John Calipari: Great at recruiting, not so great with metaphors

After the Kentucky Wildcats beat the Montana State Bobcats on Sunday night by a decisive 86-28 margin, coach John Calipari was feeling pretty jovial.

But he tried to make a press conference audience understand the pressure his team is under through a clumsily devised metaphor.

“What these kids deal with, to be here, to play here, to be part of this program, they wear a 100-pound coat,” Calipari said.

“That’s 100 pounds,” he said. “The people coming in to play us got windbreakers. They’re loose as a goose. They’re just gonna go play.”

Some of the weight apparently comes from Calipari himself and his exacting standards, some of it comes from the "ridiculous" environment in Lexington. Some of it comes from lives of the players themselves.

Some of it, Calipari went on, comes from the media, specifically from talk about whether or not his team could beat the struggling Philadelphia 76ers.

"'Oh, 45 straight (wins),' Calipari said, in his best imitate-the-whiny-media-voice. 'They could beat the 76ers. Let's take a vote.' What?"

While that weight didn't appear to hinder Kentucky against Montana State, who the Wildcats limited to 19 percent shooting, Calipari might have a point about the attention heaped on his players.

As far as expressing that point goes, it sounds like the coach may need some practice.