John Calipari says Jacob Toppin showed improvement after LSU game, slap

In quick order, the Kentucky Wildcats have turned things around just in time for the start of tournament play. One of the things directly associated with the Wildcat’s success as of late has been the improved play of forward Jacob Toppin. After Kentucky’s dominating 86-54 victory over Auburn on Saturday, head coach John Calipari revealed when was the turning point for Toppin.

“But I just slapped him and said I’m not letting you back up, just know,” said Calipari. “Like, I’m on him in the game now because he’ll like to try to take his foot off the gas and act hurt. And I’m like, ‘Are you hurt? Do you need to come out? Your body language affects us.’ And he is playing so well. I’m just saying, why would you want to be that other guy? This guy; he’s one of the best players in the country.

The six-foot-nine forward put on quite the performance against Auburn. Toppin, along with star big man Oscar Tshiebwe both finished the game with a double-double for the Wildcats. Tshiebwe had 22 points and 17 rebounds. And Toppin tacked on 13 points with 12 rebounds and displayed his playmaking abilities with five assists.

Calipari, players say Kentucky is “locked in” heading into March

Kentucky’s 86-54 win over Auburn was the Cats’ best performance of the season, and comes at an ideal time. Selection Sunday is two weeks from tomorrow. Coming into today, the Cats were projected as an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament. If they keep playing the way they did today, they could move up several seed lines, a crazy thought considering how bad things looked a few weeks ago.

After the win, John Calipari, Antonio Reeves, and Oscar Tshiebwe all said that the team is “locked in” heading into the final stretch of the season.

“At this time of the year, you’re only going to get 1% better in certain areas,” Calipari said in his press conference. “But confidence, individual confidence, can really grow. And that is, you do it in practice, you get in the game and you perform, you have a ball playing. But the biggest thing is, you got to trust that all your teammates are on the same page so that you can be a risk-taker, you can make some plays, you can be aggressive because your teammates are behind you.

“They also know and trust that whatever the game plan is, everybody’s locked in. Our shootarounds right now are 30 minutes. Thirty. These dudes are locked in. Bang! And then we go.”