Calipari: Cats need more intensity
March 12th, 2010 | 
Author: By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — John Calipari only hopes his young Kentucky Wildcats’ first postseason game delivered the message he’s been trying to send — tournament time requires more intensity and desire than the regular season.
John Wall had 23 points, including seven straight in the second half to give the Wildcats the lead for good, and No. 2 Kentucky overcame an 11-point deficit Friday in beating Alabama 73-67 in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals.
“I’m trying to convince this young team of 19-year-olds that either you want it more than they do or they want it more than you do,” Calipari said.
“And whoever’s in that mode in this tournament and the next one is going to win. And it’s just hard. I mean you think you’ve cracked it, and they’ve understood, then they come out the next game, and you know well, ’He pushed me, and I tried.’ He tried harder. You’ve got to try harder. All those kinds of things are what we’re dealing with right now.”
The win gave Kentucky its 12th 30-win season — the most by any school — and the Wildcats’ first since 2003 when they went 32-4. It’s also the fifth straight such season for Calipari and seventh overall to tie him with Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun for third-most among coaches.
Kentucky (30-2) will play No. 15 Tennessee, a 76-65 winner over Mississippi, in the semifinals Saturday in its quest to add a 26th tournament title to the 44th regular-season championship.
Patrick Patterson scored 20 and Eric Bledsoe 10 for Kentucky. DeMarcus Cousins, who had 18 double-doubles this season averaging 15.6 points and 10 rebounds per game, finished with seven points and eight boards.
The Tide just couldn’t match Wall or the crowd in essentially a road game in Rupp Arena South as Wildcat fans painted the inside of Bridgestone Arena blue.
Kentucky improved to 112-22 in this tournament and 9-1 in Nashville. The Wildcats now are 4-1 against Alabama in the quarterfinals, a program that ranks second to Kentucky in the number of tournament wins and titles in the league.
The Wildcats lead the series 100-35, including nine of the last 11 and five straight, even though fans didn’t get to crank up into a full roar until the second half. That’s when Wall took over and put Kentucky ahead to stay with his spurt, the last a three-point play to put the Wildcats up 43-42, their first lead since they were up 8-7.
“They told me the whole game to push it in transition, but I wasn’t getting there. I was trying to find my teammates,” Wall said. “Second half, I found the gaps and got into the lane.”
The freshman had brought fans to their feet with a driving layup, and waved his arms to urge them to turn up the volume as he went back down the floor after his next inside bucket. He followed with another layup to tie it at 42 with 13:51 remaining, drawing the foul that let him put the Wildcats ahead with the free throw.
Fans that rolled into town as early as Wednesday to start enjoying the Wildcats’ pursuit of their first tournament title since 2004 warmed up with a pep rally Friday morning — nearly three hours before tipoff.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive started the party off inside the arena by presenting the Wildcats’ their regular-season trophy about 10 minutes before tipoff. The players held it up for fans to enjoy and waved hands, encouraging them to yell, as if that was necessary.
Posted in UK Basketball
Cal’s outstanding winning record aside, it is still hard to understand why this team can’t be prepared to come out with intensity, confidence, and high energy to start the game. We are not an oustanding shooting team but supposedly the talent is there. You could tell that we weren’t shooting in the first half with any confidence. Dotson had that “deer in the headlights” look as the 3 t.o’s evidenced. We know that Dotson, Miller, and Liggins have the talent but they don’t seem to have the confidence or the “want to” to show up and play their best consistently. They seem to be lacking that “grit” or that pride to put on that uniform and give it their best. We are supposed to be peaking at this time of the year but our shooting, rebounding, and defensive intensity has dropped off last 3 or 4 games as wll as Cousin’s play. Hopefully, we will put it all together today and let the R factor take down UT.
I share your concern Mike. That is my biggest worry going into NCAA play. One bad start and it might be something the Cats cannot overcome. Anxious to see how they do today and hopefully tomorrow
I hate to say this, but sometimes I think they are lazy. I don’t mean in the lay around do nothing way, but not being motivated at times for some reason or another. Maybe it’s butterflies, maybe it is the think they can’t live up to the expectations of the BBN and all the credits. Maybe they are thinking are we gonna win this one, what mistake am I going to make today. Who is going to take me down today? I just can’t put my finger on it either. I know Cal has told them the importance of being ready, what they need to do, I know he motivates and loves these guys. Maybe it’s the generation. I really expected them to blow Florida out last week, I thought we would have blown Ala. out yesterday, but I’m HAPPY! I will take this year, as stated before, over the past 4-5 years put together. It has been fun, entertaining, breath taking and just superfantabulousglorious! No matter what the final outcome this year, I have nothing but praise for the Team and Coach Cal. GO CATS! 30-2