Everything John Calipari said after Kentucky beat Ole Miss 75-63 in Rupp Arena

For the first time in over three weeks, John Calipari got to speak after a home win in Rupp Arena late Tuesday night. Moments before he sat down, his Kentucky Wildcats defeated Ole Miss to snap a three-game home losing streak in Lexington, winning 75-63 by showing some defensive improvements. Offensively, four Wildcats reached double figures, but the team had its lowest-scoring night at Rupp in SEC play. Still, it was a step forward, as Calipari continued to stress that his team was “built for March.” 

Hear Calipari’s explanation of being built for March, the latest on how he views his rotation, and lots more following the win over Ole Miss.

More postgame coverage is on the way on the KSR YouTube Channel. Subscribe today to see press conferences, interviews, Rapid Reaction, and more.

John Calipari’s Postgame Transcript

From UKAthletics.com…

JOHN CALIPARI: I’m not going to stay here long because I got to go out and do that radio. Is there anybody who stayed out there? Did anybody?

Q John, when you have players who were struggling, young players especially waiting for the light to come on. How do you balance helping them versus the team struggle we’ve got, it’s getting late, we’ve got to maybe move on?

JOHN CALIPARI: Is not late. Look. I’ve had all kinds of new teams every year. Okay. That doesn’t phase me. Mid-season changing your team phases me. Because now, the chemistry, you are just plugging guys in. And I went to a shorter rotation. And, you know, I love how we started the game. We were the aggressor. We had to change a little bit of what we were doing. We also, you know, how we were guarding people. I keep saying we get shot blockers. Don’t give him a jumper. Make them beat you on the bounce. Because we got people back in there. Ugonna set a Rupp record. Which is amazing. 10 blocks. They got seven footers now, one guy is 7’5″. I thought Reed played well. Robert did not play well in the first half and I thought DJ really helped us what he did defensively and he comes out in the second half and didn’t play real well. But you know what, I grabbed him in there and he’s the greatest kid. He’s fine. He was of for two and a half weeks.

Almost three weeks. It’s going to take him time. You know, I still want to put Jordan in just because I love his energy and his fight and what he does. He didn’t get in this game. I thought Aaron played well. Justin. There are some plays that we are trying to train them on that they can’t help themselves. There are two guys wide open. We are the best three-point shooting team. And there are two guys wide open and you try to shoot a ball. Why is that? Now, all we do is talk about it. The best way we can get threes of is by driving the ball and when they collapse, find somebody.

Whoever you throw it to can play. Adou did it a couple of times again. Just try to shoot it. Like – that’s one of our biggest things, the way we shoot threes. The big thing today, we guarded. We guarded. I mean, their guards are really good. We guarded the three-point line, stuf that we have been working on. It’s just going to be a process. I keep saying to everybody that we will break through. We will. My teams break through. The diference is we’ve had to add guys. And I will say it again. If we will defend a little better. Be physical. 50-50 balls including rebounds. Tre being in there today helped us. He gets and gets those tough rebounds. Which we don’t get. Now you get them with him in the game. And then lastly, let’s improve our defense by about 10%. Because when you score and don’t turn it over much. And have individual players like Robert and Antonio and D.J. and Reed who can just go get a shot when they want to. That’s a recipe for a team that can do well. If they fight, play physical, 50-50 balls, and get better defensively. The other stuf, you saw today it doesn’t really matter who I put in. The five guys put out there can all play basketball. They can all shoot it and pass. All right, we done?

Q Cal, first of on Tre, any update on him?

JOHN CALIPARI: Went to get x-rays, I don’t know.

Q Okay. And two, what did you like defensively even aside from Adou?

JOHN CALIPARI: Pressure. Pressure. We weren’t backing up. It’s something that I just said look, the start of games are bad for us because we arr back. We can’t be that way. My whole career the first five minutes, four minutes we pressed. Even if it was an ugly press. Not to press them to get my team playing with a motor. I told them prior to the game. They are not getting an ofensive rebound in the first five minutes of this game. Do you hear me. They are not. Do you know how many games they get three, four, five ofensive rebounds in the first three minutes of the game. Antonio rebounded. You know, he went in and mixed it up. We still – Justins got to do more rebounding the ball.

