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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 11, 2012John CalipariQ. Coach, do you notice anything to start out with the new team? COACH CALIPARI: It's another new team. I'm still trying to figure out and not get too much anxiety about how we're going to have to play. Because until I get on the court I'm not‑‑ we'll do some things, and whatever works, we run with. Q. How much have you learned how to mesh a star freshman into the game? COACH CALIPARI: Well, what I've said to you guys before, if I had my choice between experience and talent, I'm going to take talent. This is a talented group. I don't know how talented until we start playing, but we've got good size. We've got length. We've got some slashers, got a couple shooters. We were worried about our toughness a year ago, and I would tell you, I'm a little worried about the toughness of this team based on the fact that you have a couple of guys, but you just don't have a‑‑ we were worried about it last year. I'm probably more worried this year. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, I sat down with Ryan Harrow, and told them they need to start working out together. They need to be in practice early together. They need to be after practice together, kind of doing what Nowitzki and Steve Nash did, where they did their workouts together and they got real comfortable with each other on the court, especially in a late game. You're talking two guys that are going to have their hands on the ball a lot. So we just had that talk about five days ago. Q. You were talking to Joe about using two big guys, trying to get some information? COACH CALIPARI: I sat out by his statue, and he and I talked a little bit. He wasn't real talkative. I don't know. He usually is. Q. What are a couple of things you picked up? COACH CALIPARI: I may stack them together. Put them both on the same side of the court. I may put them on the elbow. I'm going to mess around. I don't know how much per game we'll play those two. I really have no idea. It may be five minutes, 15 minutes, what if they're both really good together? It may be 25 minutes. So I don't know yet. But we have some ideas random pick‑and‑rolls, and some things we may try. But right now, the basics and the first week of practice are going to be a great defensive team. We'll fly up and down the court. We'll teach the dribble drive, attacking the basket. We're going to really zero in on rebounding, because I think that's one of the things this team should be good at and needs to be good at, those kind of things. Q. You're moving around six or seven guys. Is it easier to have a couple guys coming back? COACH CALIPARI: I wish I had the whole team coming back. I wish I had teams for three and four years, but that's not the way it is. I've talked enough about how I can't stand this one and done stuff, but it is what it is. I'm not going to cheat the kids. I'm not going to have kids stay that need to leave. If kids should stay and they choose to leave, that's their family's decision. I'm not going to argue that. We just deal with what's left. It's funny. We've had kids leave every year, and our teams have been good, if not better. So they're chasing their dream, and it's not hurting us. We had a 3.2 grade point average. We had nine players over a B‑average last year. Nine. Anthony Davis left with‑‑ what was his last term? 3.75? His last term. Guys finished all their courses. They finished their courses, so it's not at the expense of academics.  They're taking care of business. Q. Coach talked about Maryland and going on the road? COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, Maryland‑Duke to start. We could be 0‑2. I was with the guys at Wheelers, and I said we're rebuilding. How are you guys going to be? And one guy says we're with you, Coach. Win or tie, we're right there with you. Then I said, well, what if we really start off slow. Are you still going to love me? They said oh, man, come on. We're going to love you. We'll miss you, but we're going to love you. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Kids all want to win. The kids that want to win are the ones we're recruiting. Dewayne and I were talking about it this morning. Every group we've had have come in with the idea we want to win a championship, whether it was John in that group, Brandon in that group, whether it's the group last year with Michael and those guys. They all talked. They wanted to win a championship. So what happens first is we're a players' first program. All of us, including Dewayne, all our job is to care about those kids. It's players first. Their job is to care about winning championships. Our job is we're about them. Every decision we make is about them. Then their job is to go out and basically drag us where we're trying to go. Q. How would you compare the challenge here each year, compared to the challenge at UMASS (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Well, this is a much better program. I don't know what you mean by that, but I will tell you‑‑ what I would tell you is that this has made me a better coach. I was just with Jim McCoy whose father passed away last weekend. I basically said, you know, I apologize that I wasn't a better coach when I coached him. I was 28 years old, 29 years old. I said to him, Jim, I wish I knew then what I know now about coaching and preparing young people, and I didn't. I mean, you were one of the first. His mother grabbed me and said people said why would you send your son with a 28‑year‑old that's never coached? She said I looked him in