John Calipari's message to fans following South Carolina loss

After his team’s 71-68 loss to South Carolina, during which a fan was escorted out for holding up a “Please go to Texas” sign, John Calipari delivered a message to the Big Blue Nation: be mad at him, not the players.

“Stick with these kids,” Calipari said in his press conference. “If you want to get on me, that’s fine; I’m the coach. If we weren’t ready to play then I’ve got to look at me and say, ‘Well, what, why? Where were we mentally?’ And I was trying things today to get them in a positive mindset. Because it’s hard. It’s hard here. I mean, I always say this isn’t for everybody, including coaches. It’s not for everybody, when things go bad like this. So if you want to be mad, be mad at me. These kids, they’re trying.”

Tonight’s loss was the first to South Carolina in Rupp in 14 years and snapped a 28-game home winning streak. For that, Calipari said that fans definitely should be mad.

“Are the fans mad? They should be. We lost at home. We don’t lose at home. We lost at home and we were down ten at half. I expect fans to be mad. And we have the best fans and I love our fans. I know they may be mad at me right now. But I’ve been here a long time teaching and working and having our fans be a big part of this. And all I’m saying is, just be with these kids. They need you now more than they need you when they’re 4-0. They need you.”

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Calipari interrupted by fan in postgame radio appearance

Following his press conference, Calipari continued his message to fans during his postgame radio appearance with Tom Leach and was interrupted by one of the fans who stuck around.

“I appreciate you guys and how you’ve been, but I imagine our fans are mad. I expect them to be. We lost at home. But be with –“

“Stop saying how good we are and start tempering expectations,” a fan said.

“Yeah, well, I’m not into tempering expectations. I still have expectations for this team. But I appreciate you saying that. Here’s what I would say: I love our fans. Don’t let anybody tell you I don’t love our fans. The reason we have this kind of program is because of our fans. And the only thing I would ask, if you want to be mad at me, I’m fine. But be with these kids. They’re your team. Be mad at me. I gotta figure this out.”

How does he do that? Calipari said his focus will be holding his team accountable in practice to prepare them for what could be an ugly game in Knoxville on Saturday vs. No. 5 Tennessee.

“Look, I gotta be with these kids. So you could be mad at me. I’m fine. But I gotta be with them. Like, I believe in you individually. I believe in this group. They’ve got to know that. But I get in practice, I gotta hold them accountable. I gotta make this hard. And we’re gonna play a physical team Saturday. When they screen you, they try to take you off the floor. Like, lift you. And if you’re not ready to fight and screen them the same way, you’ve got no chance. So, you know we got work to do but I’m gonna say it again, and again there I know there are people that angry but for you to stick around and be like you are toward be after that. I appreciate it. I really do.”

Calipari on how he’s trying to get his players to remain positive

After back-to-back embarrassing losses, morale is low on all fronts. When asked how he gets the season back on track, Calipari said he has to lead by example.

“You keep walking forward. You grind. You come up and watch tape and you keep teaching. Look, they’re gonna follow me. And I talked to them today. I woke up this morning and one of the things was about, you know, you have a positive and a negative. If you feed the negative, it’s going to be negative. So you got to feed the positive and you got to shut the negative out, which is really hard to do. But he’s on each shoulder.

“And one of the things I told them is, be grateful. Figure out things that in your life you’re grateful for. Being grateful, you’re not going to be negative. You’re trying to stay in that zone, but it’s hard for these kids when this is coming at them.”

That’s one more reason Calipari wants fans to direct all anger at him (which doesn’t seem to be a problem).

“I keep coming back and saying, be mad at me. I’ve gotta do a better job. I’ve got to do a better job with the kids. I’ve got to do a better job on the court. I’ve gotta do a better job and practice and you let these kids know you care about them. ‘We’re fine. We know you’re struggling. We’re all struggling.’

“And again, I expect our fans to be mad. Lost at home. Lost at home. We had a bad start to the game. We’re better than that. All I can tell you is, I will continue to fight. And again, don’t let anybody tell you I don’t love our fans. We’ve got the greatest fans. And again, they are engaged and intense and rage, and if you win, it’s unbelievable. For you all to be here, and be supportive like you are of me, I really appreciate it. It’s easy when we’re winning and it’s packed and all that. You guys all, you’re staying here and doing what you’re doing to tell me, ‘Come on, man. Just keep doing your job.’ I really, really appreciate that. I really do.”