10-13-2011, 07:38 PM
I've had some complaints that some cannot open links from Kentucky.com do to the need for an account. For those who cannot open the link, here is the full transcript. I found a lot of this awesome information. Enjoy!
http://johnclay.bloginky.com/2011/10/13/...y/#wgt=rss
COACH CALIPARI: How about this? Our women’s volleyball team is in first place in the SEC. They stomped on Tennessee last night. How about that?
Q. You said if everybody played like Gilchrist you’d have a team on fire. What did you mean by that?
COACH CALIPARI: Yesterday in practice, he was just his (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) level of intensity, DeAndre Liggins’ (meant to say –Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s) starting point is where DeAndre (Liggins) finished. That’s what he is right now, only he’s 6‑7, he’s long, he can play inside, outside, he can guard three positions, or four positions for that matter, like DeAndre. He just brings a burning desire to get better. He was in the building last night like at 11 o’clock shooting. He’s like the guys that I’ve had here who ‑‑ they are chasing greatness.
Q. I read that this was your most talented team?
COACH CALIPARI: Who said that? The old, ‘I read it somewhere.’ (Laughter).
Well, last year’s team, it was more that they came together as a group and a unit. That was one of the best teams I’ve coached. I’ve coached three teams like that. I coached a team at UMASS like that ‑‑ I’ve only had three, and that last year’s team was that team. They just said, we are bringing it, I know we only have six guys, I know someone else maybe had more talent than we had, but that’s too bad, we are winning anyway.
This is different. This is kind of like my first year and a couple other years where I’ve had where you’re in a short order trying to get a group of talented players together to play. So it’s ‑‑ am I surprised kids want to come to Kentucky? No. Not at all. I would be surprised if they wouldn’t want to come. Why won’t you want to come.
Q. Are you surprised how well you’ve been able to recruit here?
COACH CALIPARI: Well, yeah, the aura of this program, the fans, the facilities, the SEC, there’s a lot of things here, and then all of a sudden, they see results of other past players, and what’s happening for those, why wouldn’t you want to be a part of this. Now, the issue, sometimes becomes, this is not for everybody.
The stuff ‑‑ look at you. I mean, there’s ‑‑ this is what it is, and they are going to feel it when they get in there. When they saw 600 tents lining up around ‑‑ let me go back, I think I was misquoted, I think it was 570, what was the exact number, so we don’t have to have people search it out and have people say I misspoke. 550? Is that exact?
So we are going with 600. I like that one better. (Laughter) but when they see that for five days and see games they start to realize, uh‑oh. And I really think, that’s one of the reasons that Michael Gilchrist is in that gym at eleven o’clock and Brandon was and John Wall was and Marquis Teague, Darius. They do this because there’s a sense of, wow, this is big, and I hope I’m for it. And that’s why I think the guys perform. They go farther than people think and they go to the league and they do better than people think. It’s kind of this whole environment, I call it the Kentucky effect, just kind of does it to you.
Q. On some rule changes heading into the season?
COACH CALIPARI: I like the arc underneath the rim. I wish it was a little bit bigger but I like the arc because we drive the ball and if you are in that arc you run the guy over and it’s a block, whether he’s there. It can’t be your own man now. That arc is under there for the secondary defender, but we are trying to beat our man on the dribble, which means there’s secondary guy coming over.
Well, if you’re in that area, you don’t have to worry about anything. Just run the guy over. Can’t be there. The old stand under the basket and take charges; that’s why they have done that arc, which I think is a good rule.
Q. How much does the pressure escalate at all?
COACH CALIPARI: Obviously we want to win national championships and I want to win national championships, but I’m more concerned about these players.
Let me say how do I do this, because sometimes I feel like I’m running for president because people tell you what I’m thinking or what I’m saying or what I mean by what I’m saying.
When I say players first, during the season, we are concerned solely about our team. Yes, we are trying to get guys better and we are putting them in positions to help us win.