the eye and said (Indiscernible), which made me feel good. But the reality of it is, I'm a better coach now because I can't‑‑ it's like a teacher having the same lesson plan for 12 years. Well, when I was at UMASS, I'm going to be honest with you, five of those years, I had exactly the same lesson plan. We were going to play, and we won a lot of games and day lot of good, kids did good, but we could have done better. I could have coached better. No question that I could have been a better coach. I wish I would have been for those kids. But at that age, that was my background and my history. Q. When you talk about being a better coach, why are you a better coach? COACH CALIPARI: I have more knowledge, been through more experiences. There's nothing a kid is going to do or say that I haven't seen and I don't respond to it better. In a game you have a better feel for all situations because there are probably been up nine with two minutes to go and lose. There's not much I haven't seen in 20‑something years. When Mrs.McCoy said to me, do you remember our home visit? That was 25 years ago. How am I going to remember that? She said all you did was talk to me. I thought you were recruiting me and not my son. I said, well that hasn't changed in 25 years. That's still the same. The game is different. We all grew up five passes, set screens. It's the motion game, wanting to run motion offense. Well, one, everybody's now in the lane. You shoot jumpers, and the NBA's not doing it. Obviously, the game has changed and evolved. It's no disrespect for anything, but it's just changed and evolved. It's done at different times, and now the game has changed. The three‑point line‑‑ when I was at UMASS my first couple years there wasn't a three‑point line. That's how long ago I coached. There wasn't. Jimmy, maybe his senior year it came in, the three‑point line came in. But prior to that, there was none. So the game has evolved, and hopefully I'm learning. And you learn from players. Every player I've coached here, you learn different things from. Q. The challenge is on Maryland. (No Microphone) are both of you anxious about opening night? THE MODERATOR: Just so you know our policy on student‑athletes, we don't confirm athletic eligibility until the first day of class or first day of competition. COACH CALIPARI: He will practice, and if we played tomorrow, he would play. But I'm sticking to that policy. I'm not saying one word. That's my policy. I know some of you are angry right now, but that is my policy. Q. What is it that you would say is the reason you communicate so well with today's athletes? COACH CALIPARI: Well, tell them the truth. Not embellishing. I mean, we undersell, overdeliver. I'm not going to BS you. This is how it is. If you don't want, this then you don't come here. I'm not the only coach that can help you prepare for your dreams. This is what we do and how we do it. If you want this, it is a great place to go. If you don't want it, you can go somewhere else. Everybody says, Coach, we want you to keep it real, keep it real. Unless you're keeping it real with them, then they're not real happy. So the other one is I need four years to create a relationship. Well, my wife and I we've been 26 years. I think we were four months together and I knew. I don't need four years with these guys. We create a relationship in a year or two. I tell you after that, they start disliking you, I think. So we treat them right. It's about them, there is no question. Last year, how did you get guys to play this way? They trusted that it was about them. So they shared their sacrifice, they shared sacrifice. From Anthony Davis who shot 22 points the other day and looked in the camera. Coach Cal didn't let me do this. But he was a shot taker, or Michael Kidd‑Gilchrist or Darius Miller coming off the bench who was undraftable as a junior, and is draftable coming off the bench as a senior. They trust that we're going to do what you want because we know you care about us. This is not about you, Grand Poobah. It's not about. We don't care about winning. You care about us. I've only known that way. I've coached that way and made it about kids, and it doesn't mean I don't scream and yell. If somebody says you can't really get on kids anymore. Yeah, you can, if they know you care about them. They know it's about them, then whatever you tell them to do, they'll do. This group is going to do whatever I ask them to do. Whatever I ask them to do, they'll do. I have to hope I'm asking them to do the right things. They're going to do what we ask, so hopefully it's the right stuff. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: I called him in the 2010 season, and I had been in touch with him at different points in my career. I said, "Are you watching my team?" He said, "Yes, I am." And I said, I'm worried about this, that and the other. He said, Coach, look. Bottom line, and I know why you're doing it, but you play too many people. We've played six guys, maybe seven, and those other guys had to work their way in. You guys because of transfers and all the other stuff, you don't play as many guys, or you play more people. You're playing ten. Jack from UMASS used to tell me the same thing. You're playing too many guys. You try to play ten guys because you want it to be about a system and how you play versus those kids. You've got to play less and let them learn to play with each other. That's why we have eight kids on scholarship. Nine kids‑‑ most we'll have is ten on scholarship. Now I have scholarship for walk‑ons. But we have eight kids on scholarship this year. Next year somebody called me and said, if all these kids come, I said, we'll have eight or nine on scholarship. They all come we're going to end up‑‑ these guys are going to do this. And these guys graduated and we end up with a couple, five come, we'll have seven or eight guys. But that was his comment. And I talked to his daughter, Nan about it. We were at dinner, and it was kind of neat. