John Calipari pleased with Lance Ware's performance, attitude

Keion Brooks is the obvious star of Kentucky’s 83-56 win over Missouri. TyTy Washington, Oscar Tshiebwe, and Sahvir Wheeler all had great moments as well, finishing in double figures. However, John Calipari made sure to include some praise for a certain reserve in his postgame remarks. Lance Ware only played seven minutes vs. the Tigers but finished with five points, all free throws, and three rebounds. That comes after the sophomore forward did not play in Kentucky’s rout of Western Kentucky last week.

“How about Lance today?” Calipari said. “Here’s a guy, and I want you to understand, I stuck in Daimion [Collins] before I did Lance. Lance didn’t say, ‘That’s disrespectful to me.’ What? I coach, you play. I put you in, you do your thing. He played. Same thing with North Carolina. He went in and made a big difference in the game.”

Ware played 13 minutes vs. North Carolina, finishing with four rebounds, a point, an assist, and a block. When you read Calipari’s comments, it’s hard not to think of Dontaie Allen, who Cal said elected not to play at the end of the North Carolina game. Allen did play tonight after sitting out the Western Kentucky game with a minor injury. He checked in at the 1:50 mark of the second half and was 0-1 from three. Yesterday, Calipari told reporters he encouraged Allen to be ready when his name is called.

“I told Dontaie (Allen) yesterday, ‘Be ready for your chance. I can’t tell you when and where it’s coming, but you’ve got to prove that you deserve to play more.’ ‘Well, just play him 30 minutes.’ It doesn’t work that way. This is, here’s where you are on this team, be an all-star in your role. Be an all-star. You can’t—like, I talked to the guys. You don’t need 30 minutes to prove who you are. This ’30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes,’ well, I think we had a team a little ways back that no one played more than 20 minutes, 21 minutes.”

Kentucky hosts High Point on Friday before traveling to No. 16 LSU on Tuesday. As Calipari whittles down his rotation, he’s clearly looking for guys to seize their moments like Ware did tonight.

“I was just so happy for Lance,” Calipari added towards the end of his presser. “Such a great kid. The kid’s working extra. How about making free throws. He’s in the gym extra. That’s how this works. You want to build your confidence.”