John Calipari Talks About Kentucky's Game at Georgia

Here are John Calipari's pregame comments as Kentucky gets ready to go on the road to Georgia and LSU (video by uknationofblue on YouTube):



Transcript via UK:

On being ranked No. 1 …
“I was trying to get a hold of (Syracuse coach) Jim Boeheim, I was so mad at him. It’s just an added thing. I just watched Georgia and Vanderbilt, Georgia had Vanderbilt beat at Vandy. I don’t know if they need anything added, they are at home against us and it will be sold out. I’ll tell these guys it’s a badge of honor, not a burden; it’s a badge of honor let’s go play. Because we are here, it wasn’t a big deal. When they lost I didn’t feel anything, it’s a different deal here. We’ll address it for a second or two but we just have to play.”

On recruiting guys that can handle the atmosphere …
“You don’t know until they are in there doing it, but you’re hoping you peg the kids that you think can deal with all this. I’ll give you an example, Kyle Wiltjer, not afraid at all. We pegged it right, he is not afraid at all. If he is open he is shooting it, defensively he is out there playing hard and he’s not playing timid in any way. We’re not playing poorly down the stretch in games, we’re giving ourselves a chance to win but there are things we are going to have to do to keep getting better.”

On seeing talented recruits that can’t handle Kentucky atmosphere …
“Normally they’ll let you know, they’ll say they aren’t interested. I’ve had kids that I’ve really wanted and kids that I wasn’t sure of but that kid convinced me that he could do this and the other kid was shaky even though I thought he was right, but the kids know. In most cases, kids don’t want to put themselves in positions of being exposed and they won’t come here. This place is not for everybody, it’s the toughest place to play basketball; we are everybody’s Super Bowl.”

On Anthony Davis’ counter to someone always being on his body …
“I showed him the tape where before he catches the ball he has to be ready to play, not after the ball is swung and the guy is into his body. He has to play defensively the same way, as the ball is moving he’s in position before that wing catches the ball. He saw on tape that as the ball was caught he tried to move for position and got sealed. It’s all playing before you catch it and before the ball gets to the wing defensively. He’ll learn, I’ve never seen him miss dunks or one-footers, this was the first time. He’s got to learn, if they aren’t going to call it you have to negate it. That’s all of us, Terrence (Jones) the same, Terrence has missed 25 one-footers with his left hand. You have to make those, I don’t care if you got hit, whacked, grabbed, punched, you have to make those.”

On transforming good players into National Champions …
“What happens when we are all done with this is that history will tell you what kind of job you have done. What kind of men you have molded, how they have turned out, what you have done in the community in the places you work, in the community you work. It all comes out. If I am worried about what everyone is saying, I am cluttered. I have a sign on my wall upstairs that says ‘coach your team’, and that’s my job. Coach the individual players, and help them get better. At the end of the day, I want them to be about those players. If they keep saying, ‘Well, he has better players than everybody’, and I get the connotation ‘he can’t coach,’ then that’s OK. Then I have done my job because they are saying my players are better. That gives me satisfaction. You are never going to hear me say that ‘this guy can’t do this and this guy can’t do that’. I’ll challenge them physically to mentally be tougher in all of those things, but I have always said that I’ve got good players, and our job is to get them to play harder, get them to play together, get them to talk to one another, mental and physical toughness is the key to all of that.”

On getting a team of great players to play as one collective team …
To get the all-stars like Phil Jackson would do, to play a triangle offense and then defend together, and then communicate together, and then have breakfast club together, that is the challenge of what we do. Not getting a mediocre group together and getting them to play well, and ‘We're not playing well, so let me get a timeout and I’ll show you my out-of-bounds.’ To me, that’s not coaching. Coaching becomes how do you become the best, and how do you get that group to really come together, sacrifice for one another, be their brother’s keeper, and compete. The crazy thing in college is that it is not the best of settings. It’s one and done. Stuff gets overridden here. You have some of the greatest coaches in our history not getting to a Final Four because of where they coached. They are some of the best coaches, and they have never been to a Final Four. Gene Keady is one of them. John Chaney is another one. They have never been to a Final Four. Does that mean they can’t coach? No, it is where they coached.