Some quick shots from UK’s basketball media opp today:
First off, there’s no player video. Not yet, anyway. We were brought into the Craft Center for our usual chance to interview two or three players, only to be hustled back out again after only 35 seconds with Terrence Jones. We were told that head coach John Calipari was ready for his interview. After Cal did his 12 minutes, we were told that there had been a communication mix-up, and that there would be no player interviews.
Maybe that’s the kind of communication that ends up getting a team beat six times by a total of 18 points.
Later, we were told that there we would be an opportunity to interview players after practice.
In his talking time, Calipari talked about his team’s “rebound attempts” went down in the loss at Arkansas on Wednesday, and how while some players make think they are playing hard, they’re not playing harder than the “other guy.” Or the opponent.
Cal did say that his team had a tremendous opportunity build a better resume with “the three best teams in the league” left on the schedule. After Saturday’s visit by Florida, Vanderbilt arrives in Rupp on Tuesday. Kentucky finishes up at Tennessee next Sunday.
And Cal all but said he has too many nice guys. Well, what he actually said was that he wished his guys were “a little rougher.” He joked that they had to stop the boxing with the heavy bags: “Four guys got hurt.”
When asked if his team had enough of a mean streak, the coach said, “Probably. They have it. But you know, you got to go get it. You got to go do it.”
