(The video is after the jump.)
If you know John Calipari, you know he has themes-of-the-moment, and he will relentlessly drive home those themes in an effort to make his point with his team. Themes-for-the-team. Today’s media opp previewing Tuesday night’s game with Ole Miss was a good example of the Calipari Way.
A prevailing Cal theme these days is his insistence that while his freshmen are good, the team really belongs to upperclassmen Josh Harrellson, DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller. (It’s the same thing Mike DeCourcy wrote from Saturday’s win over Georgia for Sporting News.) Cal said he met with his veteran trio again and told them they need to take control now that the team is going on the road again.
“If the freshmen play well, great, we’ll win,” Calipari said. “If they don’t play well, we’ve got to win anyway. . . . You, the two juniors and a senior, this is your team.”
His other theme is that this team has yet to play to its potential. He knows he’s asking a lot, that some guys are close to their potential. But he still wants more. He thinks Terrence Jones played good defense and rebounded well on Saturday, but that at times when the ball comes to him “it just stops.” He wants Jones to be the most well-rounded player in America. He wants Brandon Knight to be the best point guard who scores. He wants Darius Miller to be one of the best players in the conference. He wants Doron Lamb to play with motor. He wants it all, in other words.
As for Ole Miss, Cal pointed out that the Rebels led Tennessee by a point late in the second half before losing on Saturday. He said that the Rebels’ star guard Chris Warren can “make shots that change games.” But he said that the other Mississippi players can feed off of Warrren, that Andy Kennedy uses good spacing to create driving lanes. Cal didn’t mention that Ole Miss shot just 26.7 percent in the loss to the Vols.
He also talked about the upsets in the league on Saturday, with Auburn winning at South Carolina and Arkansas winning at Vanderbilt. “We’re all about four points away from each other,” he said.
And, at the first of the video, Cal is asked to name the best athlete on the team. Apparently, Brandon Knight had previously given his opinion, so Cal was asked for his.
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