On Tyler Ulis trying to carry the team:
“First of all, Tyler just wants to win. He’s doing what it takes to try to win. There are points in time, even in practice, that he needs to shoot the ball and passes on a shot because he doesn’t feel like he needs to shoot every ball. He’s so competitive and the last couple of days we’ve been scrimmaging and he’s just so competitive. I think it’s a responsibility of everybody that’s on the floor to try and take that away from him. Whether it’s passing up an open shot to making an extra pass for an easier shot, I think as a group they have to sort of be held accountable for what they’re supposed to do, not only for them but for the betterment of the team.”
On if he hopes Ulis’ competitiveness rubs off on the team:
“I think it will. It did the last couple of days. I’m sure it will today in practice here in a little while. That’s what we expect and demand. It’s just taking some time, but I think the competitive edge in everyone is starting to blossom.”
On if he can talk about the changes John Calipari mentioned after Auburn:
“No, I can’t.”
On the challenges of playing on the road:
“I think the first time out, to play on the road, was a shock for them. Now they’re starting to sense when you go to Alabama and it’s sold out and you go to Auburn and it’s sold out, this game is a complete sellout at Arkansas with another T-shirt giveaway. They understand now that teams are excited to play Kentucky. They’re excited to play us. We have to have more excitement and more energy to them, especially going into their building.”
On playing late Thursday night and early Saturday:
“It’s a tough turnaround. The one good thing, the positive, we have the early game on Thursday. At least it’s not an 8 o’clock start, at least central time. With it being a 6 o’clock game there, we’ll get back at a decent time. We should be able to get back by midnight at the latest so that’s not too bad. The only kicker is you’re coming back and playing Saturday afternoon. You’d like for it to be an evening game but that’s just the way TV dictates.”
On UK’s trouble holding onto leads:
“Coach has stressed it for the last three days. It’s winning time, and it’s either a winning play or not a winning pay. We’ve been grading film that way as well, and showing the players: Was it a positive play or was it a negative play? So that they see what you have to do. Now, there are positive plays that we miss shots. That’s OK. It’s the ones where your negatives outweigh your positives. That’s when you’re going to lose a lead.”
On sensing the players are getting it:
“I think they’re getting it, yeah. Will it carry over? We surely hope so. But I think that they’re starting to see it. When you see it on film, I think that helps you even more than just going through it.”
On if he can recall a player in his career who came in hyped, got humbled, had to build back up:
“Yeah, Alex as a freshman. A lot of similarities. From the physical standpoint to just getting through it, and Alex I think would tell you the same thing. He’s been a good shoulder for Skal to lean on, because he’s seen it. But you know what, (Skal) is making strides. He’s been good the last two days of practice, and hopefully it’ll carry over again to today.”
On Arkansas trapping, pressing vs. UK guards:
“They’re not going to change. They do it quite a bit and they do it more at home than they do on the road. We played against teams that have pressed us and had success. Going on the road and doing it is a different story. We just have to be ready for pressure and be willing to attack it and have great spacing and be strong with the ball.”
On Jamal Murray’s progress: “He’s learning how to play winning basketball. If coach was standing here right now he’d tell you the same thing: He’s learning. And that’s a good sign. We know what he can do. He just has to do it within the framework of the team, for the betterment of the team, for the betterment of the outcome.”
On 3-point defense at Auburn and how important that will be at Arkansas: “Well, Arkansas is shooting the ball really well. It’s probably one of their better 3-point shooting teams since Roteni Clark played there, the kid that transferred, I believe from Butler. Anthlon Bell and Hannis can really, really shoot the ball. If you look at their stats they take the majority of their 3s, those two young men, but shoot it at a really high percentage. I would call them both elite shooters, both off the dribble and off the catch. Their teammates do a good job finding them open.
“Going back to the Auburn game, you had Harris made three. He had made four going into that game. You had the point guard, Canty, Kareem Canty, he banks one in from over the top of Derek Willis’ reach and goes in. That was a focal point and something that we failed in.”
On if negative plays are more on offense or defense: “Both. It’s both. It could be anything from a bad shot to a passed-up shot to a bad pass to not screening, not executing what we’re looking for on the negative side of it. It goes on both sides of the ball.”
On if it’s more on one side or the other: “Nah. Not really. I think it’s pretty evenly split.”
On what they’re doing in practice to address physicality after John Calipari said the rules are not being enforced correctly: “We’re letting them play. We’re letting them play. I think you see that a little bit as league play is starting to happen. I know there is a lot of things to call out on the floor, but we’re letting our guys play in practice right now.”
On what effect he hopes that has: “Hopefully it impacts us offensively by not turning the ball over or taking a bad shot, just playing through bumps.”
