Calipari encouraged the Wildcats to "play like they had nothing to lose"

John Calipari told his players to play like they had nothing to lose in Tuesday night’s game at Vanderbilt. After all, the Wildcats were short-handed, missing starting point guard DJ Wagner and starting forward Tre Mitchell, following back-to-back losses in Rupp Arena. Florida and Tennessee played like teams with nothing to lose in their wins over the Wildcats in Lexington.

“That’s every team playing us,” Calipari told Kentucky before they went into Memorial Gym, seeking a bounce-back win against Vanderbilt. “Every team that plays us, they play like they have nothing to lose. I said, ‘You’ve got to do the same.'”

Rob Dillingham recalled Calipari’s pregame speech after he scored 20 points with nine assists in Kentucky’s 109-77 win. However, he insisted that the players were already self-motivated and ashamed of recent performances.

“It really wasn’t something coming from Coach Cal,” said Dillingham. “It’s something coming from us because we don’t want to go out there and get embarrassed by playing defense like that. So we locked in as a team.”

Aaron Bradshaw mentioned to Jack Givens the team’s two players-only meetings, one among the guards and the other among the bigs. “We had a long, long talk- guards and bigs- like, separate,” Bradshaw explained. We just had to discuss our jobs. We all have a job on that court.”

Against Vanderbilt, the Wildcats’ commitment to their jobs and playing with nothing to lose led to a 32-point win. Kentucky held the Commodores to 1.069 points per possession and 35.5% shooting from the field. Still, John Calipari challenged his team to further commit to defense to take the next step forward. Play defense or don’t play, he warned them.

“You have to commit to defending because it doesn’t matter who’s the five on the court, offensively. But if it matters defensively, and if you’re the issue, you’re not playing. And I don’t care who you are. I said, ‘We’ve won games with you not playing well, you not playing well offensively, but we have to lock in defensively.’

“If we become, let’s just say 8 to 10% better defensively, and we start playing a little more physical, we’re diving on the floor–now, the way we score, it’s a different deal.”

Moving forward, Calipari estimated that 70% of their emphasis will be on defense, from 3-point defense to taking pride and diving on loose balls. Dillingham believes he and his teammates will rise to the challenge and become a dangerous team heading into March.

He told SEC Network, “We got all the pieces. We’ve just got to do the little things, like, we’ve got to want it, and we can’t just expect things to come to us. So, once we learn how to play like that, and play like we don’t got nothing to lose, then we’ll be good for sure.”

And John Calipari’s thoughts on the road ahead? You may have heard this once before, but he likes his team. “I’m not trading this team for any other team. I believe in them. I told them that.”