University of Kentucky Basketball Media Conference
Friday, November 10 2017
John Calipari
Men’s Media Conference
Kentucky – 73, Utah Valley – 63
Q. What did you think of the way it went for you?
JOHN CALIPARI: Now you just asked me enough that I could end the press conference and just talk, okay? The start was kind of expected. We shot 21 percent in the first half and at halftime I said, this is good for us, let’s see who we are. Let’s see who is willing to fight. We went zone and it kind of got us going. But again, and that’s what we should use the zone for, but we, we had too many guys that were just getting beat on the dribble. Too many guys out of position. But that’s what happens when you have all freshmen and a couple sophomores. That’s exactly what you see. But I was pleased with the guys. The second half you win by what you win by, you out rebound them by whatever, you hold them to 40 percent, we just didn’t shoot the ball well. We didn’t — we missed, I think they told me, 15 shots within two or three feet and some of it is because they had a shot blocker. And let me say this, Mark (Pope) has done a great job with that team. Their point guard kind of surprised us. I didn’t know that he could get by us and get in the lane like he did. But I was happy with how Wenyen (Gabriel) played and competed. 13 rebounds and again he goes 3-13 and believe me, he missed layup, layup, wide open layup, and stuff happens. What I like is he kept playing. He didn’t act like, well I’m going to act like I don’t care right now. He kept playing. And that’s what you have to do. I thought Nick (Richards) did some good stuff. Kevin (Knox) kind of seemed out of it. Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and Quade (Green), Quade’s a better shooter than he had. Like again he missed three shots that he usually would make two of the three, because they were wide open. But they double-teamed us and we had just worked on double-teaming the post yesterday, folks, and thank goodness we did. We just worked on it. Like guys, okay, if they happen to double-team us, here’s what we’ll do.
Q. I don’t know if concerned is the right word, but what you curious when you went on the 18-0 run it felt like the atmosphere in the building, that the game was over, even though it was just six points. Were you curious how your team would respond?
JOHN CALIPARI: I wasn’t looking at the score that much. Right now with this team I can’t be concerned with the score, it’s, are they playing the right way, do they have a competitive spirit, are they fighting, are they playing through fatigue, are they doing it together or is it one or two guys, do they keep breaking down. You understand, if one or two guys keep breaking down, they got to come out. You got to figure it out. Again, as hard as I’ve been on them in practice, I backed up and I told you I would. Now I’m going to go attack my dog when I go home, but this is who they are. I cannot — I said Sacha (Killeya-Jones) and Wenyen, how about that? You guys have no idea how he coached us early last year. To try to get those guys — it was a different group. This team is different. I’m never, I’ve never been this hard on a team in practice since I’ve been here. You know it was funny, I mentioned this today, I got a call this morning, Edgar Padilla’s son is, who is from Puerto Rico and was there when the storm hit and his son’s going to a prep school in New England, they had to get him out of Puerto Rico. And he went over to see UMass practice and I said, well how was it? He said it was okay. He said, I just, the coach had me talk to the team and then I talked to the coach by myself with him and he said, I told him what you taught us, coach, you defined and redefined what work was. We didn’t know. Like this team, I’m defining what work is. How about this: a shoot around. They don’t know, they think a shoot around is let’s go shoot hooks. I mean, this is new. So, one, I’ve got to teach them, hold them accountable, but I just can’t — there’s no reason for me to act like they should know and get frustrated or mad when they don’t know. I told you, we just did trapping the post yesterday, thank goodness we did it.
Q. You mentioned in the pre-season that Wenyen was a different player. Would he have been able to shake off those missed shots and get 13?
JOHN CALIPARI: No, no, no, no. When he went down that rabbit hole, he was down there. Now he pops back up and he keeps playing and he has — the biggest thing is when I recruited him I recruited an energy guy. And then he became a perimeter shooter. Now you’re an energy guy, who happens to be able to shoot, too. Now he didn’t today, but that’s who he is. And we need a bunch of guys like that. I thought Shai played that way, I thought Quade tried and did some good stuff. The communication, there’s a lot of stuff lacking, but I’ll say it again, when you’re playing these kind of games and you shoot 21 percent, you’re not going to be, don’t matter who we play, I mean and this team, Utah Valley, they’re going to win they’re share of games now. They’re big. We missed a lot of shots because of the big guy. Their guard play, they have got a couple guys that are out that can shoot, but 11 (Connor Toolson) can shoot, they’re legit.
