Here is everything John Calipari had to say in today's Q&A.
John Calipari
On if he's worried at all about team's shooting percentage right now: “Well, here's what I would tell you. If you look at the Top 20 teams – supposedly ranked Top 20, I'm not sure who's what – but we're by far – like you have teams that are shooting, probably on average it's 40 percent, 40. You have, I believe, three or four teams shooting 45 percent as a team from the three. Now, here's the issue if we were doing that: None of you would see – think about that. Now that's about, for us, maybe 10 more points a game. You wouldn't see the issue we have, which is physical play, which is grit, which is fight. That is our issue. And you know what? By shooting poorly, it kind of says, 'Wait a minute. He's not just saying it. We can see it.' So, no, I'm not worried. And again, we have good shooters not making shots right now. They're making 'em in practice. My concern is not that. I have no – doesn't mean we're going to shoot it great every night out, but I'm not worried about that.
“And this game, Arizona State, perfect game for us. One, they're inside guys are seniors and they're physical. Their best player is their four and he's an active four. Their three guy is 6-7, so they got a big three. That's exactly what we need. They attack the glass, they play tough and physical. They will execute, so here's what happens to us: We're so young and inexperienced, we'll play defense for 15, 18 seconds, and then we break down. It'll show.
“This year, it's different. Last year we were trying to win every game and I believe we could've, and I believe that's what we all thought. This year, it's like a typical year here. How do we get this team ready for March? And the only way is play people like this, learn, figure stuff out and then go back and work on it. We've been working on stuff. But we're a ways away. There's so many issues we're dealing with that the shooting, I'm not gonna – maybe playing Jamal (Murray) too many minutes. Probably what I'm doing which is taking his legs out maybe a little bit. But other than that, the guys that need to make threes are making 'em in practice.”
On if he's noticed teams defending them differently when outside shots aren't falling: “Well, when you look at the threes, they are wide open. Like, they're open. We're just not making 'em. But I'll say this: We're still getting to the rim, still shooting layups. Without Marcus (Lee), we weren't offensive rebounding. With Marcus, we do offensive rebound. But I think teams will – it's a tough deal when you know Jamal and you know Tyler (Ulis), especially those two. You know Isaiah (Briscoe) can make threes because he'll will the ball in. You know Derek (Willis) can make threes. And your defensive plan is, let those guys shoot… OK, now. What if we go for a 9-of-14 night? You gonna get beat by 30? It's not as easy as you think, just give them threes, because they know we can shoot. What was Tyler last year from the three? (41 percent.) What is he this year? (Bad.) Well, which one do you think he is? And again, it could be a lot of minutes on the court for him, too. So as they get used to it and…”
On how the three guards have meshed playing together: “Not bad. I mean, if we shot the ball better I think a lot of this stuff that we have would look a little different. We’re just not. But I think defensively being active, being play-makers, all three of them can do that. We’re trying to get Jamal to be more of an attacker like Isaiah, get to the line more, play through the bumps. We’re doing things in practice.
“We did something with Skal yesterday, and it shows you that we’ve got to watch and then go back and train. You can’t just say, ‘Say it to them and they understand.’ So we made Skal post up, we threw him the ball and had two managers with those arm sleeves whack at the ball. How do you think he looked? Where he had to go like this (motions holding the ball), boom, boom. Just hold the ball. Didn’t have to make a move, didn’t have to do anything. Don’t lose the ball. And the two managers were just whacking at him with one arm sleeve each. It went to where he was doing like this (curls into the fetal position). OK? Now we put Alex in there. Alex grabbed the ball and those two just hit him, and he was there. They hit and hit, he put it out: ‘Hit it.’ Until Skal was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you can do that.’ Yes you can. You’ve got to be able to hold the ball. (Mimes blowing on him) You still got to be able to hold the ball. So, it’s all stuff that’s he’s learning, and we see it. Jamal, playing through bumps.
“We’ve got the most inexperienced team in the country. We’re playing one of the most experienced teams in the country. Juniors, seniors, that’s who we’re going against. So this is a great challenge. Hard game to win for us. We’re going to have to be playing better than we’ve been playing. We may not be capable of that yet.”
On if Alex is ‘pushing that button’ more often than he’s seen in the past: “Time to do it against juniors and seniors who are just as physical as you. Time to do it. I mean, I was so pleased and happy for him, because most of it is him getting by himself right now. He’s got to get by that which is holding him back, which was himself. It’s no teammate. Someone said to me that Marcus made a great statement: ‘We need to hold him to that standard.’ Against a bigger, physical guy. It means you’ve got to work harder longer. You’ve got to figure out ways.
“But we also need to find a couple guys on the bench. I told Mychal Mulder, I said, ‘Mychal, we’re not making shots. This is perfect for you to come in practice and show us. Make shots. Build confidence in me that I can put you in. Build confidence in your teammates.’ And he missed his next eight shots, but that’s part of that growth of where he’s got to go with this, because we’re working for someone to come in and lift us off the bench. We have those six. Who’s seven, eight and nine?”
On where he expected Poythress to be a year after his injury: “I’m happy for him. Look, I have not thoughts of that injury. I hope he doesn’t. It’s just, I’m looking at him saying, ‘OK, what can we be. What’s the best version of you?’ That’s all he needs to think about.
“This is a process with this team. This is a normal year, guys. This is not last year, let’s win every game by 20. If three guys didn’t play well, I played the other seven. Can I say that again? If three guys didn’t play well, I played the other seven. Three guys don’t play now, I’m playing guys that have never played here before. That’s — we gotta figure this out together and guys have gotta be more consistent in their practices. We had a couple guys that had bad shootarounds. Been doing this 30 years and a bad shootaround leads to a bad start and a bad start, usually, you sustain that. And that guy did. I talked about it. We’re learning every day.”
