‘All he’s been preaching.’ Kentucky’s Calipari driving home coaching message.
It’s been impossible to miss what coaching point John Calipari has been emphasizing recently.
On his radio show Monday night, the Kentucky coach used some variation of the word “fight” 28 times. He also said the word “tough” three times and the word “battle” once.
In case the point hadn’t already been jack-hammered into the collective mind of the Big Blue Nation, Calipari mentioned fight or fighting another 15 times during a Thursday news conference that lasted less than 13 minutes.
Ever the marketer, Calipari also showed he had mastered alliteration in finding a catchy way to plant his message into his players’ minds.
When asked about Calipari stressing the need to fight, Immanuel Quickley said, “That’s all he’s been preaching these last couple days, last couple weeks. Fight and finish. Those are the two main words.”
While Kentucky next plays Saturday against Fairleigh Dickinson, Calipari put the need for great fight in a big-picture context. He repeated Thursday what he said on the radio three nights earlier: an ultimate payoff in the 2020 NCAA Tournament depends on — you guessed it — a will to fight.
“If we don’t become an unbelievable defensive team, we will not be playing late in March,” Calipari said. “We will not. If we are that, and we rebound and have some toughness about us, fight, then we’ll have our chances to advance and do what we want to do.”
Calipari said he wanted UK players to fight for rebounds, fight through screens, fight to get open, fight to establish post position.
“You fight harder than he is to try to keep you from catching it,” the UK coach said as if addressing a player and his hypothetical opponent. “And if he’s there, you fight harder than he is. Fight! You fight over a screen. Fight! Run him into a screen. He’s fighting to keep you from catching it.”
As for Calipari’s other f-bomb: He said Kentucky’s play in the last four minutes of games has been “atrocious.”
Cal a fighter
It’s a common adage in sports that a team can reflect a coach’s personality. This has not been the case so far, Calipari said.
ESPN analyst Dick Vitale agreed.
“John is a fighter, a guy that all his life has been a competitor,” Vitale said. “Came from nowhere. Wasn’t a great player. Wasn’t a big name. Battled to get where he’s at.
“And he knows what fighting is all about. He wants his team to represent that.”
Calipari acknowledged that he was not a star player. He said his son, Brad, a walk-on at UK before transferring to Detroit Mercy, is a better player than he was at UNC Wilmington and then Clarion State.
Vitale said that practice drills can instill toughness. But the ESPN analyst said UK’s short-handed roster with Nate Sestina and Dontaie Allen sidelined with injuries makes that more difficult.
The drills and practice are designed to produce a competition for playing time, Vitale said. “If you’re limited to five or six guys, the control is on their side,” he said. “They’re going to get their playing time.”
Calipari literally sighed a “whew!” as he spoke of this week’s Kentucky practices.
“We might as well put helmets on,” he said. “It’s like lacrosse. I might as well give them sticks.
“We’re still short-handed. I’m like, ‘Forget it. I don’t care. Let’s go.’”
Instill fight?
An overriding question might be: Can toughness and competitive fight be instilled in a player? Many coaches have said they would rather work to channel a player’s existing zeal rather than try to create a passion for athletic combat.
“You can try drills that bring out competitiveness,” Vitale said before adding, “That’s within yourself. Your personality.”
Said Quickley: “I think we’ve got it in us. It just needs to be brought out.”
When asked about the difficulty of instilling fight in a player, Fairleigh Dickinson Coach Greg Herenda said, “I don’t have a heart transplant degree. I have a business degree.”
Herenda said he believed Calipari’s players have fight. He added that he could identify with the UK coach’s desire for more fight.
“His expectation level, like mine, is just so high because we always think you can play harder,” Herenda said. “You can be more prepared.”
The fight that coaches talk about is about “urgency and intensity,” the Fairleigh Dickinson coach said. “Without those things it’s hard to win championships.”
On its level, Fairleigh Dickinson also seeks fight, toughness and championships.
“We’re a New York university,” Herenda said. “And we’re in the shadow of the Empire State Building. Guess what? We’ve got to play like that.”
Saturday
Fairleigh Dickinson at No. 8 Kentucky
When: 4 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Fairleigh Dickinson 2-5, Kentucky 6-1
Series: First meeting