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Well, we said no. They approached us, and we said no for about a month. We didn't want to do it. Do we really need more exposure? The one guy said we'll help this and this. What about your recruiting? I said I don't think we need help. I think we're okay. So what we've talked about, and I don't mind sharing, we have a lot of guys and I'm not saying they're wrong, but I'm not do sharing what I do with anybody. This is our secret. I've never been that way in my life. If you walked into my practice‑‑ not you, because you're not allowed in there, but the other people that walk into my practice, I'm not hiding anything. I'm not embarrassed about how we do our jobs. I'm not embarrassed about our kids or how we coach. And look at me, I sleep good at night. I sleep like a baby at night. So I'm not worried about people being here. It doesn't matter to me. I mean, that's fine. Then it was like, okay, we'll be good for our kids, and we decided, you know what, let them come in for a while and see how it plays out. Again, look, once something happens, we've got people 24/7, how can I find, what can I do? How do I? Well, whether ESPN's here or not, if something happens, what? They'll be here in two hours. So I feel comfortable with what we're doing and how we do it. We'll let it go. Everybody's going to be mad. I know. Did I do it just because of that to aggravate people? Might have. Did we talk? I may have said that. Let's aggravate everybody and do this, because really for us‑‑ Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: They've been in my house, and they've been around my wife which is very unusual. She's very private. I did not want this to be about me. But I said from day one, this is not about me. They said my name and we took them out. It's about the program, the kids, the staff. What they want to see is how in the world does he get a young group to play that hard and be that unselfish in that period of time? Is that right? Now if you're not curious that way, it's just like you want to see nasty stuff. Well, fine, look at something else. But that's what I hope comes across that this is a good group of kids. They come together. They shared sacrifice. They know they're going to give up stuff. They work hard. They go to class. They do what they're supposed to. Good kids who are good students and trying to chase their dreams in under a magnifying glass that's ridiculous. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI:  I hope so. My hope would be that they get some time, but that will all play out. Q. What is your lesson plan? COACH CALIPARI: The beginning will be the same, but after we get started we'll probably do more scrimmaging this year than I did a year ago earlier. But normally I'll have four to five practices already planned. I've got two, and those are in pencil, let me put it that way. But I've got two planned. I like my team. I really do. I like what we are. Kyle Wiltjer said he never thought he'd play on a team as close as last year's team. Now he's saying this team may be as close, if not closer than last year's team, which makes me feel good. I mean, that is the kind of stepping in that you want to have. Q. During the recruiting process, you're in a home, how do you (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: You watch them. But I was just in a home last week, and I sat down ‑‑ and I won't tell you if it was boys or boy because I can't. If there were two of them or one, okay, but I sat down in that home and I looked at those‑‑ that boy and I said I want to tell you I've seen you guys play‑‑ I've seen you play and compete so hard that it's scary. Then I've also seen you act like it doesn't matter and you're just going through the motions. I want you to know in front of your family that player will not be on my court. He will not play. The minute I see it, he's out. Do you understand that? I don't want phone calls. I want nothing. That's how it is. Some of it is just coming in. The other thing is they recruit each other. Last year's team, they all talk to each other. It is a different time and age. If a coach is a jerk, they are texting each other that my coach is a jerk. He doesn't care about me. It's different. The 25‑year‑old model is out the window. It is. If you promise everything and you don't follow through, that family is blogging that you said this, this and this and this. That's why I said, I'm not going to tell you how many shots you're going to take, how many minutes starting. I can't tell you that. Just tell you our freshmen have done well. I can lead you in on that little secret. They've done fine, but I am not going to be in that. Q. You've talked a lot about how this team is different from last year's team. Last year's team had (No Microphone). How does that make your job not having those guys back? COACH CALIPARI: This is all exciting. I mean, think about it. It would be boring to have the same team every year, I think. We're coming in and have no idea. I have in my mind things that I think will work, and they may or may not work. There may be things that they do. Just so you understand, the hand‑off stuff we started doing happened because Josh Harrellson popped out, grabbed