Everything John Calipari Said After Kentucky's 88-73 Win at Arkansas

Below is everything Kentucky head coach John Calipari said after the Wildcats' 88-73 win at Arkansas: 

Q: Antonio's game, what can you say? 

A: Well, the most impactful player, who you think got it? we don't win the game unless CJ decides to play hurt. If he did not play we would not have won the game and he was hurt. And he played anyway. He was most impactful player. That means — you're not going to be able to damage yourself, but you may hurt your your stats. I play anyway. I said 'I need five minutes a half.' He said 'you got it.' He said 'I will tell you if I can't go anymore,' and near the end he told me 'I can't go anymore.' That was the most impactful player. 

Let me say this before I move on. With all the stuff that went through our state again. You know, our thoughts and prayers are with everybody back in Lexington, west, where that stuff went through. And I want to tell you, don't think we weren't thinking about that as a team, because we know what this team means to the state of Kentucky. We know what it means to the state of Kentucky, can't tell me any different and people watching that, maybe it picked them up a little bit. Maybe, I don't know where they watched it because there's still electricity off. They may have had to go somewhere. My guess is, wherever they had to go to watch the game, they did. So I'm hoping they enjoyed it. I mean, you know you're playing without a point guard. You're playing at the end with two guards. That's it and one had four fouls.

Q: What did you think of that guard Play? 14 assists. Not many turnovers among, among Adou, CJ and Antonio. I guess how are you able to do that with no point guard?

A: We had 16, but our key was, we didn't want live-ball turnovers, where you're leading them out on the break. And then the second half, we started sending two guys back on defense because they were leaking out. Someone from our team shot it, they had two guys just running, like thinking they could rebound it anyway. Again, I think we ended up out-rebounding by six. But you know, the last game they played against us they shot 63. You notice we played different. Now, I hate to tell you, we talked the same way, but this time we demanded and then we got a zone ready yesterday. Now we have a zone but we just haven't worked on it that well — we did yesterday. The kids did great. They did great. Long rebounds a little bit hurt us in the zone, but we made them take the shots we wanted them to take. Now they made some of them, but that's fine.

Q: You look at the Vanderbilt game compared to this game, when you have Adou going up the court, seemed like you were using a lot of screens —

A: Well, we were trying to, but the biggest thing with he and Chris, they're freshmen. You saw the lazy play or the casual play by Chris and Adou does the same thing. The intensity, the fight is a level they've not seen. So at the end of the game, the kids dribbling and here comes a kid stealing it. What? No. Or you're coming down and you're messing with the ball, like it's a workout drill, and a guy tips it from you and goes. They got to learn that lesson and I think Adou learned it last game. He played good today. Play good today. Missed some shots but you know, he's not perfect. Our offense, again, that we kind of talked about yesterday and put it in practice — we couldn't practice Thursday. We didn't know all these guards would be out Thursday. But I demanded to know yesterday before we practiced. 

They had to tell me whether they were playing or not before we practiced. Bang, okay. And then I went and we prepared a practice with who was there. Had Jacob bringing it up some, that was planned. You know he can handle it. So we'll bring it up with somebody else. We put Jacob on (Anthony) Black, because Black really hurt us last game. I've done that before. I haven't done it this year, but I've done it before and I've done it with Jacob before. The other thing we did, we absolutely short-closed on everybody, knowing that they would make some shots and they did they made 31% They made seven threes. The way we played, you're gonna give some of that up. But the way we played offensively, the way we moved the ball and the way we posted it, what we did, Oscar early in the game, was really good stuff.

Q: Antonio had some uncharacteristic misses at the free throw line Wednesday. And today, I mean, the best game of his season. Just talk about his resilience and the team's resilience as a whole

A: Yep, Chris missed some free throws today. Can't do it. Adou missed one, Adou held the ball to get fouled like he's in high school. Well, you know what I said? 'All right, you make them both.' You don't hold the ball and then go miss free throws. That means — you're not sure, give it to somebody else. Let them shoot it. And that's what Jacob said 'throw it, i'm right here.' And then he missed one. Chris made some plays at the end, but here's what I would say: Did I even sub Chris? maybe for a minute? Did I even sub Antonio at all?

