Mark Stoops told his strength and conditioning coaches he wanted a more physical team this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops made it clear at Tuesday’s press conference that he wants the Cats to get back to not only being more accountable but also to return to the physical style of play that enabled UK to play with other SEC teams.
Kentucky was 1-7 in league play last season and Stoops brought 31 new players — 21 transfers, 10 freshmen — on campus this month.
Now he has to balance making his team more physical during spring practice but not also risking injuries to key players.
Stoops said protecting players from injuries is important.
“I had a long talk with our strength and conditioning team back in December and then once again in January before the players’ arrival that I’m asking a lot of them because they do a remarkable job,” Stoops said. “But there are areas where I want to improve physically.
“Part of that is on us to recruit the right players to give them the right bodies to work with that can handle things. But our group does an amazing job, our strength and conditioning team always … they have my full confidence and they do a great job in a lot of areas. But I asked them to push it a little bit and continue to do the things that they do with strength and conditioning, they do mobility, a remarkable job of injury prevention and just they are the experts in that area.”
The next phase for Stoops is pushing the players to where they can do and withstand more.
“There will be soft tissue things that happen, some injuries that happen,” Stoops said.
Stoops insisted spring practice that starts March 10 will be to “get back to being who we are” and not like the team was last year.
“We are going to be fundamentally good and tough and play the game the right way and we are going to be physical,” Stoops said. “It starts there. If you don’t have those things, you have no chance.
“Again, you could go back to my day one press conference, I said some form of that and that is the truth. Do we want all of the other things? Of course. You have to be to win with the schedule that we have. And, so, but we have enough bodies to be able to function and to be physical.”
