Five Things Calipari Said About Kentucky Before The Louisville Game

Less than 24 hours before Kentucky versus Louisville in Rupp Arena, John Calipari held a press conference to preview the game and discuss the current state of his basketball team ahead of the annual rivalry game.

We already told you all of the positive things he said about Louisville; now read up on what Calipari had to say about his own team going into Saturday’s noon game against the Birds with five quotes from today’s press conference…

“There are things that we gotta get right.”

On the court, Kentucky has several issues to work out if the Wildcats want to salvage a season that is already behind expectations, but things can still get fixed. Part of the problem, according to Calipari, is figuring out how to play different ways with Oscar Tshiebwe as the focal point.

Calipari said on Friday, “We can all say this, that and the other. My team is different. I got Oscar. Only one or two other teams has a player like that. The rest of them are playing with threes and fours and fives at the five position, but when you got a guy that can go get you 25–if he’s making free throws, he’ll get you 30–you’re gonna play different. So, the basketball stuff, trying to get them to pass to each other, that’s fixable.”

He added, “I wish we were farther along, trying to–how do you do this with Oscar being your best? Yet, how do we then also space it and do some stuff, which we’re spaced out, but with Oscar, just a guy that you got to look to throw it in there to and when you do, something good happens.”

Off the court, the team has mental issues to address too. Regarding the team’s mentality, Calipari said, “The other side is off the court, the mind stuff, which is, this is not life and death. It seems that way because we play at Kentucky and coach here, but it’s not life and death. And that you’ve got to play with confidence. Fall back. You’ve been doing this since you were eight years old. Play with courage, meaning you trust each other. Play fearless; it means you talk to one another. You’re fearless if it’s us against them. Fear creeps in if it’s you against them, and you miss a couple of shots, so I’m trying to do all of that stuff.”

Looking ahead, he expects Louisville will bring the fight from the beginning just as Missouri did, and he doesn’t want his team to give in or give up if faced with early adversity.

“Alright. What does that mean? Are you scared to death? I said this is not life or death. This is basketball. We absolutely let (Missouri) kick us and they played well, Missouri did. They’d beat a lot of teams that night, but we let them kick us from some of the stuff we did. We’re still here. You won’t believe it. We’re alive. We didn’t die. We weren’t eating. Alright, what are we going to do? That’s how you got to play this game. So, I love it. I love this group.”

“We’re still not in sync offensively.”

More on those offensive woes… He said, “We’re still not in sync offensively. To be honest, we’re not. We talked about it today. We showed it on tape. Hopefully, we’ll get better. But the mental part, I told them was, you’re feeling good, you’re positive, and all of a sudden something goes wrong; where are you now? Are you tough enough to fight through that?

“And right now, you know, it’s like being a general. You have a plan on the war and what you’re going to do and it never goes that way. So you got to adjust and move and–but, we got to be physically on tune but just as importantly mentally, so I’m hoping I didn’t give all that to you, but just so you know, my mindset is this is both because you have guys that should be playing better, that aren’t. So that’s my responsibility to figure out, why aren’t they playing better? You as an individual, why aren’t you making free throws? Why aren’t you? And that’s my job for them and for us.”

“I think there are times we’re trying to play too fast.”

Asked about finding the team’s identity in order to play free and loose, Calipari replied, “I’m grabbing the guards and I’m talking about it. I think there are times we’re trying to play too fast. And when you play that fast, there’s a couple of guys who can’t play that way. So there are times we’re running and it’s 3-on-2, 2-on-1, a 3, a post-up, a swing, a dribble–that’s all fine. But now they make a goal or they’re pressing and they’re back there. Now how are we playing? What’s the pace? How do we control the pace? We got away with just playing fast, now all of a sudden you play the good teams, you got to play where the ball goes from one side to the other, or a team that tries to be disruptive. Alright, when are you taking advantage of those things? “

“We did a free throw thing today.”

Of all the weaknesses Kentucky has shown so far, none are as crippling as the struggles at the free throw line, where the Cats are currently ranked 305th nationally with a 66.1 team percentage from the stripe. To that, Calipari said, “We did a free throw thing today. They were better. Now, will it carry over? It will eventually.”

Kentucky practiced for almost two hours Friday afternoon.

“There are gonna be a couple of guys who are gonna play some that didn’t play.”

With CJ Fredrick out with a dislocated finger, his 18 minutes a game will need to be filled on the perimeter, but it’s not the only lineup change to come. Calipari said guys who didn’t play at Mizzou will get a chance to play against Louisville, which likely means he will give Daimion Collins and Ugonna Onyenso another look after neither saw the floor in Columbia.

“There are gonna be a couple of guys who are gonna play some that didn’t play,” he teased. “You know, to give them some minutes and give them an opportunity.

“But we had one day, really, we did a walkthrough yesterday, but we had one day for them and, obviously, they’ve had five, so I imagine they’re going to be–everything we run, they’re going to be on top of. Everything they’re going to do, they watched it and I expect it to be an absolute war. They’re coming in with the mentality that they’re going to win the game.”

For more on Louisville trying to win the game and what John Calipari is doing to keep that from happening, hear his entire press conference below.