Calipari's message to Kentucky: "Just win days," says CJ Fredrick

Kentucky’s CJ Fredrick was one of two players sent out to face the questions at Kentucky Basketball’s Monday press conference in Lexington before the Wildcats host Georgia. Among the topics in the morning conversation, the veteran guard who scored 13 points Saturday at Tennessee revealed Calipari has been telling his team to win each day and each practice rather than worrying about the bigger picture.

According to Fredrick, the team stacked together two solid days of practice between the shocking loss to South Carolina and the team flight to Knoxville, and Calipari’s win-each-day mentality helped Kentucky win the game against the Volunteers.

“That was a big one for us,” Fredrick said Monday, looking back at Saturday’s win. “You know, we’ve been through a lot and we had a really good two days of practice and, you know, Coach was big on just winning each day and that starts in practice and stacking days so we had a lot of confidence in those two days of practice because we felt like we won those days and we had really good days. Then we got the win against Tennessee, and then we’re gonna have two really good–we had a good day of practice yesterday, have another good one today and just keep winning days.”

Now with four great days stacked in a row, Fredrick was headed toward Monday’s pre-Georgia practice to make it five when he stopped by the media room for a brief conversation, where he admitted Kentucky’s confidence was sky-high headed into Thompson Boling Arena last weekend.

“You could just see it in our eyes and the way we were playing,” Fredrick explained. “Even off the plane when we left to Knoxville and we got off the plane, Coach kind of stopped us and was like, leave your worries on this plane. And right when we got off the plane, we knew we were gonna win the game. And we went into the game knowing we were gonna win. Diving on the floor, not backing down from anybody, and we just had that feel about us that afternoon.”

Looking ahead to playing the Bulldogs back in Rupp Arena, Fredrick told reporters, “They’re a really good team. They have really good guards, good bigs, they run a good offense. So we’re gonna have to do a good job today of locking in and understanding the game plan and preparing for tomorrow.

“Coach has been saying just stack days, win days, win days in practice. We had a good film session yesterday, learned things that we needed to correct and had a good practice and go back out there today and win today and get ready to play a really good Georgia team and go out there and try to get one tomorrow.”

South Carolina loss one of the worst Fredrick has experienced

Tuesday night’s Georgia game is the first back in Rupp Arena since Kentucky was stunned by South Carolina a week ago. The team has since moved past that crushing defeat by upsetting Tennessee in Knoxville, but Fredrick admitted losing to the Gamecocks and getting over the loss were painful.

“It wasn’t easy because that one, that loss stung,” he said Monday. “I mean, we don’t want to look back in any way but, you know, in my five years of playing, that one probably stung the most because guys after that game sat around the locker room for quite a while and just kind of stared around. So that feeling in that loss was definitely a motivator going into Tennessee.”

Fredrick is eager to play in front of the home crowd again Tuesday night. “We feel like we got to get one back for sure,” he said.

“I think Tennessee, you saw a different kind of fight. I think we got to build on that and continue that into Georgia and the rest of the season.”

CJ Fredrick, Adou Thiero preview the Georgia game

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