By LARRY VAUGHT
Now that we are three weeks from Selection Sunday, let Kentucky coach John Calipari explain what areas he likes about his team and what areas specifically the Wildcats need to improve on before NCAA Tournament play begins.
“The 40-minute game; make a couple bad plays, it should not lead to two or three more. Get  you know, grab the team. It is kind of like this. At times, the quarterback throws (when we) need a first down. It is third and 12 and he throws it to the guy four yards in. ‘Well, he should have ran.’ No, you shouldn’t have thrown it to him.’ We need to get it to the 12 yards, not four.
“So we’re making some of those plays where we’re throwing it to the wrong guy at the wrong time in the wrong place and then get mad at him because he makes a bad play. That stuff, we got to cure that. You just got to know ‘not now.’ We got a nice lead or it is a close game, I’m not  we will pull it out. We execute. We are a skilled team.
“We only had 10 turnovers again (against South Carolina Saturday). I mean, sometimes I think when we only have 10, we are not playing fast enough. We got to play more aggressive. I like it to be 11, 12. When we had eight, I think it was against Vandy. It is obvious we are not playing aggressive enough. You will have turnovers when you play fast and play hard that way.
“But we are getting better at executing offensively, both zone and man. They’re more focused on doing their job. I just told them, ‘Let’s own the last five minutes of every game we play, let’s own it. Let that be our time.’ And so I’m trying to do everything I can to get their minds off the score and on execution. I don’t want them to play not to lose. You have to just play to win and you got to execute.â€Â
Got that?
Well, the football comparison was a bad one because the UK football team threw four-yard passes on 3rd-and-10 all season. Surely Cal didn’t mean that was bad strategy like most UK football fans believed it was.
But I think what Calipari was saying is that the Cats still need to learn to play a full 40 minutes, play faster and more aggressive, make better decisions and learn to finish games in dominating fashion.
If they do that, then this Kentucky team may yet play longer in March than many still believe.
7 Responses to Calipari (sort of) on what areas UK must improve on before NCAA
Leave a Reply
Blue Zoom Radio Show
Polls
Loading ...Choose Your Favorite!
Not only the team needs to be peaking it also take a good draw and a lucky bounce of the ball to go far in march madness.Go cats!!!
What is most odd about the turnover situation is that they will sail along without a turnover and then boom, boom, boom, they turn it over in three or four straight trips. If they could just limit their turnover “runs”, it would go a long way towards maintaining some of their leads and or comebacks.
I think the NCAA tourney is EXACTLY what this team needs. The SEC teams, the SEC road games with the hostile “we’re so jacked about this game, we got special shirts” crowds and especially the SEC refs are just too brutal and taking an unbelievable toll. Getting to a neutral court, against teams that aren’t familiar with them and don’t view it as their biggest game of the decade, is JUST what this team needs and is when I think they will return to being special.
In the meantime, they just need to do what Cal is saying and play every minute like they don’t know the score. Execution is execution and mistakes are mistakes, no matter WHAT the score is. If you are sloppy with a big lead, you won’t have it long. THAT seems to be what this team doesn’t get.
But it’s getting a little late in the season for things to start clicking. If it hasn’t happened yet, I’m not real sure it will.
It could be a short NCAA, or a really fun NCAA. I don’t think either scenario would surprise me. If this team stays out of foul trouble and shoots well from 3  and it can  then it could make some big noise
Good point Larry. Go Cats!!!
All our teams seem to play better once they get away from the SEC. This team is going to be fun to watch and I hope all six play their best.
Larry, I agree with you. I never know what to expect when we go to the game. We come out in warm ups and are just that – warm. Then, we play lukewarm -or maybe on fire. It just doesn’t make sense to me at all. I have followed basketball my entire life, and I just cannot put my finger on the problem. It’s not a lack of talent; it’s really not a lack of aggression in most cases – it is almost as if they just don’t have a killer instinct about them. As I told you earlier, I still never see any kidding around or laughing in warm ups which makes me think they are not having fun like they did last year. But, they are still my CATS. Go Big Blue. Heading to Arkansas after work tomorrow.
Sarah, starting to worry you are distracting the guys with your travels across the SEC this year to watch them. You have to get us a win at Arkansas to redeem yourself