During the season, it is about our team. The minute the season ends, it is about those individual players, and we help them make decisions. We give them information so they can make decisions on what they want to do. I think, and again, you do right by these kids, they drag you to what you’re trying to do, which is put up banners, and that’s how I feel.
And I just think that the pressure here, whoever is in this seat, is to win. One of the things I’ll tell you is I don’t take this as life or death and the reason I don’t take it like it’s life or death, is because you die a lot. And that’s game‑to‑game.
I just ‑‑ I’m doing the best I can. I have the peace of mind that I’m doing the best I can and I do know that I’m doing it for the kids, not myself; so that I can live with myself and know that we are doing right.
Q. The National Championship, getting back there ‑‑ how much do you like to hear it from players, how much do you not ‑‑
COACH CALIPARI: I like our guys to have peace of mind. I want to tell them that they are a talented group and they can do what they want to do. But I want them to have peace of mind, do the best you can, be your brother’s keepers; what is supposed to happen will happen. I want them to have peace of mind. I want them to also dream big dreams. I want them to think beyond their surroundings. I want them to feel good about why ‑‑ why make them feel bad about wanting to be the best? I want them to be the best. I want our team to be the best. But in between then, where we are now and that kind of goal is a lot of togetherness and a lot of sacrifice and guys having to give up some of their games and all those things.
It’s just what we deal with. I mean, the issue here is, we are doing it with freshmen. So my first year, three freshman, last year three freshmen, and all of a sudden, if you’ve ever coached this sport, you know, to get freshmen to, one, play without the basketball on offense, to make hard cuts that don’t really matter for the play, to make the extra pass, to not worry about stats, and then defensively play off the ball, to do all of the things to help your team, it’s just hard. I would like to get them to talk to one another on the court. That stuff’s hard and it takes time.
Last year we lost six league games on the road. We couldn’t win a road game, and by the end of the season we got together and we were good and we were one of those teams. We were one of the three or four teams that was playing their best basketball at the end of the year.
Q. What does the gold standard mean?
COACH CALIPARI: Goal standard is you want to be that standard that everybody else looks at and says, that’s how we want to be. I talked about our grade point average and with all of you in here, we had a 3.16 grade point average last term. Didn’t merit enough to write a story I guess. It was a 3.16 this summer.
And I said, let’s have the highest GPA in the country. That’s my challenge to my team. It doesn’t mean it’s absolutely a done deal, but that’s what you chase, just like you’re chasing a National Championship, let’s chase that.
Some of you, it gives you an opportunity, well, why would you say that because there’s some of you that will write, they only had a 2.4. He said they were trying to be ‑‑ so you have that part of it, but the other side of it is, so that means I’m going to try to tell them not to dream big dreams; go for it. We had the highest APR in the SEC. We had the highest APR ‑‑ you all knew that, right? That wasn’t written about, either.
What I’m trying to say is, let’s have the best APR in the country, and, let’s chase that national title, and let’s get five guys drafted in the first round. We want it all. Why shouldn’t you want it all? Why don’t dream big dreams? Now, we may not get any of it, but I know this; we’ll get closer to it if it that’s what we are striving for than we would if we weren’t.
Q. Now, when you talk about the players, how do you approach the different things about winning championships?
COACH CALIPARI: Well, again, when you make decisions after the season, if it was just about winning championships, what do you think I would recommend to all of these players? I’d say (speaking in mimicking tone): “Come back. I need to help your free throw shooting. You’ll be bigger ‑‑ you’ll be better prepared in the NBA by staying two more years.”
All I know is, I can’t do it that way. If I think a young man like Brandon Knight is going to be a top five, six, seven, eight pick and he’s got 60 college credits after one year of 4.0 work. I could have convinced him, why wouldn’t you want to stay another year or so and get a college degree. Why don’t you do that, with the back of my mind saying, I’m just trying to win more games.
I just don’t do it that way. And as this has happened, we encourage kids to chase their dreams. If we give them the information and that’s what they choose to do, we ‑‑ DeAndre, I told DeAndre I thought he should come back. He chose to leave. I’m for him. If that’s what he wants to do, I’m for him.