the ball, and handed it to Brandon Knight who made a shot. It was not anything designed. I said, oh, my gosh, that looks good. And all these handoffs came from that play. It was a breakoff play, popped out, caught it squared up. Handed it off, and Brandon shot it. I said, man, I like that. So there will be things that these guys show us. We may do both elbows, two guys on the elbows. We may even open the court wide open and have both bigs on the baseline five feet off the block. So now figure the court now. You've got wings wide. And now if you drive, if you help, we throw lobs. You've got both of them. You can throw a lob to either one. 7‑feet, 6'11. It's all kind of stuff you can try, but it's what will work. It's hard because you're going to be experimenting against Maryland and Duke. Can you go down twice, take two Ls and still be good? A couple years ago we lost a bunch of league games and everybody was in a full‑blown panic. I kept saying I like my team, and we were a basket or two away from winning the national title in Houston. Q. You mentioned this summer trying to get that motor, out of Alex. Are you seeing that out of him? COACH CALIPARI: He's getting better. Q. If not him, is there anybody else on the team that can be? COACH CALIPARI: Archie right now is looking more and more like out of the mold of DeAndre and Michael who can guard two or three different positions. Alex, I'm just trying to help define his game, but he's a wonderful kid. The thing we've been working on him is he looks at his feet all the time. So my biggest thing is you don't look down. You're always looking up. We have lines on the wall at the practice court that if he's practicing and he does a drill and his head goes down, I'm just yelling, "head, head, head," because it's a body language that he said, you know, I didn't even know I was doing it. Like make a play and look down. Then it zaps us of energy. It zaps him of energy. That is part of the reason I think there are times in the game that he didn't have the motor. It's something that simple. But he is a great kid. He's the most conscientious kid I've had since Brandon who is where he's supposed to be on time, working the school, all that stuff. And he'll help his teammates if they're lagging or anything like that. He's really, really conscientious. Q. Can you talk about Ryan being part of the program last year and how that can help him contribute right off the bat? COACH CALIPARI: He's ahead of the game because he was here last year but he didn't play. So now what I call the self‑confidence, the self‑esteem you build is through demonstrated performance. He's got to go in the game and perform. People are going to look at him and be real physical. If he can't play through that type of game, then we've got to make decisions, how are we going to do this, because that's how they're going to play him. I think he's played stronger than he looks. He's out of the mold of Brandon, but Brandon was just a crazy worker. Like 11 at night he'd be this the gym. So he willed himself where Ryan's not that way. I'm not saying he doesn't work. But Brandon was off the charts. But they've got the same body frame, you know, narrow shoulders. You look at him and say he's skilled. He's fast. Pretty good athlete. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Out of the mold of Brandon. Yeah, he can score the ball. He's skilled like Brandon was. He's becoming a good lay‑up shooter. Playing through bumps, getting it off the glass and throwing lobs and all. He's getting better. But this process is going to be in November I need us to play like it's November. In December, I need us to play like it's December. I don't need us playing like it's March and November. We're not going to be that. Then when we hit February and March, let's play like we're in that month and maybe a little bit beyond. Then see what happens. I like my team. I like our size, our skill set. Q. Has it changed you at all? COACH CALIPARI: I don't think so. Trying to work harder to show everybody like Dewayne, quit going home at 10:00 at night, that's crazy. But I just committed that I'm going to spend more time. I'm going to recruit harder than I've ever done, and with the ability for us to make phone calls and texts now, I'm spending more time than I have in the last couple years at it. I want everybody in my office, not by me saying it, but they look at the pace and say, man, you'd think he'd back up. Well, I'm trying to go harder to keep everybody around me. Let's stay on our toes. We've made a lot of people happy around the country that we won. So let's stay on our toes, and let's keep marching forward. We're going to take some arrows and some bazooka shots, and let's just take them and move. My thing again, and I said this today, coach, there are people, this, that, and the other. I said, listen, I'm not dealing with all of that. So I'll say to you guys here, which I've said, whatever you think I am, I agree. Now let me go coach my team. Is that easy enough? Q. Just a follow‑up, I don't think anybody's surprised that you're taking it in stride and getting right back to work. But in your mind you've accomplished something enormous. COACH CALIPARI: No, what I've accomplished is helping prepare young people. This job I'm in now, I don't even think I'm in the basketball business anymore. I'm in the business of helping families. It's incredible. We've had 15 draft picks, seven players drafted. We're teaching people how to be men, how to be fathers, how to go on. Our kids have gone on and done well in a short period of time. This Kentucky effect is there and it's