John Calipari defines 'deliberate' play as fast, but with a grind

Kentucky head coach John Calipari rolled out a brand new buzzword following his team’s 86-63 win over Louisville: deliberate.

Eight times he threw out the word, stressing a greater emphasis on slowing down and not rushing to jack up shots. Avoid the reckless abandonment we’ve seen at times this season, but also don’t stall out and dribble the air out of the basketball. Find a middle ground.

“I’m mad at myself because we needed to be playing more deliberate,” Calipari said after the rivalry win. “Playing faster and quicker and doing that, that’s all good, and you’re scoring 60. We played deliberate, which is what my teams have done historically. Still play fast and shoot threes. We didn’t shoot as many today but we scored a lot of points playing deliberate. And you could say, well, it’s Louisville. If my team plays this way, deliberate, like, we’re flying.”

For some, the description was clear as mud. We’ve seen both extremes this season, with the Wildcats playing unnecessarily fast and slow as molasses on various occasions. Neither have really worked. In fact, some would argue playing slow has been the greater downfall of this team’s offensive success, typically in the form of minimal ball movement and poor spacing resulting in last-second heaves at the end of the shot clock.

At least playing with pace and tempo set up scoring opportunities in transition.

To better explain what he’s looking for on offense, Calipari opened his call-in radio show Monday evening with a rephrasing of sorts. In short, he wants his team to be able to do both, play fast but also grind things out when necessary. If it’s a run-and-gun type of matchup, he wants the Wildcats to be able to play that way. Need to play a more slow and controlled brand of basketball? They’ve got to be able to do that, as well.

The SEC has teams playing both styles, and Kentucky has to be able to attack both.

“The energy of our team, and that’s coming off a loss last week where we got hit in the head. And the energy of the guys, their commitment and their focus,” Calipari said of what worked vs. Louisville. “The biggest thing we’ve been really working on is pace. We want to play fast, but we also want to grind. My teams historically have played in the 90s and played in the 60s. I just watched LSU play Arkansas and I think it was 23-20 at halftime. We’ve got to be able to do both. I liked the flow, I liked the smoothness of how we played. There were some errors but you’re gonna make errors.

“… We were efficient offensively, even though we were more deliberate.“

It’s all about playing situational basketball. If a transition opportunity presents itself off a make or a forced turnover, push the ball ahead and score. Kentucky has the athletes to capitalize there. If not, be more deliberate about running the offense, moving the ball to create scoring looks at all three levels. Don’t let the ball stick and dance hoping for the best. Play your game and execute.

“There’s a little more grind to the game. We still want to fly. We may be able to occasionally fly on a make, but we’ve got to grind it a little bit more,” Calipari said. “I look at my team’s historically, we’re scoring in big games 69, 68, 71, 72. That’s what we score. We’ve got to get ready to play — we’re not just going to outrun people. Now, you’ve got to move that thing, the ball’s gotta go from one side to the other. How about when they went zone, how we played? I’ve said this for years. The reason I like to go against zone, you’ve got to pass the ball, and you got to pass it quickly.”

“… Some of it is maybe we’re not grinding and we’re just playing. You get it and you’re not sure, so you hold it and you dance. Now we have a better idea of the sequence of how we’re playing. … We want to play fast. We want to be aggressive.”

It’s a mindset that has allowed the Wildcats to look more like a cohesive unit in practice, and that translated to live game action vs. Louisville. Competition aside, the offense was night and day from what we saw Kentucky roll out at Missouri.

“We’re looking better,” Calipari said. “We’re looking better playing together, looking more cohesive. There’s more smoothness and it takes time.”

It doesn’t hurt when Big Blue Nation is there to rally the team, either. In a game the Wildcats desperately needed to win convincingly, the Rupp Arena crowd helped make that happen.

“How about the crowd? How about the arena? That is what makes a difference, especially when a team is still trying to figure themselves out. They really need it, we all need that,” Calipari said. “We’re struggling and all of a sudden the whole building stands up to get us going. Understand, I know Louisville is struggling, but that’s a rivalry game. I told the guys, don’t think there weren’t — this is Kentucky-Louisville. It is a rivalry game. And so for us to come out, especially at the start of the game, to play the way we play. …

“The reason it was important is that every game we play in this league, the next one, the next one, the next one, the next one, all are going to be wars — every one of them. There’s not going to be an easy game. You’re going to have to take games, and the other team is going to make a run. What do you do? You make a run, they make a run, you make a run, they make a run. It cannot faze you. … It got us back together, which is really great for these guys to feel.”

Kentucky will look to build on that performance on Tuesday evening when the LSU Tigers come to town, with tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m. ET inside Rupp Arena.