Why John Calipari's answers for defensive issues don't add up
Kentucky got knocked out by Oakland in their first NCAA Tournament game. It was a loss for head coach John Calipari that has led to a lot of pressure moving forward. In particular, there’s pressure to fix the team’s defensive issues.
Andy Staples had Nick Roush of KSR on Andy Staples On3 to discuss Calipari. There, Roush emphasized that he’s not satisfied with Calipari’s answers for issues on the defensive end.
“That’s the part where I know there might be some people on the outside looking in like, ‘You Kentucky fans are crazy. Who wouldn’t want John Calipari to coach their team?’ But it’s not verbalizing that,” Nick Roush said. “It’s he said, one quote, ‘Players were sad after the game and the fans were angry.’ It’s like, no, Cal. We were sad too. I don’t think he understands how much, mentally, we love this, but also that you’re right.”
“Those expectations are high and when you know that year after year I’m gonna do X or Y or Z, and that’s been the thing before and that’s where we’ve gotten to this point, is that there’s been a, ‘Well, we went too young, we’re gonna to the portal.’ They did the portal. They got the National Player of the Year. They lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. They needed more offense. What did they do? They get more offense. They recruit a Kentucky kid, a legacy recruit, who is the National Freshman of the Year. What do they do? They lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament,” Roush said.
“I know there’s a clip that we want to play and it’s what his big change is for this year. It’s the one that I think is the most, it’s hardest to sell for me because he says absolutely nothing that would actually fix the problems they have with their defense.”
John Calipari on Kentucky’s defensive issues
At that point, Andy Staples played the clip that Nick Roush referred to, where John Calipari explained his thoughts on fixing the team’s defensive and physical issues.
“We’re just removed from the season, but every year I go through that process of evaluating everything in the program. You go through whether it’s all the people around you or whether it’s how we’re doing things. I’ll give you an example…My thoughts defensively and physicality. How do we get back there? What about in the summers, instead of a Bahamas or Toronto, we’re really back to where we’re grinding and we’re working on our physicality and we’re working on defense and we’re trying to set a foundation of who we’re gonna be? Because I don’t want to change offensively. It was fun coaching it. Our fans loved it. Obviously, the nation loved it because we were the highest-rated TV game, all of our games. If there were 13, 12 games, we were in the top six of them,” Calipari said.
“So, I don’t want to change that, but I need to know, and I’ve always known, that your defense steadies you when you’re not making shots or you get a little anxious and you’re turning it, you’re missing shots. Your defense settles you. There’s a game where your offenses have to be good and your defense but we’ve got to get back to that. So, that being one thing that I’ve thought about. What do we do in the spring? How do we do this? And I’ve not worked on defense that early ever, and it’s never been a problem. But I think, now, I’m looking at it saying, ‘I think that’s one thing we’re gonna have to do.'”
Nick Roush is still looking for change on defense
That clip from John Calipari frustrated Nick Roush. As Roush broke down, he doesn’t disagree that things like physicality have been an issue for Kentucky. However, he feels the bigger issue is the team isn’t playing smart defense in recent seasons.
“Yeah, that’s what’s gonna help them play great defense. Yeah, and also that he’s had three bean pole seven-footers and he’s like, ‘We need more physicality.’ Well, yeah, I could’ve told you that those guys weren’t gonna be good rebounders. Like, it’s pretty clear and obvious that they’re gonna get pushed around by the 23-year-old men,” Roush said.
“And, you know what, physicality Andy, it’s correct to an extent but here’s what the biggest problem is, it’s not having a clue. Like, you need to coach your players. They were spending time before the NCAA Tournament going around in a room talking about why they believe they can go on a run like it’s Michael Scott in The Office passing the ball around the room to tell sad stories. It’s like, no. Teach them how to guard. Rob Dillingham, the one thing you cannot do when you’re down by one point in the NCAA Tournament with 30 seconds left is leave the guy open in the corner for three. How do you not have the awareness?”
In Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament loss to Oakland, the Wildcats gave up 80 points and 15 made three-point shots. That’s after allowing 97 points in their SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M.
“Cal has always been a great defensive coach and he thought he could put in a bunch of shot blockers and all of a sudden they’d be good at defense again. Well, you know what, Cal? You got good shot blockers. You were third in the country in blocked shots, but you were 111th in KenPom defense. It’s the worst Kentucky defense in the history of the KenPom rankings. It’s because players don’t just drive to the rim to score. They shoot a lot of threes, so you have to have better perimeter defense. You need perimeter defenders to guard, and to act like none of them are incapable of guarding, it is bullcr*p. Reed Sheppard had the most steals in the SEC,” Roush said.
“So, to act like that somehow these guys just have an inability to guard is not true. They have an inability to play good defense for five years. I spend the games just moaning with my friends about the pick-and-roll defense because they haven’t done it in five years. That was the last time they had a top-20 KenPom defense. They went to Elite Eight. They lost in overtime to Bruce Pearl. Their best defense since then was 35th. The defense has just been bad and Cal’s been bad at it, and it’s not because he lacked physical players. You know who his physical? Oscar Tshiebwe. And they still sucked at defense.”
Kentucky ended the season allowing 79.7 points per game, which is 334th in the country.