John Calipari says teams are not going to want to play Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. (Vicky Graff Photo)
John Calipari certainly had his swag back after Kentucky won at Mississippi State Wednesday night and he took a few shots at those who have been criticizing him and his team.
“It was a good win. You got people trying to talk us out of this (NCAA) tournament,” Calipari said on his postgame radio show with Tom Leach. “You can’t talk us out. Who would want to play us?
“We got to take care of business and get healthy. It’s going to be hard. All the teams (UK has left to play) are playing well. We need CJ (Fredrick). We need Sahvir (Wheeler). But we need them healthy.”
Calipari recalled 2014 when UK was a No. 8 seed in the NCAA and went on an incredible run — thanks to three game-winning shots by Aaron Harrison — to reach the Final Four.
“We got everything out ahead of us and I’ll say it again. There are a lot of teams. There are a lot of things that are rooting against us because people don’t want to play us in that tournament. I got a good team. I’m just trying to convince them of that,” Calipari said.
Kentucky hosts Tennessee, Auburn and Vanderbilt and has games left on the road at Florida and Arkansas. A win over the Vols, a team UK stunned in Knoxville, on Saturday would be a huge plus on the NCAA resume.
“This team has the ability to do some good things,” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens, a former UK All-American, said after Wednesday’s game. “I watched the last three practices to see what kind of mental approach this team was taking but also wanted to see stuff they were working on and if they understood what was in front of them.
“Cal has been using that win, just don’t lose (mentality) and has been pretty good for this team. Not anything mind boggling but it has helped them relax and understand what is in front of them.”
Kentucky won at Tennessee after losing at home to South Carolina and did so with Wheeler injured and both Jacob Toppin and Cason Wallace coming back after being out the game before.
Toppin said the team was “never going to back down” even when it has struggled.
“We’re in a hole right now, but we’re going to dig out of it. We believe we’re going to dig out of it,” Toppin said after Wednesday’s win. “We’re a great group of guys who are going to stay together, and we’re going to continue to fight to the end.
“We’re going to figure this out and turn it around. It started today, we got a good W.”
4 Responses
If I’m correct I don’t think the cats have been 100% healthy in one game this season. I thought CJ Fredrick was coming around to his form before he got hurt again.
Oh boy Cal..slow down..
If he is serious about what happened this past 2 weeks as being so positive, then he has no idea what high-quality play is about in this game.
Offensively, this team has settled into its range around its average, with only moderate variation from game to game. Over the last 10 games, the highest adjusted offensive efficiency has been about 1.2 ppp four times, and at or below 1.05 ppp four times. Two games ended with adjusted offensive efficiencies of 1.0 to 1.2 ppp, and the season average offensive efficiency is currently about 1.2 ppp. In contrast, the first 16 games ranged between a high of 1.5 ppp and lows of 0.79 and 0.76 ppp in games 10 and 15.
Defensive is a different story for this team. The adjusted defensive efficiency has continued to climb over the last 10 games, and while the magnitude of the range between the highest (poorest) and lowest (strongest) defensive games has remained about the same magnitude, the poorest levels over the last 10 games have been more frequenty and poorer overall than the poorest game defenses over the first 16 games. The current average adjusted defensive efficiency is about 1.02 ppp.
The great teams will have offensive and defensive efficiencies above 1.2 and below 0.9 ppp respectively.
This team, even in its recent wins, has not been performing on either of those levels.
Calipari is simply looking for anything to try to deflect criticism, and it no longer works on too many fans who are finally seeing this man’s coaching for what it is, a fraud.
Play our big boy for 10 to 12 minutes against Herman Munster – if he picks up 4 fouls so be it – it’s 3 or 4 “O” won’t have !