John Calipari
On if he's worried at all about team's shooting percentage right now: “Well, here's what I would tell you. If you look at the Top 20 teams – supposedly ranked Top 20, I'm not sure who's what – but we're by far – like you have teams that are shooting, probably on average it's 40 percent, 40. You have, I believe, three or four teams shooting 45 percent as a team from the three. Now, here's the issue if we were doing that: None of you would see – think about that. Now that's about, for us, maybe 10 more points a game. You wouldn't see the issue we have, which is physical play, which is grit, which is fight. That is our issue. And you know what? By shooting poorly, it kind of says, 'Wait a minute. He's not just saying it. We can see it.' So, no, I'm not worried. And again, we have good shooters not making shots right now. They're making 'em in practice. My concern is not that. I have no – doesn't mean we're going to shoot it great every night out, but I'm not worried about that.
“And this game, Arizona State, perfect game for us. One, they're inside guys are seniors and they're physical. Their best player is their four and he's an active four. Their three guy is 6-7, so they got a big three. That's exactly what we need. They attack the glass, they play tough and physical. They will execute, so here's what happens to us: We're so young and inexperienced, we'll play defense for 15, 18 seconds, and then we break down. It'll show.
“This year, it's different. Last year we were trying to win every game and I believe we could've, and I believe that's what we all thought. This year, it's like a typical year here. How do we get this team ready for March? And the only way is play people like this, learn, figure stuff out and then go back and work on it. We've been working on stuff. But we're a ways away. There's so many issues we're dealing with that the shooting, I'm not gonna – maybe playing Jamal (Murray) too many minutes. Probably what I'm doing which is taking his legs out maybe a little bit. But other than that, the guys that need to make threes are making 'em in practice.”
On if he's noticed teams defending them differently when outside shots aren't falling: “Well, when you look at the threes, they are wide open. Like, they're open. We're just not making 'em. But I'll say this: We're still getting to the rim, still shooting layups. Without Marcus (Lee), we weren't offensive rebounding. With Marcus, we do offensive rebound. But I think teams will – it's a tough deal when you know Jamal and you know Tyler (Ulis), especially those two. You know Isaiah (Briscoe) can make threes because he'll will the ball in. You know Derek (Willis) can make threes. And your defensive plan is, let those guys shoot… OK, now. What if we go for a 9-of-14 night? You gonna get beat by 30? It's not as easy as you think, just give them threes, because they know we can shoot. What was Tyler last year from the three? (41 percent.) What is he this year? (Bad.) Well, which one do you think he is? And again, it could be a lot of minutes on the court for him, too. So as they get used to it and…”
On how the three guards have meshed playing together: “Not bad. I mean, if we shot the ball better I think a lot of this stuff that we have would look a little different. We’re just not. But I think defensively being active, being play-makers, all three of them can do that. We’re trying to get Jamal to be more of an attacker like Isaiah, get to the line more, play through the bumps. We’re doing things in practice.
“We did something with Skal yesterday, and it shows you that we’ve got to watch and then go back and train. You can’t just say, ‘Say it to them and they understand.’ So we made Skal post up, we threw him the ball and had two managers with those arm sleeves whack at the ball. How do you think he looked? Where he had to go like this (motions holding the ball), boom, boom. Just hold the ball. Didn’t have to make a move, didn’t have to do anything. Don’t lose the ball. And the two managers were just whacking at him with one arm sleeve each. It went to where he was doing like this (curls into the fetal position). OK? Now we put Alex in there. Alex grabbed the ball and those two just hit him, and he was there. They hit and hit, he put it out: ‘Hit it.’ Until Skal was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you can do that.’ Yes you can. You’ve got to be able to hold the ball. (Mimes blowing on him) You still got to be able to hold the ball. So, it’s all stuff that’s he’s learning, and we see it. Jamal, playing through bumps.
“We’ve got the most inexperienced team in the country. We’re playing one of the most experienced teams in the country. Juniors, seniors, that’s who we’re going against. So this is a great challenge. Hard game to win for us. We’re going to have to be playing better than we’ve been playing. We may not be capable of that yet.”
On if Alex is ‘pushing that button’ more often than he’s seen in the past: “Time to do it against juniors and seniors who are just as physical as you. Time to do it. I mean, I was so pleased and happy for him, because most of it is him getting by himself right now. He’s got to get by that which is holding him back, which was himself. It’s no teammate. Someone said to me that Marcus made a great statement: ‘We need to hold him to that standard.’ Against a bigger, physical guy. It means you’ve got to work harder longer. You’ve got to figure out ways.
“But we also need to find a couple guys on the bench. I told Mychal Mulder, I said, ‘Mychal, we’re not making shots. This is perfect for you to come in practice and show us. Make shots. Build confidence in me that I can put you in. Build confidence in your teammates.’ And he missed his next eight shots, but that’s part of that growth of where he’s got to go with this, because we’re working for someone to come in and lift us off the bench. We have those six. Who’s seven, eight and nine?”
On where he expected Poythress to be a year after his injury: “I’m happy for him. Look, I have not thoughts of that injury. I hope he doesn’t. It’s just, I’m looking at him saying, ‘OK, what can we be. What’s the best version of you?’ That’s all he needs to think about.
“This is a process with this team. This is a normal year, guys. This is not last year, let’s win every game by 20. If three guys didn’t play well, I played the other seven. Can I say that again? If three guys didn’t play well, I played the other seven. Three guys don’t play now, I’m playing guys that have never played here before. That’s — we gotta figure this out together and guys have gotta be more consistent in their practices. We had a couple guys that had bad shootarounds. Been doing this 30 years and a bad shootaround leads to a bad start and a bad start, usually, you sustain that. And that guy did. I talked about it. We’re learning every day.”
