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John Calipari met reporters this morning on Zoom to recap Kentucky’s loss to Richmond and to anticipate tomorrow night’s game against Kansas in the Champions Classic. We’ve already shared his comments on Keion Brooks’ return schedule and how his team is adjusting to playing with limited fans at Rupp, but here are 10 other things that stood out to me.
The team will travel to Indianapolis today
Initially, Calipari wanted to travel only on match days to limit potential exposure to COVID-19. Mother Nature had other plans today. Because of the snow, Kentucky will go to Indy today instead of tomorrow.
“I was scared when I woke up and there is a foot of snow on the ground. I’m like, we better get up there instead of going up maybe an hour before the game. So we are leaving today.
After looking at photos of my Lexington friends on Facebook, I think Calipari is exaggerating a bit.
He’s never coached a team with zero assists in one half
Kentucky’s guard play wasn’t good against Richmond, to say the least. The Cats had five assists in total and ZERO in the second half. Add 21 turnovers and that’s a very, very bad report; historic for Calipari, in fact.
“The problem we had was when we showed them the tape we had 21 turnovers and that led to 20 points and some of them were turnovers. And then the second thing that we had a problem with was, we went from a very disinterested basketball team – I never coached a team that didn’t have second half assists. And you could tell we missed some shots, but we went on the board and showed them any extra passes they could have done to open up other guys for shots or all three.
The moment the game turned
After watching the tape, Calipari found the exact moment when the momentum shifted to Richmond.
“This match, from 6:20 pm to 4:20 pm, that’s where they won. We were up six, we were ready to go up eight and all of a sudden you turn around in two minutes and you’re down three and should be six. They missed a wide open three. So the lesson for them is, that’s why you have to play. You need to know how to stop the bleeding. I have to teach them how to play winning basketball. We have good players, but they are not ready to play winning basketball like they are playing now.
Positives: defense and rebound
There was a lot to hate in Kentucky’s game yesterday, but Calipari was encouraged by his team’s defense and rebounds. Cats overtook spiders 54-31.
“There is a positive in the way we have defended. It’s a tough team to keep with a bunch of young guys. And I told them, if you defend like that and you’ve passed a team by 20, I’ve really never heard of a team losing that game. But I said, if you give five assists and 21 turnovers and don’t create a good three for us and the ones that were created have been missed, well, that’s where you lose the game.
A negative admitted by Calipari: spacing
A few times today, Calipari has taken responsibility for a negative point yesterday: spacing. At times the team looked completely out of place, which Calipari said was on him.
“The spacing was bad. Not their fault. My fault. We need to work a bit on that, ”Calipari said, later adding,“ It’s not for these kids. It’s on me. I have to do a better job of really saying, “This is where you need to go.” “
He still has confidence in his team’s three-point shot
For only the second time in 33 years, Kentucky hasn’t made a three-point basket. The cats have attempted ten threes and failed each of them. Calipari wants to see the number of attempts double, which requires returning the ball to the open man.
“We have good three-pointers. We’re not going to rely on it, we’re not going to take 40, but I told the staff again, we have to take 17-21, 22 lines and more, the guys who can shoot it, let go. We can do things with even Cam’Ron [Fletcher]. Cam had three chances for three and we didn’t throw the ball at him. We billed once. We tried to step through it once. We threw it at the wrong guy once. It was almost like we were trying to make everything difficult. “I have to do a play here.” “
On Kansas: “It will be a tough game for us”
This Kansas team is different from the ones we’re used to seeing. Not only is Udoka Azubuike finally gone to the NBA, but the Jayhawks are heavy guards, playing up to five guards at a time. Calipari watched their opening loss of the season against Gonzaga and was impressed.
“They play five guards and they play their leader like five men. They put it inside, it’s amazing. I’ll say this, they have vets. they have a hard time – their post player [David McCormick] is physically difficult and will fight. They’re downhill runners, they’ve got good three-point shooters. Guys who are supposed to turn three turn three and they’re in there knowing I’m looking for three. We are still learning this.
“The stuff that I watched, I think it plays well. They played two good teams and Gonzaga, maybe the better team, and it was a jack-of-all-trades game. They went down and they came back right away. They are not afraid. It’s a team of veterans. They will fight. It will be a tough game for us. We know, just like the Richmond game was a tough game.
He was encouraged by the performance of Olivier Sarr
Olivier Sarr dominated the first half against Richmond, scoring 14 points on 5-8 from the field, 4-7 on the free throw line and lowering seven rebounds. He didn’t score in the second half, but Calipari was still encouraged by what he saw.
“Better. There were some second half stuff, shots that I thought he could do. He missed a few free throws, but what he gave us against a really good big guy that he had trouble, he went right on him. Showed me, okay, we know where we are, we know what we have. Now Kansas will play a little different. They’ll dig like crazy, they’ll trap. There can be three outs. They work on closing that way, but it showed us that we can throw the ball to him and that when we do something right, it happens.
Why hasn’t Davion Mintz played more?
In his conversation with Tom Leach after the game, Calipari said he wanted to bring the ball to Davion Mintz more on the perimeter, but Mintz only played ten minutes. Today, Calipari said it was due to poor communication on the sidelines about the number of fouls being committed by Mintz.
“I played some guys for too many minutes. In part, they said Davion made two faults and he didn’t. It took five minutes to tell us he had one foul and he didn’t have two, so he was more out of the rotation than I wanted.
Again for the inexpensive rear seats: “Difficult schedule!”
Calipari’s baseline for this season’s schedule is that it’s so hard he had to take drugs to approve it. After the loss against Richmond, he doubles his delay, especially since Keion Brooks is still absent.
“The problem we have is that the schedule is a bit (a bit) difficult for this group. I thought I would have Keion. It probably shouldn’t have been that difficult, but it is. It’s done, let’s play the games. And the great thing is we play basketball. So whatever it is, we are playing basketball. I look at this group and once again, “I’m with you. You have to listen. We need to make changes. You can’t blame anyone. A difficult thing for these children. They get along – the phone calls start, and that’s when the kids need to stay the course, man. We have good kids, so I think we’ll be fine.
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