John Calipari's Blue-White Game breakdown: "We stink defensively"

John Calipari has a preseason top-five team that includes the reigning national player of the year, a core of veterans, and a pair of five-star freshmen. Yet, after reviewing the tape of the Blue-White Game, he is not pleased, to say the least. Calipari delivered this frank assessment of his squad during his Media Day press conference this afternoon.

“We just played that scrimmage. I watched the tape. We stink defensively. What do you think we did yesterday the whole practice? Wow. What do you think we’re doing today and tomorrow? Defense. And I told ’em, and I told some individuals, ‘Look, if you want to play, if you think you’re going to play, you’re not playing. You won’t play.’

“And then I told ’em, ‘You know how many guys I have to play?’ Does anybody know here how many to field a team to play? There you go. There’s five. I said I’ve only got to play five guys. And I’ve done that before. So, if more of you want to play, you better defend.”

Kentucky was without Oscar Tshiebwe, Sahvir Wheeler, and Lance Ware in Pikeville, which led to increased minutes for every single player on the roster, including the walk-ons. It’d be easy to shy away from in-depth takes on the scrimmage given the limited personnel and fatigue, but Calipari wasn’t willing to let his guys off the hook.

“Oscar didn’t play, Lance (Ware) didn’t play, and Sahvir (Wheeler) didn’t play. The problem is there are guys that I’m planning on playing that were so bad defensively that you’re like, ‘Dude, you know you’re not playing, right? And it’s okay. I love you. You can stay at the house. I’ll make you breakfast. You’re just not playing.’”

Watch the latest John Calipari press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.

Kentucky charting Defensive, Hustle Players of the Day

A new addition to the practice court at the Joe Craft Center this year is a chart noting the top defensive and “hustle” players of the day. As you can see, Daimion Collins has won the defensive badge more than any other player on the team.

“He’s very consistent,” Jacob Toppin said of Collins today. “He’s very disruptive on the defensive end, getting blocks, getting a lot of rebounds so he’s definitely been very good in practice.”

Cool chart at the Kentucky MBB practice court. Defensive and hustle players of the day for October.

Daimion Collins 👀 pic.twitter.com/cuIkzFqxh2

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) October 25, 2022

If that chart is any indication, it appears Sahvir Wheeler has returned to practice, earning the hustle badge yesterday.

Calipari: “We haven’t done any zone stuff”

It feels like we can’t talk about Calipari teams and defense without zone coming up. Cal used the Z-word himself today when talking about what his team will likely face on the opposite side of the ball.

“Look, we got a good group. We do. But anytime you think they know, you’re making a mistake. You think they’re ready. They’re not. Like, we haven’t done any zone stuff yet. Like, none. No zone stuff. You know people are going to play us zone. It’s one of the ways they got to play. The good news is we can shoot. We got a bunch of guys that can shoot threes.”

In case you’re wondering, yes, he used that line. You know the one.

“I thought we had pretty good shooters last year. Led the league in 3-point shooting for a while. And I think this team can, they’re good shooters but we need makers. You need makers more than you just need guys that will shoot it.”

And defend.