Here's what he had to say after Sunday's game when asked about NBA speculation:
ON WHETHER NBA SPECULATION BOTHERS HIM: “I don’t listen to any of it, and I don’t think my team does. Every year I’ve ever coached, if there was a college job open, I was going there, a pro job, a high school job – I was taking every job going, and I just don’t buy into it. The greatest thing for me: It took me 20 years to get a job like Kentucky. It took me 20 years to get a job like Kentucky. Where guys had jobs for 20 years, it took me 20 years to get a job like this. And then we get the job and all the sudden – you know, we’re doing great academically; we had a 3.4 grade-point average last term; for three years we’ve been a B-average as a team; we’ve graduated 10 players – 10 in four years. So it’s not at the expense of academics, but we’ve had 17 players drafted, nine (actually 13) in the first round, two (No. 1) picks.
“And I’m able to do that, help families, win games and do what the university wants me to do, and all want to do is be about players first. And I want to challenge them and not be afraid to challenge them and put them on a stage. This is like you’re putting them in – I’d say Carnegie Hall – but it’s the stage you want to be on. And I’m able to sit there and say, ‘OK, here we go.’ I’m proud of Willie Cauley. ‘Well, he only gets one-and-done guys!’ No one knew Willie Cauley. Look at Willie. Look at Eric Bledsoe. All the sudden, what’s happened is they come here and they’re able to reach their dreams and change – you’re talking about, I say this all the time: We have kids that are first college graduates in their families, and we have a chance to rectify that; now all the sudden – you have generational poverty; they’re family’s been in poverty their entire existence, and now all the sudden that changes. And I have an opportunity to do that, more than any place I’ve ever been.
“And I loved working at UMass. And I loved working at Memphis. This is a different deal on a lot of fronts. So all the stuff about – you just think: It took me 20 years to get this job. Twenty. Now, I’ll say this: I don’t know how long I can stay in this seat and live. I’ll be honest with that one. But right now, I’m having fun doing it. I don’t feel our fans – everyone says our fans are crazy; our fans are crazy, but they don’t expect us to win every game and they don’t expect us to win the championship. They want us to be in the hunt. We’ve won eight in 110 years. We haven’t won 100 in 110 years; we’ve won eight. And so, yeah, they want you in the hunt. They want you in the hunt for recruits and all that. We are. So I think we’ve got the greatest fans.
“How about this one? Cleveland State has us (beat), and plays a great game. Do you know our fans gave them a standing ovation when they left the court? Gave them a standing ovation. Didn’t boo them. Gave them a standing ovation, our fans. And that’s why I say this is a unique place. So I’m going to run it out and have some fun with it and hopefully do some great things for kids and the university is happy with what’s happening with them and then we’ll see.”
vBulletin Message