So that’s the kind of decisions you make when you’re about players first.
Q. Is there any validity to that, that you can’t win a national title with one-and-done players?
http://johnclay.bloginky.com/2011/10/13/...y/#wgt=rss
COACH CALIPARI: How about this? Our women’s volleyball team is in first place in the SEC. They stomped on Tennessee last night. How about that?
Q. You said if everybody played like Gilchrist you’d have a team on fire. What did you mean by that?
COACH CALIPARI: Yesterday in practice, he was just his (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) level of intensity, DeAndre Liggins’ (meant to say –Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s) starting point is where DeAndre (Liggins) finished. That’s what he is right now, only he’s 6‑7, he’s long, he can play inside, outside, he can guard three positions, or four positions for that matter, like DeAndre. He just brings a burning desire to get better. He was in the building last night like at 11 o’clock shooting. He’s like the guys that I’ve had here who ‑‑ they are chasing greatness.
Q. I read that this was your most talented team?
COACH CALIPARI: Who said that? The old, ‘I read it somewhere.’ (Laughter).
Well, last year’s team, it was more that they came together as a group and a unit. That was one of the best teams I’ve coached. I’ve coached three teams like that. I coached a team at UMASS like that ‑‑ I’ve only had three, and that last year’s team was that team. They just said, we are bringing it, I know we only have six guys, I know someone else maybe had more talent than we had, but that’s too bad, we are winning anyway.
This is different. This is kind of like my first year and a couple other years where I’ve had where you’re in a short order trying to get a group of talented players together to play. So it’s ‑‑ am I surprised kids want to come to Kentucky? No. Not at all. I would be surprised if they wouldn’t want to come. Why won’t you want to come.
Q. Are you surprised how well you’ve been able to recruit here?
COACH CALIPARI: Well, yeah, the aura of this program, the fans, the facilities, the SEC, there’s a lot of things here, and then all of a sudden, they see results of other past players, and what’s happening for those, why wouldn’t you want to be a part of this. Now, the issue, sometimes becomes, this is not for everybody.
The stuff ‑‑ look at you. I mean, there’s ‑‑ this is what it is, and they are going to feel it when they get in there. When they saw 600 tents lining up around ‑‑ let me go back, I think I was misquoted, I think it was 570, what was the exact number, so we don’t have to have people search it out and have people say I misspoke. 550? Is that exact?
So we are going with 600. I like that one better. (Laughter) but when they see that for five days and see games they start to realize, uh‑oh. And I really think, that’s one of the reasons that Michael Gilchrist is in that gym at eleven o’clock and Brandon was and John Wall was and Marquis Teague, Darius. They do this because there’s a sense of, wow, this is big, and I hope I’m for it. And that’s why I think the guys perform. They go farther than people think and they go to the league and they do better than people think. It’s kind of this whole environment, I call it the Kentucky effect, just kind of does it to you.
Q. On some rule changes heading into the season?
COACH CALIPARI: I like the arc underneath the rim. I wish it was a little bit bigger but I like the arc because we drive the ball and if you are in that arc you run the guy over and it’s a block, whether he’s there. It can’t be your own man now. That arc is under there for the secondary defender, but we are trying to beat our man on the dribble, which means there’s secondary guy coming over.
Well, if you’re in that area, you don’t have to worry about anything. Just run the guy over. Can’t be there. The old stand under the basket and take charges; that’s why they have done that arc, which I think is a good rule.
Q. How much does the pressure escalate at all?
COACH CALIPARI: Obviously we want to win national championships and I want to win national championships, but I’m more concerned about these players.
Let me say how do I do this, because sometimes I feel like I’m running for president because people tell you what I’m thinking or what I’m saying or what I mean by what I’m saying.
When I say players first, during the season, we are concerned solely about our team. Yes, we are trying to get guys better and we are putting them in positions to help us win.
During the season, it is about our team. The minute the season ends, it is about those individual players, and we help them make decisions. We give them information so they can make decisions on what they want to do. I think, and again, you do right by these kids, they drag you to what you’re trying to do, which is put up banners, and that’s how I feel.