A: And they made free throws and plays down the stretch, they fought to win. Does that make us in third place? is that what we become? I was thinking we're gonna have to leave a day early if something happened.

Q: On that note, how big is that specifically for the health of maybe Cason to have that extra day (of rest)?

A: No, no. What I'm saying from this point and through the weekend tournament, we have to understand how we got to play, how we got to fight, how we have to execute. If that means win games like today, great. if it means ah, they made a bank shot, they made a walk on a step back — drag his foot, walk and make it, and they don't call it and it's like 'boom' and you lose the game? Stuff like that happens. It happens. But as long as we play, we fight, we execute, we're preparing for that next tournament. And that's the most important thing.

Q: John you've talked about positionless basketball. Did we see some of that today?

A: It was. It was that. Played a two-three zone. You know what's funny? there are people that'll take credit for us playing zone — 'I've been telling him to play zone, he wouldn't listen to me and play zone.' I mean, I'm amazed that somebody who's never coached or played and you know — 'They finally listened to us.' I don't listen to anybody. I don't listen to my wife...yeah I do. Princess, yeah. When she calls up I pick up the phone, even if it's right now. They knew when it was time to go zone. Oscar had four (fouls), Antonio had four, and Jacob said 'coach, let's go to the two.' I said 'alright.' And then, Lance was the one that said 'let's go back man,' In the last minute. I said 'let's go.' If they make suggestions, I'm always taking them because they'll make it work.

Q: What about Cason, do you think he'll be ready next week? 

A: I have no idea. No idea. 

Q: What did you think of the impact of the Devonte Davis ejection there early in the second half? You got a six-point possession out of that

A: That was — they called a technical on us too, I mean, so the two of those were taken away and they had theirs, but you know, I don't know. I mean, he's really good player and this is a really good team. Are they top 20 in the NET?. Yeah, that ain't gonna change. They're in the NCAA Tournament. You know, I just want to get home. Make sure that the electricity is on at my house. My wife was at our father's birthday so she'll be in before me, which is good, she can clean up the place. But I I'm joking about it, but they were showing me trees down, and people — somebody was killed when a tree went down. We did this, and these kids knew about it because we talked, and it's another uplifting thing that these guys have done

Q: With Oscar in the first half, a couple of altercations there, pretty uncharacteristic for him. What led to that?

A: (Tshiebwe) starts getting frustrated. You know, you just get grabbed and pushed and held enough that you get frustrated. Watch the tape. They're not allowed to block out facing him. That is an 'ope!' As soon as they do it, it's a foul... no it isn't, but that is a foul. The rulebook says 'you cannot face a guy and block him out.' That's a foul. So, he gets frustrated with it. He's trying to go rebound and the guy, it's like a lineman in football putting two arms around a defensive player, it's frustrating. You're going to throw your arms and go crazy to get around him. But that's not him. I mean, he's been here two years, you've not seen him do anything like that. So, for him to be upset, you know, but I'll watch the tape, I'll watch it on the way home.

Q: Could you have scripted a better way to go into the SEC tournament than winning in an environment like that, against a team — as you mentioned — top 20 in the NET?

A: Well, and then shorthand. We had no point guard, we're playing with guards and hoping they can get it across half court. Now, the adjustment (Eric Musselman) made, was he put No. 13 (Walsh) on my point guard and we were struggling. Cause we were going to stay pick-and-roll the whole time, except when he did that —and that guy was great, he had two hands on the guy, he was pushing, you know, he was — and that made it a little bit harder for us to play that way. So it was a great adjustment by them. But we made some threes. You do understand how many times that's happened to us? The shot clock's winding down and they bank one. So we made a couple. Okay, we're supposed to too. But Jacob made them. Antonio made them, I didn't look at Antonio's points...He had 37?

RESPONSE: And he only had two threes.

A: Yeah, but he had one turnover, that's crazy. Wow, I didn't know. Maybe he was another, maybe we had co-impactful players. 

More on the win over the Razorbacks HERE.

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