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Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari often talks about how players don’t have to make every shot but they also cannot miss every shot. So who has the green light to let it fly and what determines that?
Here’s how Calipari responded to those questions after UK’s exhibition game win over Georgetown College:
“Well, if you are open, you better shoot it. What I don’t want to see is drive through an open shot and turn it over. My biggest thing in the first half, we — instead of just making easy plays, we were trying to make hard plays. So we, I think, had seven or eight turnovers at halftime. Literally, a pass to the wing, we are trying to do something. Well, just look at the guy and throw it to him. Why do you have to do that? Or I will look that way and drop a ball. So it is just contagious,” Calipari said.
“I want them to shoot. Justin Edwards got himself going because he got to the rebound and he got to the foul line, missed some shots, but, still, we know how good of a player he is.”
“I know how good D.J. is. I was begging him to shoot jump shots, pull up, and shoot jump shots. He is so good going to the rim. He gets to where, all right, we need a basket, I will go and get one. He has done that his whole life. I’m saying, if you go on pick and rolls, shoot a 25-footer, I’ve seen you make them, let it go.”
One Response
Getting to the rim won’t be as easy as it would be if he demonstrates that he has an outside shot. There are plenty of scorers on this team; he doesn’t have to carry the scoring load every game.
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