John Calipari takes ownership of Kentucky's struggles so far

We won’t know how much Kentucky’s 86-63 win over Louisville matters until the Cats face tougher competition (which is coming very soon). That said, John Calipari said all the right things after the game. In both his press conference and radio appearance, Calipari struck a humble tone, taking ownership of Kentucky’s struggles this season while also noting how much work still needs to be done.

“My job is to teach them how to win basketball games,” Calipari said in his press conference. “I have not done a good job of that to this point obviously.”

Following the loss to Missouri, Calipari said he wanted to change Kentucky’s style of play. Instead of playing fast, he wants them to play more deliberately. Against a bad Louisville team, it worked. The Cats scored 86 points and shot 60% from the floor, their highest field-goal percentage of the season. Again, we’ll see what strides they’ve really made as the conference play picks back up, but even a little bit of progress is big right now for a team that desperately needs it.

“I’m mad at myself because we needed to be playing more deliberate. 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.”

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“We got punched in the mouth, and we’re still alive”

Both Calipari and the players spent a lot of time talking about mental health after the game. Calipari said it’s been a major focus of the last few weeks, and his message to his players before the game was to just go out and have fun.

“We’ve done a lot of work, and it’s not been on the court,” Calipari said. “You had guys feeling the weight of the world, and that’s why it came — it’s not life-and-death. We got punched in the mouth, and we’re still alive. Now we’ve got the next game. We have the whole league ahead of us. We’re fine. But when these kids feel it, they are 18, 19, 20, and they are feeling the weight of the world, and I’m talking, like, free and loose and I’m wearing a suit today and I’m dancing in there and I’m wanting them it know I’m good.”

That message seemed directed at one player in particular: Jacob Toppin. Inserted into the starting lineup, Toppin scored a season-high 24 points on a career-high 10 field goals.”

“But they got to get in a good frame of mind and then get hit in the mouth, and are you fragile, or do you keep playing? Today, he kept playing. And now he’s going to do it against better teams. You watch.”

“I respect these kids, playing here, it’s really hard,” Calipari said of the criticism the team is facing. “Really rewarding, but it’s hard. I said, there’s a tax you play to play here and coach here. There’s a tax. You’ve got to be thick-skinned and tough.

“But this is a good group. I can’t imagine our fans aren’t jacked that this is our team. They want to win every game. So do I. I want to win more than the fans want to win. But let’s get it right. Let’s go forward. Let’s see what we are. Let’s see with playing the way we’re playing now where we take things.”

“Most of it is my fault; I’ll figure it out after a while.“

More than once, Calipari recalled his past teams that have struggled early, like the 2013-14 team that lost at South Carolina and Florida right before postseason play but became a “great story.” He also mentioned the 2018-19 team that lost to Seton Hall and the 2019-20 team that lost to Utah and Ohio State in Vegas.

“Can I go back so we all have memories of when we had PJ [Washington] and Tyler [Herro] and all those guys and we’re losing games and everybody panicked and went crazy. I can go back to [2014] we went to the final game, where it went until March. We ended up being an eight-seed and we figured it out later. Most of it is my fault; I’ll figure it out after a while. You see I shortened the rotation today. Maybe that’s what we got to do. But it was more about deliberate play.”

“It just takes time when you’ve got new teams,” Calipari continued. “This stuff, I just don’t want anybody influencing people to be like, this is not normal here. It is normal here. I mean, just about every year I’ve been here it’s taken me time. And again, I wish I was smarter. But I’m not. It takes me time to really feel it and see it.

“But now we got to prove it against better teams. We played different today. Don’t think, well, there it is — We played different. You saw it. Now, we’ve got to do the same on better teams when they come in. And I’m saying better teams. I’m talking league games, Kansas. Let’s be what we were today.”

For now, Calipari is just happy to put 2022 behind him.

“I’m kind of happy that we’re through December. Put this behind us and some other stuff I’ve had to deal with. So, I’m like ecstatic that we’re in the new year. I’m ecstatic that we go into the new year with a mindset. We get it now. It’s gonna be really hard.”