Photo by Darrell Bird, CatsPause.com
“If it’s a late game and it’s tight, who do you think I’m gonna go to? I don’t care if he’s shooting 12%, I’m going to him. The reason is demonstrated performance. I’ve seen it, I know it. I’m not testing the waters with other guys. Ain’t happening.”Even the purest shooters can panic in clutch situations. Not Aaron. “He believes he’s making it. Everyone in the building believes he’s making it. The other team believes he’s making it,” Cal said. “We’ve just gotta create it so he can get it off.”
Meanwhile, your Calipari GIF of the day:
Today Coach Cal confirmed what we already believed to be true: the new series with UCLA will serve as a replacement for the North Carolina series for two years. “North Carolina has already sent us a contract for after those two years,” Cal said today. “This is plugging that hole right now.”
Kentucky is scheduled to play North Carolina in Las Vegas in 2016 as part of the CBS Sports Classic, so the home-and-home series needed that year off. But taking off one season throws off both schedules, so the two sides agreed to take a two-year hiatus to accommodate the CBS tournament and keep their home schedules balanced for the future.
Therefore, we get a trip to UCLA next season and a visit from the Bruins in 2016 before it’s back to Cats and Heels.
In related news, No. 5 North Carolina stomped No. 22 UCLA last night, 78-56. We’ll see them in back-to-back weekends beginning December 13th with UNC coming to Rupp, followed by a subzero trip to Chicago on December 20th. Can’t wait.
John Calipari’s always had some swagger, but with his most talented squad ever holding teams like Kansas to 40 points, at times, it feels like Swaggy Cal has completely taken over. How can you spot a Swaggy Cal? Here are ten telltale signs:
1. He talks in his “whiny media voice”
This season, Calipari has a campaign against the “clutter” heaped on his players by the media. Everyone is buzzing about the Cats right now and Cal is distinctly “anti-clutter,” even if he talks about it so often that he creates a lot of it himself. On Sunday night, Calipari mimicked the clutter in his special “whiny media voice”:“Wait a minute. What about the media? 45 straight. They got to win ‐‐ can they beat the 76ers? Let’s take a vote. What?”Now if he would just complain about transcribing and free food in that voice, he’d totally nail the impersonation.
2. When asked a question, he talks about a completely different topic
Calipari is the master of controlling a conversation. When asked a question, he’ll only really answer it if that’s what he wants to talk about. If not, he’ll change the topic to whatever’s on his mind. On Sunday, a question about Devin Booker’s shot selection quickly morphed into an answer about his players dealing with the pressure and expectations of being a UK basketball player, which Cal called “wearing a hundred-pound coat.” Speaking of…3. He breaks out the catchphrases
The coat, the tweak, the platoons, reinforcements, tanks on a hill, hum ditty-ditty! Pooping ice cream, fifth-most shots, fourth-most shots, brother’s keeper. If Cal really likes something, he’ll turn it into a catchphrase……and then run it into the ground.
4. He talks to fans about autographing basketballs during the postgame show
After he’s done with his postgame press conference, Calipari goes back out on the court to do radio with Tom Leach. In a growing tradition, fans stick around to listen and get autographs from Cal while he’s on the radio, and this season, he’s so swaggy that he’s telling fans what kind of basketballs he’ll sign while on the air.“Now, guys, I’ll only sign the ones without the pebbles because the pebbles tear up my pen.”Captain #TeamNF reporting.
“Walk down. There you go. You were going to hit someone on the head.”
“I love you all, but I’m not signing those pebble balls.”
5. He sends out “pump the brakes” tweets to fans
Odds he was doing this when he wrote that?
![swaggycal2[1]](http://ksr.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/swaggycal21.gif)
6. He brings a balloon to his press conference
@UKAthletics
“Why does that go all over the world, by the way? The whole world, yeah, but it was like they invited me to Good Morning America to talk about it. What? It is my daughter’s birthday. Man I got platoons and…”To clarify, “Good Morning America” didn’t really invite him on, but Cal said he would accept if they did, because of course.
7. He does his press conferences in “call and response” style
Ain’t no press conference like a Calipari press conference. What other coach flips the script and makes reporters answer questions? Swaggy Cal dangles statements and stats out there for reporters to finish, and if they don’t, he chastises them for not being “basketball Bennies.” You know Cal’s REALLY feeling great when he spars with Jerry Tipton.
