John Calipari discusses UK basketball’s ability to overcome adversity after Vanderbilt win
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Game day: Kentucky 69, Vanderbilt 53
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn.
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Kentucky men’s basketball provided fans with a collector’s item late Tuesday night: A stress-free win.
The Wildcats started strong, led at halftime and put the game to bed early in the second half in a 69-53 win at Vanderbilt.
It was a true team performance from the Wildcats, with five players scoring in double figures and both Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe recording double-doubles.
For just the third time this season, UK held an opponent to 55 points or fewer.
Considering where things were only a few weeks ago, the vibes couldn’t be better for Kentucky right now: The Cats have tied their season-high with a four-game winning streak ahead of Saturday night’s marquee matchup inside Rupp Arena against No. 9 Kansas in the final edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Here’s everything that Calipari said after Kentucky won at Vanderbilt on Tuesday night:
Q. Question about this UK team overcoming adversity this season.
It’s been an avalanche, you got teams losing games around the country, and the only one that’s really the focal point seems to be that we’re awful and dying and I like this team. I mean, I’m saying it. I’ve told you before, we just had to get on the same page.
Let me tell you what’s a natural progression from a basketball team when you bring new guys together. A natural progression is they worry about themselves first. Because they’re trying to establish who they are, which means you’re thinking more inward, so you’re not doing the team outward stuff you need to do.
We couldn’t even do a scouting report early. We couldn’t, because everybody was worried about themselves. It’s natural. I’m not downing anybody, it is a natural progression, you ready, at every level. Not just here at Kentucky, but when you got new guys, now if the same team has been together three years, totally different.
So that part of it you know, CJ being out was another part of it. You see what he does for our team, he was hurt.
But I’m proud of Jacob, Sahvir and other guys because I told them my legacy will be what they do and what they overcome. That’s my legacy, not all this other records and all the other stuff, stop. It is how do the guys that I’m coaching, what do they overcome and respond to and how does it help them the rest of their lives?
Being at Kentucky, really hard being here. You struggle, it’s an avalanche, it is, and it’s personal, and it’s nasty. It’s okay. Because the other side of it is there’s no better place to go if you want to build yourself, get yourself mentally tough and strong and present yourself on the biggest stage, which is Kentucky basketball.
But the other side it’s hard. It’s a difficult road, but I’m so proud of them.
I kissed Sahvir I got sweat all over my face. I had to get a towel. I kissed him. I said I’m about ready to cry. I know what he’s been through. You don’t. Some people out there that threw stuff at this kid. You don’t know what it does. And I always come back to this, if it were your son how would you want him to be treated? If it were your son, how would you want him to be treated? And so you know this is part of the growing process.
Hey, this could flip on us, but the biggest thing with us is making shots. I’m not saying tough shots. I’m saying open shots. You make open shots we’re going to be pretty good. But you can’t go and start the game 0-for-12. We’ve done that. Now we’re starting like Antonio walk right in the game bang, made it. He’s on a different level from where he’s been. Jacob different level.
I had talked for two days about, ‘We’ve got to rush the ball up the court.’ We start the game walking it up the court. I had to put Sahvir in, I said ‘You’ve got one job: Get this going.’ And the game changed the minute he walked in and then Cason got to see it, and he did it. Now all of a sudden the ball’s whipping around ...
Early on, beginning of the year, everybody got it, I gotta establish myself. Before they pass, they bounce it, dance with it and then pass and he’d do the same and he’d do the same. We’re all losing our minds. Now you’re seeing they’re worried about one thing, our team.
I know what my job is in my role, and I’m going to do it and be an all-star in my role. So I should have answered every question that you guys have with that.
Q. What was it that led to that connectivity?
Crisis brings about change. A crisis. What was the crisis?
South Carolina.
Yeah. Now we had two starters out. You guys all wrote about that. Right? Ah, they had two starters out. You did, right? You talked about two starters out? But we did.
But it brought about a change in a crisis. And that’s where their meeting came in. I wasn’t in the meeting, a couple of staff members were in there. But my staff said it made me emotional because everybody admitted things that they need to admit. And they did. And now like I said, the only thing that brings about change is a crisis and a crisis in this sport is you lose.
Q. John, you talked about these guys being your kids. You knew what was being hurled at Sahvir, how hard was it to kind of keep your cool and not lash out?
It was hard. It was really hard because I wanted to do some stuff. And I thought, I’m not going to give people an opportunity to say I’m blaming anybody.
I’d never blame anybody. And I love our fans. The fans that are really into basketball, I love our fans. Now, with social media you get trolls, you get people from other programs or they’re just not basketball fans or they’re not fans of mine, and they go crazy. That doesn’t bother me.
It’s just that I keep looking and I’ll say it again. If it were my son, what would I do? How mad would I be and then it just wasn’t the right time to do anything. I needed him to do what he did. So everybody respects who he is as a player and respects that he’s taken on another role. And he’s being an all-star at that.
It didn’t change anything about his game. He gets to watch the game for a few minutes before he steps in.
Q. How hard is it for Sahvir to reinvent himself like that?
You’d have to ask him. You have to ask him.
Q. Question about the physicality that Sahvir brought to the game.
It’s how he plays. It’s how he plays. A lot of things piled up and there was a lot of garbage out there that he told me he didn’t read. And I tell them they may not be people that even like our program, why would you read that stuff?...
Hopefully he’s learned that from this and he also learned how that team in there loves him and how his coach is both feet in, ‘till the wheels fall off, for him.
Now, you may have to come off the bench, but so what? Doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I’m not for you. I won’t be there for the rest of your life as long as I’m living. But someone’s playing better. So they gotta be in. That’s team. Then you accept it and say I’m ready. What’s my role? I’m going to do this.
Q. Question about the postgame locker room environment with the team and Sahvir.
I talked about it and I talked about Jacob and you know what makes me proud is when I see guys overcome stuff like that, you know, like I said, at my age, I’ve taken more bazooka shots than anybody in this profession, maybe ever, and I’m still standing and what I usually say is I’ve just got to out live them.
Q. Question about Antonio Reeves’ recent performances.
He’s been good, very confident, playing better defensively, rebounding balls, mixing it up. And he’s not just worried about offense. He’s worried about playing.
But I put him in a high pick and roll late in that first half, bang. And those were all big plays to get out of there and have a lead at halftime like that.
This team, I saw them play Tennessee. You could say well, the big guy was out. I saw them play Georgia. They beat Georgia. Alabama, they had without the big guy, it was a six-point game with a minute to go, Alabama, who’s beaten everybody by 100.
So I’m proud of what we were able to do. That team, no one wants to play them I’m just telling you because they run good stuff and they can shoot. Our whole thing was tough twos. Let’s take out threes. They can’t make enough twos to beat us well, except when they shoot all layups. And I said I didn’t say layup twos, I said tough twos. I thought in the second half we did better.
Q. Question about what UK needs to improve on before the Kansas game.
It’s another game. They’re really good. Top 10 team coming in to Rupp. Bill’s a good friend. They’re good. Now hopefully we’re playing at our best, too.
This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 12:31 AM.