Q. How much better are your guys when they can get out in transition and how much are they going to have to offer the course of the season, become much better in the half court?
JOHN CALIPARI: Well how do you get, if we’re good in transition how do you get in transition? Right and we’re trying to tell them. And we got a couple guys keep breaking down and it only takes one guy to break down. You got to swarm defensively and I kept telling them, we came to the huddle, I said, do you understand that we’re doing this with defense. Not zone defense. Defense. And whether it’s man or zone, this is who you have to be so we can go and play in the open court. I thought at the end where I made them grind it out, I thought they did alright. I thought Hami (Diallo) played pretty good. I thought, if that’s who Hami is every night, we’re going to be fine. Now, defensively, he’s got a long way to go, but he’s now saying, coach, tell me how you want me to play offensively. And he’s playing that way.
Q. First of all, is Quade healthy and if he is, how much of his role tonight was about him versus how Shai was playing defensively?
JOHN CALIPARI: No, the only reason — and I called him in today and I called Wenyen in today — and I just said, look, we basically got seven starters and it may be game to game. I may start different guys next game. We got seven guys that are playing. Then you have Sacha who I thought did good stuff today, could have played a little bit more, but Kevin Knox probably played too many minutes and Shai probably played too many minutes. They probably needed six, seven less minutes. But some of it was some other guys weren’t playing well, we had to take them out. But I thought Quade, 21 minutes, he probably deserves another five, six minutes. But you know what else I told them, doesn’t matter who starts, people are evaluated by who finishes the game and who finished the game for us? Quade. Because he can make free throws, he can make decisions. He’ll talk, he’s very, very vocal. He’s going to be fine.
Q. Was Utah Valley what you expected coming in or did they show a little bit more?
JOHN CALIPARI: I knew they would be a veteran team and older players and I knew they had a good run at the end of last year to where they built their confidence. We didn’t know their guard play would be as good or as fast and they were able to run by us now and we got our guards are pretty good, but those guys were able to fly by us. So but we knew about their size, I mean I watched their scrimmage and I thought they did really good in that game against Dixie.
Q. Two-part question. Can you estimate how much you’ve used zone over the years and given the youth of this team, are you likely to use it a lot more as the season progresses?
JOHN CALIPARI: I probably am, but let me say this, first of all. I have had seasons where we have not played one down of zone and I’ve had seasons where we play one-team zone, because they struggle against zone. The issue becomes I have a responsibility to teach these kids how to play pick and roll defense, how to stay in front of people, man-to-man. I mean, from here on there is no more zone. I mean, they’re going to have to learn. But I also have a responsibility to win. So I’ll play as much as I have to, to win a game. I mean I’m not — what happened was, we had a group of five who we had been working with in the zone but when I subbed, we weren’t as good in the zone. So basically you have five guys and then it’s okay, how many minutes can you play with those five in a zone. Can you get through two timeouts and play six, seven minutes? If we played seven minutes today in the zone, would you say that’s more than we played all of last year?
Q. Close to it.
JOHN CALIPARI: And the second thing is, I’ve never clapped or cheered as much in a game either. More this game than all of last season. Whatever this team needs, I’m going to have to do. We’re young, we’re long, there’s just so much we have to do and part of this early is going to be about survival. We survived this game. Survived it. Now we got Vermont who cannot wait, I heard they were doing back flips in their rooms watching this game. They’re a two-time NCAA team last two years and all of their players are back. You don’t think they can wait to come in here when they saw what they saw? So we’re going to, that one — Sunday afternoon’s going to be even harder, 36 hours, they haven’t played, they’re not going to have a game under their belt, but we’re going to have a 36-hour break and have to play again.
Q. It’s not common that alum comes in here and coaches against you. Curious about your relationship with Coach Pope and what you’ve thought of the job he’s done so far?