But a good win. They are a good team. Like I said, I watched the tape. They had Auburn down 15. Auburn inched their way back in the game. Their guard play is good. Their big guys are huge. They made free throws today. I’m like, it kinda happens to us.

Q Cal, you touched upon it with Ugo tonight. Most blocks at Rupp since David Robinson did it. These past couple of weeks you seem to hit these huge huge strides.

JOHN CALIPARI: How about he made free throws. If you think about it. Those are big. Now. I told him you can’t go one for two and missed a dunk and then go one for two from the foul line. Dunk it and then you will get one more and if you miss that, it’s okay, we’ve got two.

One of the things that’s bothering me is we are throwing in really hard passes for him to catch. Like Adou threw him a lob, and came up through. Like, can’t do that to him. When he’s doing all he is doing defensively. Don’t do that to him. Don’t get him balls in bad areas. Now, rolling down the middle. Reed found him. D.J. found him. Robert found him. You know. Was he a double double? No, Ugo? If he hit those free throws he would have had a double double.

Q Coach, at the last half of last game. Rob found himself in just a few minutes in the same situation in the first half and the second half tonight he comes out and he is your leading scorer in the half, kind of an emotional guy at times. How do you balance the leash in that moment when you get turnovers the first half and second half he is just going of. How do you balance that?

JOHN CALIPARI: I give him another chance. I tell him I believe in you but you’re not going to play playing the way you’re playing. If he would have came out and had two more turnovers he would have sat. Because the turnovers were not like good turnovers. It was like giving them the ball for layups at the other end. Did that in Florida down there and the second half he played out of his mind. It’s nice to know that he, like I told him last game. He was -13. I was watching the game and no, he’s not playing real well. But I left him out for a long period of time because the other group played well together. So now, there is for five minutes to go and you keep a kid out eight minutes. Is it fair to him to put him in, in the guts of that game, it’s just not fair. If he would’ve come to me – and I told him this. And said I’ll be fine, put me in, I would have put him in. I would not have said go ahead, just go in. I’m not doing that to that young person. He loses the game on a missed shot. No, I’m not doing it unless he wanted in. It’s like Reed telling me stick with me when I’m throwing balls all over the place. I’ll be fine, I’ll settle down. They are talking more. We are doing some things in practice that they suggested to me. Some of it is to hold them accountable. We’ve got to be held accountable defensively. So here are some ideas. We did them and we went with them.

Q John, I wanted to piggyback of something you said after Saturday’s game in terms of being built for March. What does that look like to you. What are the areas that you want to see and how much do these games kind of determine that?

JOHN CALIPARI: Well, the next two games don’t. It’s over this period of time. In the NCAA tournament you can’t score 65, 63, 62. You can maybe in one game but you’ll get beat. You’ve got to be able to score points. We can do it. You’ve got to have a player that can go of in a game so you can advance. We have a couple of those. You can’t be a high turnover team because the team you are going to play, they are in the NCAA tournament. They are going to be a low turnover team. We are a low turnover team. The issue is will we be physical enough. The reason we were physical today. D.J. is physical. Tre is physical. Ugonna is physical. Adou is physical. Now you’re playing four of your top eight are physical players. They are going to bang. That was one of our issues. 50-50 balls. We missed some today again. Justin didn’t dive up for the ball. He tried to pick it up with one hand and threw it to them. 50-50 rebounds. Tre helped us today. We are still not where we need to be. And lastly, defensively you got to be more connected. So, if we get those things squared away. The hardest thing to be is what we already are. You know, and if someone is not playing well, what can I do? I will put somebody else in. What happened last year when we hit a game where a guy couldn’t make a shot and we had to stick with them. We had no choice. There was no one to stick in. Now you’ve got some diferent things. Shot blocking will also make a diference and it does make a diference defensively. You know. We’ve got a ways to go. I’ve explained that now. That’s about the 10th time I’ve explained what I meant so, no disrespect, But I’m done explaining it. You guys explain it to each other what I’m saying about why I think March. But we have to go take care of business. If we don’t get more physical when we play. If we don’t improve our defense. If we don’t come up with 50-50 balls. Tough rebounds. Then it doesn’t matter this over here. But this over here is the hard thing. All of the stuf I told you right there. What kind of skill does that take? No skill. Do you want it or not? What about the stuf over here. That takes skill. And you know.