Kentucky determined to avoid "rat poison" after big win vs. Kansas

Kentucky’s 80-62 thumping of Kansas came with a lot of rewards. The Cats jumped seven spots to No. 5 in the AP Poll, were named “Team of the Week” by several national outlets, and are now projected to be a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament. That’s given John Calipari a new objective in addition to preparing for Vanderbilt this week. On his radio show last night, Calipari trotted out one of his favorite metaphors that Nick Saban has also made famous.

“What’s the rat poison that I don’t want them to eat? The rankings!” Calipari said. “I told them today, ‘Don’t do it.’ There are people saying, we’re third or second or fifth. That we’re a Final Four team. Really? What were we a month ago? Oh my gosh. ‘He’s gotta do this, he’s gotta do that.’ Nope, head down. Here we go. Grind it out. Let’s just shore up what we’re trying to do.”

Based on Lance Ware’s remarks this morning, the Cats are listening to their head coach.

“It’s obviously nice but we know there are bigger goals and we have to still win games,” Ware said. “Obviously beating Kansas was a big win that we needed but there’s still more to accomplish. Hopefully, that gets us going and we can build off that. We just don’t want that to be our last big win.”

Assistant coach Chin Coleman is also doing his part to keep the team in the right mindset heading into the final ten games of the regular season.

“I personally texted a couple of guys right after [the game] and yesterday just so that we can defend against any letdowns,” Coleman told reporters this morning. “Here’s what I’ve said to those guys: we didn’t come this far just to come this far. We came this far to go further.”

“These guys are all locked in”

Know what will help Kentucky avoid the rat poison? Experience. The Cats came into the season with 13,385 total minutes of Division I playing time, more than any team in program history. Sandwiched between two big games, tomorrow’s matchup with Vanderbilt — a team Kentucky easily handled three weeks ago — would be one that many teams could overlook. Because of this group’s unique experience, Coleman is confident that won’t be the case.

“We’ve got a veteran group and we’ve got some guys who can help our locker room keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s to get better every game and to play at a high level every game no matter who the opponent is because we know we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. We’re going to defend against having any letdowns and Coach Calipari is not going to let that happen. Let’s be clear. We’ll be fine. We’re going to compete at a high level, no matter who it is. The next most important game is the Vanderbilt game and we’re going to play them like it’s any other game.”

Kentucky Wildcats TV’s recap of the Kansas win gave us a glimpse into that locker room leadership. Even up 20 at halftime, TyTy Washington and Oscar Tshiebwe encouraged their teammates to keep the foot on the gas.

“It’s zero-zero, bro,” Oscar said.

On his radio show last night, Calipari raved about how his team stuck to the game plan vs. Kansas. Even before the win over the Jayhawks, he talked about how “dialed in” the Cats are. Coleman echoed those remarks this morning.

“Our guys are bought in and that’s the most important part, when you get the buy-in from the team. These guys are all locked in, man. They’re listening to the game plan that we come up with and they were able to perform it almost to perfection.”

“We’ve won the locker room piece”

Last night, Calipari also said that, like his best squads, this team hasn’t had a bad practice yet. Coleman said that’s a credit to how much fun they have together.

“I think it’s because of our locker room. You’ve got to have your locker room won before you win basketball games. We’ve won the locker room piece. Our guys all like each other. They like being around each other, they like competing against each other. They like celebrating each other and because of that, our practices are competitive.

“When you’ve got a locker room that’s bought in, a locker room that’s connected, it’s fun to coach. It’s fun to be around. That’s why our practices are really good.”

And that’s why Coleman doesn’t see a ceiling on this group’s potential.

“It’s the pursuit of perfection. There’s never been a perfect game played but I think that we coach from a standpoint where the glass is half full and we’re always trying to fill it. I think that we’re going to continue to try to be better and get better because we can. We’re nowhere near where we need to be at this point. We played an unbelievable game. Our guys bought in and they followed the game plan. Let’s see if we can do that again and again and again.”