JOHN CALIPARI: I’ve always respected him. He’s, obviously, being a graduate from here, you keep an eye on stuff, but the one thing that really disappointed me, you know, is that his ovation was better than mine. But, you know, it was — I love watching tape of a guy coach. And then I can go up and talk to him and tell him what I’m seeing and how he’s coaching. And it’s not an easy job, it’s a hard job. And what he’s doing in the WAC they’re moving up, moving up, moving up, and that’s what you try to do when you take over a program. And I can’t imagine that that whole state was rocking in the first half. And I would imagine even after the game they walk away and say, you know what, we’re going to be all right.
Q. Most of your guys will talk your ear off off the court. Why is it so difficult for you to get them to communicate with each other one the court?
JOHN CALIPARI: Because they’re freshmen, they’re 18 and 19-year-olds. And their whole life you have to understand has been about themselves, like when they play — they don’t worry about anybody else, they only worried about themselves. At night when they go to bed, they would dream about themselves. I mean, that’s what it is with young kids. And until they get hit in the mouth and until they get knocked down and they start realizing they’re going to have to talk, the only way you grow is through adversity. We had some in the first half. I loved what I saw. That we fought. I loved the group that fought. That created that gap. But again, this is going to be how we play, do we play zone, how do we play man-to-man? Is this a grind it out kind of team? Is it a post-up team? Maybe a post-up team? How many teams have you seen me play that way with? I mean I’m going to try whatever I can to put these young men in the best position for them and for us. And there’s no, this is how it is here. You try things, you experiment, you watch it, some of the stuff I like, some of the stuff I won’t like, and I’ll throw it out.
Q. How much do you think Vermont has veteran players who can kind of test the young guys that have you?
JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, they will be an execution team. We’re playing the second game against a NCAA Tournament level team. They’re picked to win their thing again and go to the tournament. So, and it’s all good. I mean, we play Harvard, we play UIC, we play all these teams are like teams that they’re saying are NCAA Tournament level teams with veteran players. Guess what? Good for us, let’s play them. Let’s embrace it and know it’s going to be hard to win these games, it’s not what we look like right now, it’s going to be what we look like in February, maybe March, let’s hope it doesn’t, we don’t wait until April. But we are what we are right now and we won a game. I told them after, losing stinks, it makes you sick to your stomach. Winning is fun. Even if you played bad, you better enjoy winning. Enjoy any time you win a game.
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Post Game Quotes
Kentucky vs. Utah Valley
Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY
UK Student-Athletes
#22, Shai Gilgeous- Alexander, G
On Kentucky’s slow start in the first half…
“Our intensity defensively and our focus on both ends of the ball changed. That is what we talked about at half time. We came out with that energy and I feel like we got better.”
On playing in transition…
“The first time, I think we lost by nine. I think that is really special. We get stop and get it on a break. We are all athletic and stuff like that. We have so many great athletes at all positions on the floor. So, it helps us. Our four guy can run the one in the transition and stuff like that. Also, I think that works better because we are a younger group. We are not all in high school we did not have to run the half court sets and sit for thirty seconds like we do in college basketball. So, when we get out on a break, it lets us show our potential. “
On the zone working this year…
“The zone is definitely going to be a big help for us this year. Like you said, we have a lot of length and us guard spots, it is going to be tougher on the other teams offense to score on us.”
On this Kentucky tam being one of the only teams to use the zone…
“Early in the year, he told us that he has never really used them. But, he told us that we were so long and athletic that he is going to have to use it. So today, it really helped.”
#4 Nick Richards, F
On how fun the game was…
“It was pretty fun just to finally play my first college basketball game. It was a little bumpy of a road in the first half, they outscored us, they outrebounded us, and they played harder than us. It was pretty fun overall.”
On if he has ever experienced anything like a team missing the last 15 shots of the first half….
“It’s basketball, it’s gonna happen. You just gotta get over it. You just gotta move on to the next play, think about the next play and try to get as much buckets as possible.”