8. He calls himself the magician
Cal, or rather “John in Kentucky,” famously called into the Mike Francesa show this summer to defend himself when Francesa said he’s not a great X’s and O’s coach. “Are you saying I can’t coach? Why didn’t you say that while I was sitting next to you? You said ‘he’s not great at X’s and O’s.’ That’s basically saying I can’t coach. You know what they call me? A magician. ‘Cal the magician.’”Definitely not “The humble magician.”
9. He pauses after statements and gives everyone “that look”
Yeah, that’s the one.
10. He calls out his enemies
We all remember Pat Forde’s article after the loss to South Carolina telling Calipari to lie in the bed he made. Turns out that bed was pretty comfortable; however, with expectations ratcheting up and the media just waiting for the platoon system to fail, Cal couldn’t help but get in another shot at Forde:“You’ve got people right now on radio silence because there’s not enough to write that story. The problem is they’ve written those stories and gotten burned because we turned it around and they look like fools, so there’s radio silence right now because they’re not going to do it yet.”Swaggy Calipari never forgets.
… John Calipari made his head coaching debut at the University of Massachusetts. A babyfaced Coach Cal led the Minutemen to a 84-61 win over Southern Connecticut in his college basketball debut. Four year later he would win 1992 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honors, then again in 1993 and 1996, the year he also won National Coach of the Year and took UMass to its first Final Four.
Now, 602 wins later, he is the head coach at the University of Kentucky with what could end up being one of the best teams in history.
Happy Coaching Birthday, Cal.
Two of Providence’s contributors in the backcourt, one being the starting point guard, suffered ankle injuries Sunday that will likely keep them out of action against Kentucky. Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey underwent X-rays and MRIs yesterday to determine the extent of the injuries and head coach Ed Cooley expects them to be out of the next two games.
“They both have really bad sprains, tender to the touch,” Cooley said of his guards, who are both on crutches. “They’re very, very doubtful.”
Dunn is averaging nine points and over seven assists in 27 minutes per game as the team’s floor general. Lindsey, a freshman from Huntington Prep, has provided shooting relief off the bench, averaging over five points while shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc.
Add these injuries to the loss of Texas’ starting point guard and UK is getting some unwanted help in two of its most difficult home games this season.
UCLA took the Battle 4 Atlantis court immediately after North Carolina’s loss to Butler, and the Bruins didn’t do any better. Kentucky’s December 20th opponent in Chicago lost to Oklahoma, 75-65.
That Kevon Looney guy is pretty tough, though.
Bring it.
UCLA head coach Steve Alford spilled the beans to ESPN.com on the top secret home-and-home series KSR teased you about on the radio last week. It’s a deal with UCLA that would send Big Blue Nation to California next season. UCLA would then come to Rupp Arena in 2016, making it three straight years we’ll see the Bruins.
Josh Hopkins, you live in Los Angeles, your thoughts?
@jamiestogs13
Last night on the KSR postgame show, a Louisville fan called in to say he recently had a change of heart regarding John Calipari.
The caller, Tim, worked Sunday’s UK-Montana State game for the SEC Network and was assigned to Cal’s in-game audio for the new ‘Wired’ feature, giving him a unique and uncensored perspective into Cal’s coaching.
“I got to listen to everything Cal said for about two and a half hours,” Tim told KSR. “I got a perspective to Cal as a coach, as a man, as a guy who loves his team, that I never thought I would get. The guy who is in the huddle with that team is a different guy than is on the podium at a press conference.”
“It was shocking to me. He loves the players. He loves them as brothers; he loves them as a man; he’s trying to get them to reach their individual potential. He is trying to get them as a team to reach a potential that he sees and maybe they don’t even see it for themselves.”
Tim said the perception of Calipari in press conferences is it’s all about Cal and nationally he is seen as a guy who brings in the 10 best players in the country and gets credit for coaching them up when he rolls the ball out there. “That’s not at all what’s going on. He has got a mind of a coach way beyond Xs and Os.”
Definitely give the call a listen in the podcast from last night, below. Tim’s call begins at the 14:50 mark and it includes a story of Cal asking Andrew what he wanted to do with Dominique Hawkins and why:
No. 5 North Carolina just lost to unranked Butler in the Battle 4 Atlantis quarterfinals this afternoon. Player of the Year candidate Marcus Paige scored 18 points for the Heels, but he looked erratic at times and went 5-for-17 from the field, including 3-for-10 from deep. Paige’s second bucket in the game didn’t come until there were two minutes left; if that happens again on December 13, UNC won’t pose much of a threat to the Wildcats in Rupp Arena.
