in what they were doing. And then they were physical. You know how many one footers we missed again? I mean literally one foot. Well, he bumped me, or we got to make those or go up and dunk the ball. Look, folks, the reality of it is we're a ways away. We're not a very good team right now. We have no confidence defensively, which bleeds into your offense. Then have you no confidence offensively. You get beat three or four times, don't think you're going to be pounding your chest saying I'm great on offense. And then they become, you know, we wanted to and I'm going to just keep working on it, where we could open up the court and get some drives and do some stuff, and I'm going to continue to work on it. We, they trapped the post a little bit. There were opportunities in the zone offense for to us post the ball and we just don't have that feel yet. One time they switched out, both men took Tyler going out and Reid had no one on him, and we didn't throw him the ball because he wasn't supposed to catch the pass. I know, but they put two guys out, you got to throw it in. Those are the kind of things that we'll watch on tape and just say look, we got to get better. I told them I'm just going to keep coaching them. And we have been good against press, and then like just put on the board, this is our press attack, so why didn't you do this and why didn't you do that? Why did you catch it on the wing and hold it above your head? Why didn't you play our press attack which is all about spacing. And you have freshmen out there. You have young guys out there and they start getting pressed. I mean, again, you get the game in the 20s, 24, well, how about it goes to 40. We turn around and it's back to 12. This has happened every game. And they even missed some threes they could have made in the second half.

Q. When you have a team that you said has no defensive confidence, what do you do to get that back? I mean when offense is off, you make shots you get your confidence. What do you do on defense to get your confidence?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well, first of all we got to continue to work on straight-line drives. You just can't, we got beat, it's like we got tired. And they just beat us on the dribble. So we're going to just continue to work on it, how we have to play, we have to be anticipate more, see what's happening before it happens, not after it happens, which is where we are right now. And then we got to start helping the helper more so we can trust each other and we can be more confident on defense. We're still, there are times we're not blocking out. A man goes to help and we don't help him on a check out. It's all stuff that we just got to cure it, we got to keep doing it in practice, we got to keep talking about it. And if have you a couple guys playing with confidence and then you have others not, I'm talking, it's hard to get that all together. We, I told them, until we become a defensive team that people know, not only can we rebound, but we can make you take a tough shot until we become that team. All this other stuff offensively, doesn't really matter until we become that. And again, today their game plan was hold it, hold it, 11 seconds, 10, we're going to take something and see if we can make a basket. And we were good and then all of a sudden we missed seven out of eight fouls, free throws, like almost air balls. What? Where are we on this? But like I said, this is, where we are right now. I wish we were farther along defensively, but we're not. And Jerry, you asked about post. They played zone and again we haven't played against zone that much and I couldn't get our guys to post the ball. Like there was one where Keldon, out of the timeout we're throwing it to you and you're posting it. And he moved up and I had to yell to him to move down where he could catch it and post it. It's that we're just, that feel for they're trying to keep it out of the post. That's why they're going zone, so post it.

Q. It seems obvious that Nick is struggling. What do you think's going on there? What can turn it around?
JOHN CALIPARI: Demonstrated performance. You got to go in the game and perform. And what I've been telling these guys, they got to play like they have nothing to lose like every team we play. They got to take it off themselves. And they got to, this is how coach is asking me to play, then you don't have to worry about the clutter of how you're playing. I'm playing the way he wants me to play. Take it off you. Play like you have nothing to lose and go play. But I'm telling you, if you're getting broken down on defense, I've done this again 35 years, guys, you're not going to have confidence offensively. Do you remember I've said that a few times here? You cannot have confidence offensively if you cannot guard. You just, you don't. So until we build that and become that team, we become the aggressor, we become the team that anticipates and rotates and trusts and all that and it just takes time. We've got a bunch of freshmen still. We got a new team thrown together.

Q. Between the last time you took a team to the Bahamas four years ago and that trip seemed to give you a head start --
JOHN CALIPARI: When we had the No. 1 pick in the draft and we four lottery picks and we had pretty good players and six guys got drafted from that team. It was a pretty good team.

Q. (No microphone.)
JOHN CALIPARI: I don't think so at this point. I would say no. Now, by the end you watch what happened with Shai and Knox and Hami and the guys by the end. But where we were at the beginning of last year, I would say the same with that group. But I don't, you know, could we have four lottery picks on this team? Yeah, if they want to be that. But it's going to start with we're all going to commit to defending. We're all going to commit to doing this and rotating and listening and executing on defense. Then the offense will come. I mean offense hasn't been the issue.

Q. Can you talk about Immanuel and what you see that he's getting better at and what he's still struggling the most with?
JOHN CALIPARI: You know, we're trying to open up the court for him and Ashton a little bit of times to get them in that lane. But again, we just, we're just trying to keep messing around with what we're doing there. But I thought defensively he's doing some good stuff. Much better job of playing in front of people, much better job of getting it up the court. Now, he still, we never outlet the ball to him up the court. He's like under the basket. When we rebound he's like, when you're in high school, just, here, give it to me. We need him up the court. And I just, we keep talking about it and showing him. So he'll get there, but you get out to that sideline so we rebound, throw it to you, you can throw it ahead. He's still not doing that yet. But there's a lot of good stuff. I have a lot of confidence in him shooting the ball, I like his runners, makes free throws. So he's going better.

Q. Do most freshmen arrive here with no clue on how to really play defense at this level?
JOHN CALIPARI: Most of them, yes. Yeah, they don't know how to stay, really stop drives and stay in front and help the helper, forget about that. Like if someone helps and you got to help him, your big goes to help on a block and you have to take his man, block him out, that stuff, no, it takes time. I wish we were farther along, but you know...

Q. P.J. said a lot of the guys have acknowledged that a lot of what you're talking about there defensively goes back to talking or not talking. And PJ said, in high school most, the most people talk is trash and that's about the only talking they do. Is that what you're seeing or not hearing as well?
JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, and that's trust. See, when you're worried about you and you're not real confident defensively, you don't talk because you're just worried about who you are and how you're playing. When you're a confident defender you're chattering all the time, you chatter, you talk, "help me out," that's where we got to get to. And they got to commit to it. I mean, I can't do it for them, the staff can't do it for them. Please, if anybody, don't -- the offense is not an issue. We're fine. But we're not going to play confident offensively unless we become that defensive team. And I mean every game you're not going to shut people out. It means -- you all can watch and say, we need to be better defensively. Whether it be in pick and roll defense, we were having to trap and do stuff to keep them out of the lane.

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