On how Derek Willis has built off his breakout game: “Good. Derek is in a great frame of mind. He’s carried over in the last two days and really has done what he did there. I’m happy for him. Can he continue? It seems like it, but today is a different day. He’s finally rebounding the ball with two hands. He was playing way above the rim. He made very easy plays. He made a crazy play in practice yesterday, but he just said he lost his mind. But if he can simplify things, at 6-9 he can stretch the defense. If you’re telling me he can go in and get six, seven, eight, nine, 10 rebounds – I know he had 12, I think the other day, which we needed them. That’s a big boost.”
On what comparisons he sees between this team and 2013-14 team:
Well, I mean, we've been on such a great run here that when you have little peaks and valleys and you have a couple valleys – we've only, I believe, lost four games so far. It's somewhat unusual around here since we've been here, to be in January and have that. There's no need to panic. This has been a process, and it's been a process that we're trying to really get through. It's still a work in progress, if that makes any sense at all. I don't think that there's a whole lot of comparisons that you can make right now to it. We've just got to see where it ends up.
On if Dominique Hawkins has been back in practice this week:
He has participated in non-contact drills at this point.
On how he sees the team adapting to road environments:
Yeah. I think they're getting more excited to play, a little bit more focused and understand what they're getting ready to walk into. You go from a big arena at Alabama to Auburn's not as big, now you're going into Arkansas which I think is probably the second biggest in our league. That'll be a little different for 'em but it's good. They're used to playing in Rupp Arena which is the largest in the country. So besides having 18,000 root against you, the size of it really shouldn't matter.
On what hurt them most when they lost 12-point lead at Auburn:
Non-winning basketball plays. We touched on it earlier. Just on both sides of the ball. That's what we showed our team, from up 12 to the end of the game. And I believe it was with 15 and a half minutes left in the game, if I'm not mistaken. And we showed 'em. That's where – 'Was this a good play? Was this a bad play? Winning, not winning?'
On if not making those plays is because of basketball IQ, experience, etc.:
I think it's an accumulation of probably everything. Yeah. Not on one certain individual or one certain play. Breakdowns both offensively and defensively.
On if they are doing more coaching this year or if they are just going through the process:
We're not coaching any more or any less. This is what we do. It's just with a different group of guys. We're coaching each and every one of these kids in this team. We go into every game the same exact way and prepare the same exact way and nothing really changes no matter what game it is. I think as a staff and as a team we're putting everything into this thing that we can.
“First of all, Tyler just wants to win. He’s doing what it takes to try to win. There are points in time, even in practice, that he needs to shoot the ball and passes on a shot because he doesn’t feel like he needs to shoot every ball. He’s so competitive and the last couple of days we’ve been scrimmaging and he’s just so competitive. I think it’s a responsibility of everybody that’s on the floor to try and take that away from him. Whether it’s passing up an open shot to making an extra pass for an easier shot, I think as a group they have to sort of be held accountable for what they’re supposed to do, not only for them but for the betterment of the team.”
On if he hopes Ulis’ competitiveness rubs off on the team:
“I think it will. It did the last couple of days. I’m sure it will today in practice here in a little while. That’s what we expect and demand. It’s just taking some time, but I think the competitive edge in everyone is starting to blossom.”
On if he can talk about the changes John Calipari mentioned after Auburn:
“No, I can’t.”
On the challenges of playing on the road:
“I think the first time out, to play on the road, was a shock for them. Now they’re starting to sense when you go to Alabama and it’s sold out and you go to Auburn and it’s sold out, this game is a complete sellout at Arkansas with another T-shirt giveaway. They understand now that teams are excited to play Kentucky. They’re excited to play us. We have to have more excitement and more energy to them, especially going into their building.”
On playing late Thursday night and early Saturday:
“It’s a tough turnaround. The one good thing, the positive, we have the early game on Thursday. At least it’s not an 8 o’clock start, at least central time. With it being a 6 o’clock game there, we’ll get back at a decent time. We should be able to get back by midnight at the latest so that’s not too bad. The only kicker is you’re coming back and playing Saturday afternoon. You’d like for it to be an evening game but that’s just the way TV dictates.”
On UK’s trouble holding onto leads:
“Coach has stressed it for the last three days. It’s winning time, and it’s either a winning play or not a winning pay. We’ve been grading film that way as well, and showing the players: Was it a positive play or was it a negative play? So that they see what you have to do. Now, there are positive plays that we miss shots. That’s OK. It’s the ones where your negatives outweigh your positives. That’s when you’re going to lose a lead.”
On sensing the players are getting it:
“I think they’re getting it, yeah. Will it carry over? We surely hope so. But I think that they’re starting to see it. When you see it on film, I think that helps you even more than just going through it.”