UCLA, another upcoming opponent on UK’s non-conference slate, is up next in Atlantis on ESPN2. Today’s a good day for scouting. (And missing the Bahamas.)
Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Once again, it was a balanced affair
Platoons promote balance, and so far this season, it’s worked. Tonight, six Cats scored in double figures, and no Cats played more than 21 minutes. To Cal, that says it all. “The story is you have ten guys sharing minutes. That’s the whole story,” Cal said. “Why is that happening? Because they’re allowing it to happen. Is anybody being hurt by this? No.”There were some tweaks with the platoons, but Calipari said that’s because he told the players to sub out their teammates if they weren’t playing with energy. “Now, they must respect the minutes they’re getting,” Cal said. “If not, they’re going to get less because the guy on the bench is just going to go in for him, say I’m not giving you minutes if you’re not going to play. Compete. Quit being tentative. Play hard, or I’m going back in.”
© Mark Zerof
Karl Towns finally had the complete game he’s been looking for
Karl Towns has been impressive on defense so far this season, but we’ve yet to see him show off his skills on offense like he did in the Bahamas. Towns recorded his first career double-double tonight, with 13 points off perfect 5-5 shooting from the floor and 11 rebounds. He also had four assists, three blocks, and a steal. Maybe the most impressive part? He did that all in 17 minutes. “Karl really played better today,” Cal said. “But now he’s missing free throws.” Something tells me you’ll see KAT in the gym late tonight.“We don’t see each other as a basketball team,” Karl said on the radio after the game. “We look at each other as a family. Willie, Dakari, they are my brothers.”
Devin Booker’s hands are still red hot
After going 1-for-11 from behind the arc in the first three games, Devin Booker has been on fire, shooting 12-of-17 from three-point land in the past three games. Booker led all scorers for the second game in a row, with 19 points, including five threes. In the first half, he had just as many points as the entire UT-Arlington team. Even more, Calipari said that Devin’s buying in on defense, which has changed his game completely.Most surprising stat of the night: Dakari’s free throw shooting
Coming into the game, Dakari was 12-25 from the free throw line. Tonight, he was 12-14. What was the difference? Maybe it was the Yip Lady, or maybe it was some cold hard truth from Cal. “I’m happy for him, he does want to play and he knows I’m not playing him at the end of the game if he can’t make free throws,” Cal said. Whatever it was, it worked. Keep it up, Dakari.Josh Hopkins was the Y, and it was great
A dream fulfilled.Even sick, Alex found a way to help
Tonight was Alex Poythress’ first game back from illness, but you could tell he was still under the weather. “Alex was sick today, you knew he was going to struggle,” Cal said after the game. Even so, Poythress pulled down nine rebounds and had four blocks and four points, and seemed to come to life a little bit in the second half. The three spot is really the only one still in flux on both platoons, but at least that gives us something to nitpick.UT Arlington’s coach is like the voice inside our head
After the game, UT-Arlington’s head coach Scott Cross joked that, for his squad, at least it was “all downhill from here.” Cross said it was impossible to prepare for UK’s size, even if he made his guys stand on chairs. Then, he said the little thing we’re all thinking but still too scared to say.“I think it is very possible for them to go undefeated,” Cross said. “The way they’re playing right now, I find it hard to believe that anybody could beat them right now.”
I think that calls for some dunks.
How can you not root for this?
As I said earlier, I’m not sure there are words for what
we’re seeing this team do right now. Defensively, this is something
special, and tonight, Calipari said they can still be better.
“This team has a chance to be one of those teams you talk about
defensively – like of all-time, if they choose to be,” Cal told
reporters. Let’s take a minute to sit and appreciate that.
The best part is the stuff you won’t hear from many
national writers: this perfect storm is happening because the players
want it to. “In this day and age, every one of these kids has pro
aspirations and pro potential, and they’re draftable players, and
they’re doing this for each other. This is crazy,” Cal said. “In our
society, where everybody talks about the me and mine and narcissism and
all that, why wouldn’t you root for this to happen and be good?”
No really, how can you not root for this?
@ukphotogs
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