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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 21, 2014John CalipariTEXAS A&M – 51 Q. You mentioned earlier in the week that A&M is a team that just kind of hangs around. How were you able to pull away in the second half? COACH CALIPARI: They hung around. They hung around. It was 9, 8, 10, then we got it to 16. But it was 8 points and it could have gone to 6. They missed some free throws like we did. But I told Billy before, I watched the tape, he's doing a terrific job with his team. He's giving them a chance to win every game they play. They didn't shoot it‑‑ they didn't play as well as they've been playing. You know, we did some good things, but we still, you know, one‑on‑one breakaway, James fumbles, throws it. What are we doing? I mean, it's‑‑ you know, I'm still having to coach too much. Having to get on guys too much. I'm so proud of Alex how he played. I thought Andrew for the majority of the game didn't shoot the ball well, but played well. But Julius, you know, he passed. He had one turnover, and he passed. Just keep doing it. You know, he had 13 points and maybe, okay, you could have had three or four more, but you would have had five more turnovers and the game would have been different. He passed today. Like I said, I'm really, really proud of Alex and what he's been able to do in practice, and now you're all starting to see it. Q. Speaking of Alex, how much did he impact the game defensively, offensively? COACH CALIPARI: Both. He made plays like how did he make that play and that's how we got a little gap. We got to 11 because of him. Then we made a play or two, and all of a sudden it was 16‑17, but a lot of it was just him. Q. I can't imagine you wanted to shoot 15 threes in the first half? COACH CALIPARI: No, I was not happy. Q. And two, what's wrong with Willie? COACH CALIPARI: I don't know what's wrong with Willie, but he'll be fine. I just‑‑ look, when you're a coach and you coach the game to win. Then you work on egos and all the other stuff after.  Dakari was playing better than him, so I started Dakari. Dakari continued to play better than him. At the end of the game, I said, look, we're going at you. You got to get going here, kid. He turned and fumbled. I mean, it didn't get any better. You know, he wants to do well. He was doing really well, and he backed up a little bit. It's like a slippery slope. When you back up, you don't keep bringing it. All of a sudden you go that other way. This sport is mental as much as anything else. It's like Alex right now. Mentally, Alex thinks he's going to kill you, so he will. Last year that's not how Alex was thinking. So he wasn't in the shape to do it. I'm glad I got Marcus Lee. I wanted to get Derek in a little bit and I didn't because he's starting to play better. I've just got to find minutes for him. Q. With Dakari, is that an example of the guy sort of taking advantage of that opportunity and seeing those extra minutes? COACH CALIPARI: It's like I keep telling these guys, you've got to work and keep building up your own self‑esteem and confidence because when your opportunity comes you've got to be ready and you don't know when it's going to come. You can't be on a five‑day diet and say, okay, it didn't work. I'm done. You've got to keep going. That's what I'm telling Derek right now. Derek, you've really done well. You don't know. It's kind of like chipping away at a rock. You keep hitting and hitting and hitting and hitting and then all of a sudden it's been weeks and it's been months and there's one hit and it splits and you split the rock and you made it. You're over the hump. But you didn't know. You could have stopped two weeks before, so that's what this game is. It's a grind. You've got to love the grind. You've got to stay in the grind. You can't be any step back, any arrogance. You can't be smirking. You've got to know, coach me. Tell me what you want. How do I get to one more step? It's never good enough. You're always hungry. You're always humble, but you're always hungry to get better. The minute you're satisfied, you start going the wrong way. Q. Maybe a little thing, maybe not, but early in the game for the first time I can remember it was Aaron and Julius both asked to come out three minutes into the game. Is that what you wanted? Is that a step forward? COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, that's good, and they still played 30‑some minutes. Both of them played 30‑some minutes. Look, the difference right now is the upside of this team is enormous. What I'm saying to you is we're not close to what we need to be. We're not. We're playing better. We're playing with more energy, more fight, we're being a more organized team. We're stopping on defense less and less. But we still stop and give them lay‑ups and the back door. Well, it's only one play. Great, now it's a five‑point game. Now