John Calipari credits UCLA for toughness

This Saturday, Kentucky and UCLA will meet in a key non-conference battle between two blue bloods. It’s the type of game that players and coaches live for, and Kentucky’s John Calipari has been in a fair few of these games himself.

While speaking to the media, John Calipari was asked about the physicality of UCLA and how the Bruins compare to Michigan State.

“They’re probably, you’re talking the same kind of stuff, but the toughness for UCLA also comes from their guards,” John Calipari explained. “Their guards will play physical and they’ll bump and grind, and they’re active.”

“So, they’re good. You know, I’m anxious to see how we perform. I think we’re better than we were three weeks ago. We execute better. We’re more together, instead of okay, all we can do is throw it to you and you try to get a basket. We’re doing things together better. I think there’s less confusion on what we’re doing,” John Calipari continued.

“That’s because we’re together practicing. We’re together doing a lot of scrimmaging–more so than I’ve done in the past.”

Kentucky comes into this game having won four in a row after a loss to Gonzaga. The Wildcats are 7-2 on the season. For its part, UCLA has won six in a row since the Bruins lost to Baylor. UCLA is 9-2 on the season.

John Calipari gave his first impressions of UCLA

Along with being tough, John Calipari opened up about his first impressions of this talented UCLA Bruins team.

“I’ve watched a bunch of tape on them and they’re really good. The biggest thing is that they’re really physical. Defensively, they’re really physical. They fight in the post, they fight in pick and rolls, if you don’t fight, you don’t have a chance this game. You’ve got to negate that part of it. That’s really hard to do, not many people have been able to do it. When they shoot the ball like they shot the ball yesterday, they’re really good,” John Calipari said.

“They’re probably like us. There’s a game that they should have won and they’d be top-five, but right now, they’re one of those teams that I watch and see that they have a little bit of everything.”