And I just think that the pressure here, whoever is in this seat, is to win. One of the things I’ll tell you is I don’t take this as life or death and the reason I don’t take it like it’s life or death, is because you die a lot. And that’s game‑to‑game.
I just ‑‑ I’m doing the best I can. I have the peace of mind that I’m doing the best I can and I do know that I’m doing it for the kids, not myself; so that I can live with myself and know that we are doing right.
Q. The National Championship, getting back there ‑‑ how much do you like to hear it from players, how much do you not ‑‑
COACH CALIPARI: I like our guys to have peace of mind. I want to tell them that they are a talented group and they can do what they want to do. But I want them to have peace of mind, do the best you can, be your brother’s keepers; what is supposed to happen will happen. I want them to have peace of mind. I want them to also dream big dreams. I want them to think beyond their surroundings. I want them to feel good about why ‑‑ why make them feel bad about wanting to be the best? I want them to be the best. I want our team to be the best. But in between then, where we are now and that kind of goal is a lot of togetherness and a lot of sacrifice and guys having to give up some of their games and all those things.
It’s just what we deal with. I mean, the issue here is, we are doing it with freshmen. So my first year, three freshman, last year three freshmen, and all of a sudden, if you’ve ever coached this sport, you know, to get freshmen to, one, play without the basketball on offense, to make hard cuts that don’t really matter for the play, to make the extra pass, to not worry about stats, and then defensively play off the ball, to do all of the things to help your team, it’s just hard. I would like to get them to talk to one another on the court. That stuff’s hard and it takes time.
Last year we lost six league games on the road. We couldn’t win a road game, and by the end of the season we got together and we were good and we were one of those teams. We were one of the three or four teams that was playing their best basketball at the end of the year.
Q. What does the gold standard mean?
COACH CALIPARI: Goal standard is you want to be that standard that everybody else looks at and says, that’s how we want to be. I talked about our grade point average and with all of you in here, we had a 3.16 grade point average last term. Didn’t merit enough to write a story I guess. It was a 3.16 this summer.
And I said, let’s have the highest GPA in the country. That’s my challenge to my team. It doesn’t mean it’s absolutely a done deal, but that’s what you chase, just like you’re chasing a National Championship, let’s chase that.
Some of you, it gives you an opportunity, well, why would you say that because there’s some of you that will write, they only had a 2.4. He said they were trying to be ‑‑ so you have that part of it, but the other side of it is, so that means I’m going to try to tell them not to dream big dreams; go for it. We had the highest APR in the SEC. We had the highest APR ‑‑ you all knew that, right? That wasn’t written about, either.
What I’m trying to say is, let’s have the best APR in the country, and, let’s chase that national title, and let’s get five guys drafted in the first round. We want it all. Why shouldn’t you want it all? Why don’t dream big dreams? Now, we may not get any of it, but I know this; we’ll get closer to it if it that’s what we are striving for than we would if we weren’t.
Q. Now, when you talk about the players, how do you approach the different things about winning championships?
COACH CALIPARI: Well, again, when you make decisions after the season, if it was just about winning championships, what do you think I would recommend to all of these players? I’d say (speaking in mimicking tone): “Come back. I need to help your free throw shooting. You’ll be bigger ‑‑ you’ll be better prepared in the NBA by staying two more years.”
All I know is, I can’t do it that way. If I think a young man like Brandon Knight is going to be a top five, six, seven, eight pick and he’s got 60 college credits after one year of 4.0 work. I could have convinced him, why wouldn’t you want to stay another year or so and get a college degree. Why don’t you do that, with the back of my mind saying, I’m just trying to win more games.
I just don’t do it that way. And as this has happened, we encourage kids to chase their dreams. If we give them the information and that’s what they choose to do, we ‑‑ DeAndre, I told DeAndre I thought he should come back. He chose to leave. I’m for him. If that’s what he wants to do, I’m for him.
So that’s the kind of decisions you make when you’re about players first.
Q. Is there any validity to that, that you can’t win a national title with one-and-done players?