On if he can recall a player in his career who came in hyped, got humbled, had to build back up:
“Yeah, Alex as a freshman. A lot of similarities. From the physical standpoint to just getting through it, and Alex I think would tell you the same thing. He’s been a good shoulder for Skal to lean on, because he’s seen it. But you know what, (Skal) is making strides. He’s been good the last two days of practice, and hopefully it’ll carry over again to today.”
On Arkansas trapping, pressing vs. UK guards:
“They’re not going to change. They do it quite a bit and they do it more at home than they do on the road. We played against teams that have pressed us and had success. Going on the road and doing it is a different story. We just have to be ready for pressure and be willing to attack it and have great spacing and be strong with the ball.”
On Jamal Murray’s progress: “He’s learning how to play winning basketball. If coach was standing here right now he’d tell you the same thing: He’s learning. And that’s a good sign. We know what he can do. He just has to do it within the framework of the team, for the betterment of the team, for the betterment of the outcome.”
On 3-point defense at Auburn and how important that will be at Arkansas: “Well, Arkansas is shooting the ball really well. It’s probably one of their better 3-point shooting teams since Roteni Clark played there, the kid that transferred, I believe from Butler. Anthlon Bell and Hannis can really, really shoot the ball. If you look at their stats they take the majority of their 3s, those two young men, but shoot it at a really high percentage. I would call them both elite shooters, both off the dribble and off the catch. Their teammates do a good job finding them open.
“Going back to the Auburn game, you had Harris made three. He had made four going into that game. You had the point guard, Canty, Kareem Canty, he banks one in from over the top of Derek Willis’ reach and goes in. That was a focal point and something that we failed in.”
On if negative plays are more on offense or defense: “Both. It’s both. It could be anything from a bad shot to a passed-up shot to a bad pass to not screening, not executing what we’re looking for on the negative side of it. It goes on both sides of the ball.”
On if it’s more on one side or the other: “Nah. Not really. I think it’s pretty evenly split.”
On what they’re doing in practice to address physicality after John Calipari said the rules are not being enforced correctly: “We’re letting them play. We’re letting them play. I think you see that a little bit as league play is starting to happen. I know there is a lot of things to call out on the floor, but we’re letting our guys play in practice right now.”
On what effect he hopes that has: “Hopefully it impacts us offensively by not turning the ball over or taking a bad shot, just playing through bumps.”
On how Derek Willis has built off his breakout game: “Good. Derek is in a great frame of mind. He’s carried over in the last two days and really has done what he did there. I’m happy for him. Can he continue? It seems like it, but today is a different day. He’s finally rebounding the ball with two hands. He was playing way above the rim. He made very easy plays. He made a crazy play in practice yesterday, but he just said he lost his mind. But if he can simplify things, at 6-9 he can stretch the defense. If you’re telling me he can go in and get six, seven, eight, nine, 10 rebounds – I know he had 12, I think the other day, which we needed them. That’s a big boost.”
On what comparisons he sees between this team and 2013-14 team:
Well, I mean, we've been on such a great run here that when you have little peaks and valleys and you have a couple valleys – we've only, I believe, lost four games so far. It's somewhat unusual around here since we've been here, to be in January and have that. There's no need to panic. This has been a process, and it's been a process that we're trying to really get through. It's still a work in progress, if that makes any sense at all. I don't think that there's a whole lot of comparisons that you can make right now to it. We've just got to see where it ends up.
On if Dominique Hawkins has been back in practice this week:
He has participated in non-contact drills at this point.
On how he sees the team adapting to road environments:
Yeah. I think they're getting more excited to play, a little bit more focused and understand what they're getting ready to walk into. You go from a big arena at Alabama to Auburn's not as big, now you're going into Arkansas which I think is probably the second biggest in our league. That'll be a little different for 'em but it's good. They're used to playing in Rupp Arena which is the largest in the country. So besides having 18,000 root against you, the size of it really shouldn't matter.
On what hurt them most when they lost 12-point lead at Auburn:
Non-winning basketball plays. We touched on it earlier. Just on both sides of the ball. That's what we showed our team, from up 12 to the end of the game. And I believe it was with 15 and a half minutes left in the game, if I'm not mistaken. And we showed 'em. That's where – 'Was this a good play? Was this a bad play? Winning, not winning?'
On if not making those plays is because of basketball IQ, experience, etc.:
I think it's an accumulation of probably everything. Yeah. Not on one certain individual or one certain play. Breakdowns both offensively and defensively.
On if they are doing more coaching this year or if they are just going through the process:
We're not coaching any more or any less. This is what we do. It's just with a different group of guys. We're coaching each and every one of these kids in this team. We go into every game the same exact way and prepare the same exact way and nothing really changes no matter what game it is. I think as a staff and as a team we're putting everything into this thing that we can.
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