John Calipari goes in-depth on strengths and weaknesses of Kentucky roster

Kentucky finally got back on track after recent losses to UCLA and Missouri away from home by beating the pitiful Louisville Cardinals in blowout fashion at Rupp Arena. A home game against perhaps the worst Cards team in school history was the perfect recipe for a ‘Cats bounce-back. Jacob Toppin gave his best performance of the year by far after struggling mightily against Missouri earlier in the week, which John Calipari credited to a breakthrough the two had off the court.

Overall, Saturday was a huge momentum boost for a team at its lowest point. Sure, beating Louisville is hardly worthy of applause, but a big win over a rival at home is always sweet.

After the game, John Calipari twisted one question about Jacob Toppin into a sprawling answer hitting on a number of topics and takeaways from the game — almost none of which involved Toppin. However, plenty of neat behind-the-scenes stories from this week and thoughts from the head coach on the state of the program following a feel-good win.

Oh, and Lance Ware fans will want to read, as Cal piles on the praise and shares his experience of having to break some bad news to the UK forward’s mother. Watch here or scroll below to read his full comments:

John Calipari on Kentucky’s mindset

“Well, we’ve done a lot of work, and it’s not been on the court. You had guys feeling the weight of the world, and that’s why it came — it’s not life-and-death. We got punched in the mouth, and we’re still alive. Now we’ve got the next game. We have the whole league ahead of us. We’re fine. But when these kids feel it, they are 18, 19, 20, and they are feeling the weight of the world, and I’m talking, like, free and loose and I’m wearing a suit today and I’m dancing in there and I’m wanting them it know I’m good.

“But they got to get in a good frame of mind and then get hit in the mouth, and are you fragile or do you keep playing? Today he kept playing. And now he’s going to do it against better teams. You watch.

Lance Ware’s sacrifice

“Now you want to know why I started [Jacob Toppin]? I just felt that I needed to do that with all the stuff we had been doing, and I had to thank Lance. Because it’s funny, I walk into practice and Lance’s mom is there, and she’s a great lady. And I said — I gave her a hug, and I said, ‘And you’re here, and I’m not starting your son tomorrow.’ You know, I had to tell her. She was, ‘I’m fine.’ She wasn’t fine. Parents are never fine.

“But he accepted it, and I told him, ‘I’m going to play Daimion [Collins], too.’ And so that’s what a great teammate is. Some of the guys that I talked about being all in that we’re going to be more deliberate and we’re going to play a certain way, one guy said, ‘I’m absolutely all in. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.’”

Cal: ‘I love this team’

“So I keep coming back to: Every day I walk in practice — I love this team. I wish we were a little bit tougher. But I love the pieces. CJ [Fredrick] being out hurts us, but he gives Adou [Thiero] a chance. So now Adou gets a chance to play and you’re going to get a chance to see him.

“But you know, the early grind of what we went through, maybe we needed to go through it, and we’ll see going forward. But that was something they had to feel, the grind, the deliberateness of how we played, passing the ball. You ready? Just to pass it. Well, I’ve got to pass it for someone to score. No, just pass it to pass it. And they did that today.

“We’re still — my job is to teach them how to win basketball games. I have not done a good job of that to this point obviously. But you’ve also got to make free throws. I’m doing everything, trying everything, and about, but you noticed when they started going, it’s contagious, but how about the first three? What did you say? The first three, oh, my gosh, we may miss 15.

“So again, I respect these kids, playing here, it’s really hard. Really rewarding but it’s hard. I said, there’s a tax you play to play here and coach here. There’s a tax. You’ve got to be thick skinned and tough.

‘But this is a good group. I can’t imagine our fans aren’t jacked that this is our team. They want to win every game. So do I. I want to win more than the fans want to win. But let’s get it right. Let’s go forward. Let’s see what we are. Let’s see with playing the way we’re playing now where we take things.”

John Calipari still optimistic about this group despite some early setbacks.