John Calipari shares what Kentucky needs to work on before March

There are seven games remaining in the regular season. With Kentucky seemingly clicking into gear and every player embracing their role, what can the Cats improve on before March? John Calipari says he’s focusing on fine-tuning mistakes over the next three weeks, but not at the expense of wearing his guys out physically or mentally.

“I’ve got to keep this thing and point out stuff that — we worked all week on this and why did you do that? The discipline of the game. When you get in a hard-fought game, you can make a whole lot of breakdowns because they make you pay, good teams. They make you pay when you have no breakdowns but with breakdowns, it’s automatic. So, we’ve got to clean that up.”

“We’ve got 23 days left to the regular season,” Cal added. “Twenty-three days. We’ve got seven games and seven practices before the game. What can you do the day before the game? You going to go for four hours? That’s 14 days. You have three days off. That’s 17 days out of the 23. So you have five or six real practices.”

Kellan Grady, practically a coach at the “old” age of 24, was more detailed in his critique of the team, calling out their breakdowns in the first half vs. South Carolina on Tuesday.

“I think there are times we can get a little sloppy with our decision-making, our details,” the graduate transfer from Davidson said. “In the South Carolina game, I think at halftime I think they only scored 13 points in the halfcourt but we gave them a bunch of second-chance points and points off turnovers. That can really come back to bite you as the season goes along. Stuff like that can, frankly, lose you a game in March. I think the thing we can still keep our heads high in regards to that is, those things usually happen in spurts and a lot of times, the media timeout’s coming or Cal calls a timeout or we have halftime to regather ourselves. We usually correct those things and end up doing well enough to win the game.”

“We’ve established that we’re one of the better teams”

John Calipari hasn’t shied away from praise with this group. In his mind, they’ve never had a bad practice and they’re better at executing a game plan than any team he’s had. Rare is a media opportunity where Calipari doesn’t tick through the reasons Kentucky could make a big run in March: multiple point guards, a beast inside, guys who can make shots. The Cats have been winning a lot lately, and they’ve been doing it in a variety of ways, proof they’re one of the best teams in the country.

“We’re established, who we are,” he said. “We’re established, the kind of team we are. Whether it’s on the road or at home, we’ve established that we’re one of the better teams. It’s established now. Now, let’s see if we can improve on it. Let’s see if we’re playing against ourselves, and let’s practice and prepare in a way that we’re not satisfied. We stay hungry, yet we’re humble. We know Florida can beat us, we know they’re good. They won four in a row.”

“Fresh minds and fresh legs win” in March

Calipari has led six teams to the Final Four, so he knows a thing or two about preparing for March. As today’s Zoom was winding down, he revealed one of his secrets to success.

“My thing has always been — and I’m winding it down so I can give away secrets right now. My thing has always been fresh minds and fresh legs win at the end of the year. Fresh minds and fresh legs win, which means we’re not having two-hour film sessions. Not doing it. I don’t want to do it. We’re not having four-hour practices. Not at the end of the year. We are what we are. We’re established. We’re just trying to get sharper and more consistent and disciplined. Most of that is mental.”

Another mental hurdle: keeping your group locked in to tomorrow’s game vs. Florida, No. 51 in KenPom, when a road trip to Tennessee, No. 11 in KenPom, is just around the corner.

“The other thing I would tell you, for the entire season, I do not make one game bigger than the other,” Calipari said. “There are no Knute Rockne talks prior to the game, ‘You’ve got to do this!’ And we’re sweeping the floor and jumping on stuff. I don’t do any of that. This is, let’s become a machine. Everything is day-to-day improvement. Stay in the moment.”

I’m not saying he’s talking about Bruce Pearl, but he’s talking about Bruce Pearl. Just look at Pearl’s speeches prior to the Kentucky game this season and in February 2020:

Bruce Pearl's pregame speech 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/GGgPPtVQQ1

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 1, 2020