they think they can beat you. So they don't realize that. Then we're playing offensively. There are times we break off stuff. Well, in a really good game the other team is going to score because they've got good players. You can't compound it by giving them easy baskets, taking tough shots and not executing on the other end. You can't win a real good game. So we've got a ways to go. But like I said, we've rebounded the ball today; we did some good stuff defensively, a few turnovers at the end of the game, so we're 12, 13 turnovers, maybe one or two more than I would have liked. I thought Andrew played a pretty heady game. Did some good stuff, didn't shoot it well, but played pretty good. Q. How different are you and what are those differences when Julius gets rid of the ball quickly? COACH CALIPARI: Well, you're noticing that the whole team, the MO is the minute he gets it, everybody runs to the lane. So now when he passes it, you can either shoot it or post it to him when he kicks it out and slides to the low post or drive it in or swing the ball and we can play. He wants to do well. There is no question. I mean, he rebounded the crap out of the ball today, and so did Andrew. Eight rebounds. How about Dakari though? He's doing some good stuff. He's going after balls and got to make free throws. You've got to make free throws. You don't have to make them all; you just can't miss them all. You don't have to make them all; you just can't miss them all. So he's really doing some good stuff. Q. What has Jarrod given you that maybe took some of those minutes that Dominique was getting before? COACH CALIPARI: He's a little more confident than Dominique right now. Part of that is Dominique, that first drive he had, I wish he would have shot that ball. Whether it went in or not wasn't the issue. But he tried to pass it, which leads me to believe he was a little tentative. Then the shot he took it had no chance of going in. It wasn't like, wow, he almost made that. That's when I said, okay, Jarrod's a little more confident right now. Jarrod should be a little more confident. He's older. But I still haven't lost any confidence in Marcus Lee and Derek and Dominique and Jarrod. Jon Hood has been great. But it's just these other guys are better. Like Dakari, if you're better than a starter, I'll start you. Q. What was the difference between Andrew in the first half and Andrew in the second half? COACH CALIPARI: Well, he played a great first half. He was good in the second half, but he wasn't as good as he was in the first half. I thought he did some good stuff. The thing I'm looking for is more energy, more juice. I don't want anybody to watch him play and say where's his energy? It should never happen, never, not once. So that is all we're working on. But it's not just him. It's all these guys. More spirit defensively. We're okay defensively. I mean, you look at our numbers across the nation where we are and it's high. But I'm telling you, the upside of where we could be, where we need to be, we're not there. We're just not. Q. You say you want to get Derek in the game. I'm just wondering when the ideal time for that is? It's not that often you're up by 18 late in the game? COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, and I forgot at that point to be honest with you. It went to a minute and I said it's too late now, I'm not going to stick him in. But there will be times he's going to have opportunities. He's just got to be ready. Again, you've got to own your performance even if you're not playing a lot. You've got to walk in and say not, well, if you played me more, or if I played like he played. He takes me out and doesn't take‑‑ no, no. You own your performance. That's where those guys where Dakari is slowly growing up and he's owning his own performance now. Arkansas he wasn't very good. He owned it. He came back and practiced his butt off and was really good, and it carried over. Alex, I keep saying, Alex, what you're seeing is what I'm seeing in practice, which is like, holy cow. I mean, he's just dominating, making his free throws, making jump shots. You know, there was one play where he tried to throw a lob to somebody. I wish he would have taken it because it was just him and a guy. If he's got three guys back there, that's not his game. But if it's him and one guy, he can do something with the ball. But we've got all these guys. They're good kids. Getting better, I'm challenging them. I'm on them. Trying to drag them faster. Trying to stay focused on‑‑ instead of results, it's all where we're trying to take this. Instead of the results, let's work on just the process, and that's what we're doing. We're practicing hard. For two days, we went hard. We give them tomorrow off, and we're going to go twice hard before we play Georgia. Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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