real. So now you're in the business of helping families break generational cycles. We've had probably 45 to 50 kids get college degrees during my time as a head coach. I'm guessing 80% of them are the first college educated in their families. You may say, well, how many of them are lawyers and doctors? Probably not many. But when I grew up, I was the first college educated in my family. I could not think about being a lawyer or a doctor. I was going to be a high school coach. Teach high school English. Then I went and did the college thing, and the NBA, and they fired me, and I came back. But my daughter's going to be a doctor. In two years, Erin will be a doctor. Well, that's how this is supposed to work. How about generational cycle of poverty? Senator Mitch McConnell said to me, How many you leaving last year? Said six more. He said, "You're creating more millionaires than a wall street firm." And I went, wow, we are. So when you say that to me, when I hug my wife, I'm saying‑‑ when I hugged her on the court I said now my friends and family don't have to argue, and we can get on to the business of coaching young people, because that's what mattered more for my high school coach and my college coach. He should have won national titles at Memphis and Massachusetts. Everybody wins there. Why wasn't he won any national titles? And then arguing stupid stuff. So now before the game they said how does it feel to be known as the best coach never to win a national title? Is that a compliment? What is that? Then after the game a guy came up and said how does it feel to be the worst coach to win a national title? Q. Did anybody actually say that to you? COACH CALIPARI: No (laughing). Whatever you think I am, I am. Q. How do you deal with the criticism that comes from the outside? COACH CALIPARI: You can't. You can't. He'll tell you. I don't have a computer. I don't look at Twitter, Facebook, newspapers, nothing. If something's gone on, I get up in the morning, I'm getting a coffee and say anything I got to deal with? If it's something I have to deal with, he tells me. If it's not something I have to deal w he doesn't tell me and I go about my business. I have a sign on my wall. Coach your team. My staff gets mad. How can they say this, and this, and that, and that? What do you want them to say? We're getting the kids. We're winning every game. What are they going to have a party for you? They're not going to have a party for you. They're not going to be happy. So you deal with that? Don't deal with it. I don't. Do I? Whatever you think I am, I agree. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: I worry about it because he's not Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis is a once in a ten‑year. He's just not. Anthony Davis was a skilled basketball player. Nerlens is a long bouncy‑‑ way more bouncy than Anthony and longer, but he's not Anthony. He's not. And we shouldn't expect it now. The same thing with Willie Cauley. Willie's bigger than both of them and runs better than both of those guys. Anthony ran pretty fast. He and Anthony would tie in a race. Yet he's not the basketball player that Anthony was, neither one of those guys. But Alex is not Michael Kidd‑Gilchrist, and Archie's totally different than Doron or Darius. Totally different. And Ryan's totally different than Marquis Teague, they're all different. Now Kyle Wiltjer is just like Kyle Wiltjer, but he got stronger. Legs are stronger, quicker. But he's pretty much the same. I think Kyle Wiltjer being Kyle Wiltjer, it's all different. Q. Are you worried about Nerlens trying to be Anthony or dealing with the heat that will come by replacing Anthony? COACH CALIPARI: Everybody's acting like he's Anthony, and he's going to come out and he's not going to be Anthony. And see he went out to California, and they said he's not as good as we thought. All of a sudden, he's not that good. By the end of the year if things work out and he's drafted really high, they'll say, wow, he was one and done when he went there. Well, wait a minute, you just said he stunk. Yeah, I was just kidding. He's over here now. So I will tell you as the year goes o he'll do his thing. But when you see him, you're going to compare him to Anthony in March, and that's not fair. Comparing this team to that team in March is not fair. They're not going to be. We're going to turn it over. We're going to get pushed around. Defensively, we're going to have breakdowns. Offensively, we're going to look like what in the world are they doing, and it's going to be the process we go through. Q. You're telling him all the things that are going to be wrong in November. Tell us why you do like him? COACH CALIPARI: I like what they'll look like in March in my mind. Right now, that's the only thing I can live with. I have a vision of what they're going to be in March, and that's what I try to drive them to. I know it's there and we're right here. I'm going to try to be as patient‑‑ I'm not the most patient guy, but I'm going to try to be as patient as I can to drag them along. We were patient last year with Marquis Teague, and it paid off, didn't it? We had people say you can't play him at point guard. Let somebody else play the point guard, and we let it go. We just said we're sticking to this, and we're going to be patient with him. We were, and by the end of the year he was the best point guard in my opinion. Q. Do you expect to play zone? COACH CALIPARI: Coach Hall's trying to get me to play a one‑three‑one. We're going to have to play some zone just because we have to play against it. I thought of two things. With the two