Could BJ Boston see his playing time cut because of his shooting? (SEC Photo)
Obviously John Calipari has to be frustrated with his team even if he does not want to say so publicly — and I get that. However, for UK to be 1-4 when all summer everyone heard Calipari talking about how much he liked this team — and no real mention of unexpected struggles because of the team’s youth — has been hard for many UK fans to understand.
That’s why I thought I would share how Calipari ended his postgame Zoom press conference after Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame when UK couldn’t quite overcome a 22-point halftime deficit.
“Look, I said this morning, I told the guys, I woke up this morning and what I said was, ‘Lord, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to coach here, to coach these young people,'” Calipari said. “And I know, I told them, adversity is going to make you tougher, it’s what it is, and this comes at you, especially at Kentucky.”
Now pay attention here.
“Losing games in a row here is like a natural disaster. And you know what? I’m not buying it, I don’t listen to it, I never have. Whether we’re winning games or losing games, my focus is on how do I help these guys get better. And some of them, you got to dig your heels in or someone else plays. Dig your heels in or someone else plays,” Calipari said.
“And every year it’s kind of like this, Davion (Mintz) missed every shot, so he didn’t shoot a couple. You can’t do that. What you should be is in the gym tonight. Go back to the craft, go in the gym and get a manager and put 500 shots up. That’s what you do. You don’t stop shooting. You go 0-for-8 and everybody says, ‘That kid can’t shoot at all.’ And you go in the gym and next game you go 8-for-8. Because you work on yourself mentally and physically. You do that.”
Now here comes the really interesting part.
“We got a ways to go, but some strides. We played through Olivier (Sarr) today. So guys that are shooting 12 percent from the three and 30 percent from the floor, you’re not getting the ball as much. I’m sorry, that ball’s going to Olivier (Sarr). That ball will go to Isaiah (Jackson), maybe,” he said.
“Maybe we’ll go pick and roll. But like, again, how we’re going to play is going to develop now that Terrence (Clarke) is playing point (guard).”
For your information, BJ Boston is shooting 19 percent (5-for-26) from 3-point range and 38 percent (28-for-73) overall. Davion Mintz is shooting 22.7 percent (5-for-22) from 3 and 30.6 percent (11-for-36) overall.
Those are the worst shooting percentages among players playing the most minutes so you decide who, if anyone, might get benched more going forward.