On how much they have worked on the zone…
“We try to work on it at least like, once every practice. It’s not really what we’re focusing on. We’re trying to play as much man as possible, but the zone worked for us in this game. It got us through what a 12-0 run, an 18-0 run in the first couple minutes of the second half. The zone is effective, but it’s not what were really known for.”
On what changed between the first and second half and who motivated them…
“We just motivated each other. We came out saying we have to play with more energy. We were sluggish in the first half, we were just chilling. Everybody didn’t have a little groove to them. In the second half we said were Kentucky, they are Utah Valley, we can’t like let them beat us or let this game get out of control. Everybody came together and just had to play with more energy and spirit and hopefully try to get the W.”
#3, Hamidou Diallo, G
On the 18-0 run in the second half…
“We just came out in the second half with more confidence and energy. We got rid of the first half jitters and basically, just came out fired up and ready to put them away.”
On if missing 15 shots was a part of their first half jitters…
“They had to be. We were missing shots we normally make on a daily basis—missing one footers. I would say out shots just weren’t falling but I like how we bounced back in the second half. That showed what type of team we are.”
On the windmill dunk being “his dunk” and what coach Calipari would have said if he missed…
“Yeah, that’s my signature. I’m not missing that and I’m not going up thinking like that either. That team was a great time. They competed they battled and it was really tough but at the end of the first half we knew that was not who we are. We were not making shots, we were being lackadaisical on defense and we were just letting them get to the battle too easily.”
On if transition baskets are the way to jumpstart this team right now…
“Definitely, but I feel like we can score in any way. As you can see today, I think we scored in both transition and half court. We just have to run through it and get the best shot possible.”
On the zone …
“I said in preseason that I think we’re a really good zone team. We’re very long and athletic and we can cover multiple spots. That’s what we went to and you see what happened when we did that.”
On feeling comfortable in front of the crowd on Sunday versus Vermont…
“There’s no excuses now. Vermont is a good team with a lot of veterans and they’ll be a lot older than us and they have played with each other. We’re just going to have to go up there and play the game that we’re playing without letting anything get to us.”
On the energy in Rupp Arena tonight…
“That’s probably the loudest I’ve heard it in Rupp and I’ve been here since January. It wasn’t even that loud at the Kansas game last year. I felt the adrenaline while I was playing but I tuned it all out to be honest with you.”
Of Coach Cal stating he would take him out if he took many jump shots…
“I think that was a false statement. I went 0 for 5 and I wasn’t thinking much of it. I was missing shots I would usually make on a daily basis and we both knew that they would drop sooner or later and that’s what he told me. “
Utah Valley Head Coach Mark Pope
Opening Statement…
“First of all, we’re really grateful to have the opportunity to be here at this extraordinary university and play against this great program. Coach Calipari and the whole crew were very gracious for allowing us to do that. We’re certainly very disappointed with the outcome. I believe we have a really good team. I love my guys, I love my locker room, and I believe we can do way better than this. That’s why we came here. Kentucky is obviously a great team, and they’re going to be great all year, but I’m proud of my guys. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow night, but we’re grateful.”
On importance of first half of the game …
“I’ll be honest, we haven’t spent a lot of time preparing zone yet. It did what it was intended to do. It made us a little bit more passive and our guys don’t have a feel for it so what happened wasn’t transition defense. It was turnovers in transition defense that really killed us. That’s just a factor of it being early in the season. We have so much growth to do, and we’re going to become a way better team. This hurt us. Opening game – we haven’t covered everything, so that was a big factor. It was a smart move on Kentucky’s part, smart move by Coach Cal. They took advantage of it.”
On how disruptive the zone can be …
“The zone always has its holes, but if you can have a big long zone like they do with the point guard and everyone else, it has a chance to be really effective. It certainly was – I thought – the difference in the game for us.”
On comparing Kentucky plays as a player versus coach …
“That’s the beautiful thing about this building and the beautiful thing about this program. It’s no fun being on the other end of it. We’ll be prepared to respond better in the future.”
