John Calipari on Monday practice: I tweaked some things

Just a few days away from their NCAA Tournament opening-round game, Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari discussed how the team is practicing. He said he took a different approach, letting his team have a full-on scrimmage despite being in the crucial stages of March.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to play free and loose, so how can I help?’ Part of it is, what I did in practice today — we had a great practice today. Oh my gosh,” Calipari said on Monday. “We scrimmaged for an hour and 15 minutes. It was controlled, but we scrimmaged. It was body-to-body. Because of all the injuries, we haven’t had time to really zone in on what we’re trying to do in this with this new team. But it was dangerous. You know how I am at the end of the year.”

Calipari went on to discuss what positives he saw out of the scrimmage, saying everybody coming out healthy was his main takeaway. Players from the team not only seemed to enjoy the answer from their head coach but also the way Calipari is conducting practices before attempting to win a national championship.

“We went two hours today, but an hour and 15 minutes (of it) was up and down scrimmaging,” Calipari said. “It was live, they were going at it and there was a score. When it was done I said, ‘You know what? What’s good for me today?’ They go, ‘What?’ ‘No one got injured.’ They all hit the floor like, ‘Agh.’”

“Getting them with speed and the ball movement — I tweaked some things today, folks,” Calipari said. “I tweaked a couple things and I’m liking it. I think they’re liking it.”

The last time Kentucky left a basketball court, they were on the losing end in the SEC Tournament to the Tennessee Volunteers, the eventual champions. After coming up short in the conference regular-season title race as well, the Wildcats will be looking for their first piece of hardware in the NCAA Tournament.

Being ranked a two-seed by the Selection Committee, first up for Calipari and his squad is the Saint Peter’s Peacocks. The two will meet up on Thursday, giving the Wildcats a couple of more days to practice, and potentially scrimmages, before their journey begins.

From there, Kentucky will face off against the winner of the seven, 10-seed matchup in Murray State and San Francisco. A potential in-state matchup presents itself against the Racers in the Round of 32 if both teams advance.