John Calipari pleased with defense in season opener

Two weeks ago, John Calipari said his team stunk defensively following their performance in the Blue/White Game. Two exhibitions and one regular-season game later, dare I say he sounds pleased with his group’s progress? After last night’s 95-63 win over Howard, Calipari gave his defense a rare compliment after admitting he was “scared to death” the Bison would pull off the upset.

“I thought we defended pretty good today,” Calipari said. “That’s a good team. Howard will win their league. I’ll be stunned if they don’t win their league. I watched tape and I was scared to death prior to this game. Like they’re 6’9″, they’re 6’10”, they’re big, they can shoot. They took 48 threes in a scrimmage they just had played.”

Kentucky held Howard to 63 points, which is a magic number in the Calipari era. Under Cal, Kentucky is 203-9 (95.8%) when limiting teams to 63 points or less. The Bison shot only 34.3% from the field. As Calipari pointed out, helping matters was the fact that Kentucky had a big offensive night, shooting 54.8% from the field and 45.8% (11-24) from long range.

“When you guard and then make baskets the other team’s rim shrinks,” Cal said. “Every time you make a three, it puts more pressure on them to come down and score. And if you’re really guarding it’s even harder to make baskets. And then if you rebound misses and fly it kind of piles up.”

Keep in mind, Kentucky did all of this without Oscar Tshiebwe, last season’s top scorer and rebounder, and two of the Cats’ top defenders, Sahvir Wheeler and shot-blocking specialist Daimion Collins. Oscar and Collins being out led to more minutes for Ugonna Onyneso, who tallied six points, four rebounds, and four blocks. Lance Ware also had a block to go along with four steals, four points, and three rebounds.

“I think a lot of it is certainly their length and their athleticism,” Howard coach Kenneth Blakeney said of Kentucky’s strength defensively. “They certainly did a good job of switching. They have great guys and great athleticism, and they really move their feet well. They move as a unit, and I feel that we just did not work hard enough and compete hard enough on the offensive end. I really did not think our offense would struggle tonight.”

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

“I’ll leave you in. As long as you rebound and defend.”

Antonio Reeves led Kentucky in scoring last night with 22 points, including six threes; however, it was Reeves’ performance on defense that had Calipari talking last night.

“He’s a better defender than I thought. He’s a better defender than I thought. He just has a knack, like I tell him, if you have an inch, let it go.”

Calipari also praised CJ Fredrick for not turning the ball over once and Jacob Toppin for an inspired performance on the boards and on defense. Fredrick finished with 20 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and a team-high +/- of 36. Toppin notched his first career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

“CJ was good again today. I mean you know what CJ does? Makes all the right plays. My guess is, yeah, CJ had no turnovers. And he played 20 minutes, no turnovers — total points 20. 36 minutes. No turnovers. That’s him. You think about it. You got a guy that can make shots, make the right plays, and doesn’t turn it over.”

“Jacob had 11 rebounds. Double-double. You know what I said? When you rebound like that and defend the way you defended, you can miss shots. He was 5 for 12. He missed a bunch of shots. Well, I’ll leave you in. As long as you rebound and defend.”