On his team playing with a chip on their shoulder …
“I’m really biased, but yes that’s who they are. I’ve said this a hundred times – my team has had 14-16 transfers. Everyone’s taken a quicker path to get there; we’re going to grow into a really special team. Some of our players turned down professional contracts this summer to come back and play because they’re shooting for something bigger, and everybody on the team has a story like that so I love this group of guys. None of my guys are the chosen ones of the blue bloods. That’s not who we are. We’re crooked-path guys with big time chips on our shoulders. We were hoping for a better outcome tonight, but I know my guys are going to get up. We’re going to fix some things, be better and have a great year.”
On keeping the game close …
“I’m not a big moral of victory guy. We’re trying to win. This is hard and we might be way ahead of ourselves thinking that we can roll into this great arena against this great team and win. But that’s what we think – just like we think we can roll into this gym tomorrow night and we can win that game. That’s what we’re trying to do and the one focus we have is that that’s where we want to be at the end of the season. I would love it if we were there right now, but the truth is my team has had ten possessions practicing around the zone defense. We’re just not there in the season yet, but we’re going to get there. I’ve got guys that are committed and this hurt my guys a lot, but there’s going to be a big payoff from this. We’re going to really grow.”
On Kentucky’s performance in the first half …
“I think it was probably a combination of both. Listen, Kentucky is really long, but I’ve got guys down low that are long also and really, really battle. Isaac Neilson was a force in the last ten minutes of the first half. A.K. (Akolda Manyang) was really making a difference with his length. The game, we had kind of taken transition out of the game a little bit, and that certainly played in our favor. Certainly Kentucky, as you guys know, is well chronicled as a young team. These kids are, Coach Calipari appropriately says they’re six months removed from high school team. They certainly have a huge upside also. So I think it was a combination.”
On the feeling of returning to Rupp Arena as a competitor …
“You know, a little bit confusing probably, because I’m not going to lie to you. I love this place. This is, in all sincerity, for me and my little tiny slice of life, this is hallowed ground here. It’s an incredibly extraordinary place and had a huge impact on my life and I love the people here. With that said, that was a real driving force in wanting so badly to win this game because, I haven’t told the guys this, but I don’t know that I’ve lost in this building very much. It probably hurts just as bad now as it did one or two occasions maybe that we lost in here as a player.”
On what he feels he learned tonight about his team …
“Kenneth Ogbe hasn’t played a minute of live scrimmage this season. He was hurt for the last month, and just to explain to you the kind of talent he is, he has not played a minute of live scrimmage. Not in exhibition, not in green-white, nothing. But he comes in here and has 12 points and really impressively seven rebounds. We’re going to have to earn it. We’re going to have to really chase it, but we have some work to do.”
On his team’s performance in the second half …
“We are the aggressive. That’s where we live. That doesn’t always just mean that we’re running around with our hair on fire. That doesn’t mean that we’re taking huge risks on the defensive end, but what it means is we have a forceful, aggressive mentality. I feel like we had a pretty good forceful mentality the whole first half. We had it in spurts the second half, but we saw that zone and instead of playing with the force that we normally play with, our guys started kind of thinking about, of course they did. We just haven’t, it’s my fault as the coach, we just haven’t spent enough time with it. It’s not that it’ll hurt us here early in the season, but by the time we get midway through season we’ll tear these sons apart.
Utah Valley Players
#25, Kenneth Ogbe, Gr., Guard
On how much he knows about his Coach Pope’s career at Kentucky and if he ever brags about it …
“I think Coach is the most humble guy I know. You know, we’re all looking up to him. He doesn’t brag about anything ever. I have to look him up to see how good he really was because he never brags to us about his career, but we all know as a team how great he was and how much he can teach us. That’s why we look up to him. Yeah, we just can’t wait. We have a lot of room for improvement and we can’t wait for the season.”
On what he learned about his team tonight …
“I learned that we have a lot of room for improvement. You know, I think we’ve been together since the summer and there is just a lot of upside for us. You know we’re going back. We’re growing together each and every day and getting closer, and our team chemistry is great. I mean it just means a lot to go into an arena like this and in an environment like this and be able to compete. So, we know that we can accomplish great things this season and now just have to put in the work and play.”