big guys out there, what kind of zone could we play that would be effective with a 7‑footer and a 6'11". Could you put them on the wings of a one‑three‑one, and let them be your wings? I don't know. I'm worried about us step slide, step slide. Close out with your hand‑up. I told my staff you've got to start this season like they absolutely know nothing. Let's not take anything for granted, and that's what we'll do. Q. How do you balance that handful of veteran guys wanting to teach them maybe some more advanced stuff? Starting every year with so many guys that have to really go to the basics is this? COACH CALIPARI: The guys that came back will tell the young guys you have not seen him yet. He's all friendly and happy go lucky. Wait till we start practicing and it gets close to a game and the pressure is on. You're going to see a different animal. They've already told those guys. Right now, yeah, he's all happy and hugging you. Wait until we start playing. You're going to see this other guy that you don't recognize right now. That's what they tell them. Whenever whatever I ask our guys to do, they'll do it. I just have to make sure whatever I ask them is the right thing. You talk about playing zone. If I choose to do that, I just hope it's the right thing, or what kind of zone. We're going to change some different offenses. Well, let's hope it's right. Because whatever I tell them to do, they'll do. We've got a great group that understood coming here, hard deal. Tell us what you want us to do, and we're going to do it. Q. (No Microphone)? COACH CALIPARI: Maybe Archie, but he's quiet. Ryan and‑‑ they're all quiet. I'm just telling you, we've got a quiet team. We've got a quiet team. Maybe the most quiet. Julius Mays, very steady and veteran, but he's not saying a whole lot. So one of the things we'll do from day one is talk on offense, talk on defense, and we'll make them. So that probably will evolve. But I hope we're a good team that talks because we're going to need to. Q. How about placing so many players in the NBA, and the success you've had here, how in terms of getting the guys to take what you say and trust it? COACH CALIPARI: Well, there is trust based on the fact that we didn't oversell them a bill of goods. There is trust that we already told them it's going to be hard. It's not for everybody. You're not going to be the only guy shooting the ball, blah, blah, blah. Then the other side of it is there is trust in the results. You know, the thing, why would you go down that path where everyone else goes? Blaze your own trail. Don't go down the path where everybody else is going. Why would you want to go where everybody else is going? Well, that path that everybody's going is a straight up and down hill where you're not promised anything. It's a lot of hard work. It's crazy. It's nuts. The fans are crazy and nuts. At the top you can see what's there. Now I don't know if you can do it. If you can work that hard like the other guys, but you see the result. The one less taken, blazing that trail goes two steps and they hand you a machete and say go at it. You can do this. So I would say I'd rather go up this one straight up the Hill, and you go after that one. See what's there. Kids were seeing that there are results. Q. Can you talk about your best players (Indiscernible)? COACH CALIPARI: If I did that, we'd play zone. Kyle would be the middle of the zone, those two guys, the wings, because they're really active and have quick feet. Kyle is in the middle big at 6'10", you'd be 7‑foot, 6'11", 6'10". But it would be hard to practice against that because we'd have Jon Hood and Jarrod be the front line of the other team. So I bet you it would look good though. Q. Is that an issue for you when you only have six or seven guys that play actually getting good practice reps? COACH CALIPARI: We don't practice long. Again, I'm not saying this is the only way to do this. There are guys that practice four hours, and they win and they do well. We practice two hours. If I can't get it in in two hours, then I didn't do my job. Going four hours is okay. There are some kids that need it, and there are some coaches that are more comfortable going long practices in the full 20. We have 20 hours to practice. We probably put in about 15 hours maybe. We have time in the bank. Is that like vacation time or anything that we can use? No. But we're not trying to‑‑ look, I need November to be November. I need December to be December. I don't need to bulldoze, and we don't do it. So if you have ten guys you're practicing with, two hours is plenty of time. If you have 15 or 16, you need three hours, three and a half. We don't practice with that many guys. Somebody says, well, what about injuries? Well, if the wrong guy is injured on any team, I don't care if they have 13 McDonald's All‑Americans. NorthCarolina last year could have had anyone else injured except that point guard. The minute he went down, they were finished, and they had 12 McDonald's All‑Americans on the team. Fab Melo goes down at Syracuse. Anyone else could have been out and Syracuse would have been in the Final Four. He goes down, different. The same with us. We'll be watching and looking. If something happens to Anthony Davis, we're done. When the Baylor thing happened with his knee and all that, believe me, I went over there like, you're all right. Come on, kid, get up. I was like please get up. Please get up. Come on, mama's boy. And I was sick, sick to my stomach, believe me when I tell you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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