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  • Calipari: Cats offense needs tinkering

    By: LARRY VAUGHT

    INDIANAPOLIS — As dominating as Kentucky’s defense was against Kansas in Tuesday’s 72-40 win, coach John Calipari knows the UK offense still needs tinkering and refining.

    Kentucky shot 43.1 percent (25 of 58) from the field and 61.5 percent at the foul line (16 of 26). From 3-point range, UK was 6-for-18 but Aaron and Andrew Harrison were a combined 4-for-5 while the rest of the team missed 11 of 13 shots.

    “We’ve gotta have some teams do different stuff to us and we gotta be able to respond to it,” said Calipari after the win. “And I think we’ve gotta be a team that moves the ball. We’ve gotta be a post-up team and you guys, if you’re ever watched me coach, I’ve not been a post-up coach. ‘Throw it to the post every time.’ I can’t stand it, but these guys, that’s who we are.

    “This could be a pick-and-roll team too, but the biggest thing is we gotta get Trey (Lyles) and Devin (Booker) playing. We gotta Alex (Poythress) stepping in. Instead of shooting 3’s, shoot 2’s. You don’t have to make 3s; just make baskets.”

    Lyles was 1-for-5 from the field, Booker 2-for-8. That’s a combined 3-for-13 from the two freshmen who are considered two of UK’s best shooters. Poythress was 0-for-5, including 0-for-3 from 3-point range.

    However, Calipari said an even bigger key to having an offense in sync is Aaron Harrison, who was 3-for-8 from the field.

    “Aaron played hard and did good stuff. We have to get him more opportunities as a team. The team has to do it, or if they don’t do it then I’m going to have to do it because he’s one of our best players and he needs to have the ball in his hand making baskets,” Calipari said.

    The UK coach stuck with his platoon system and played 10 players between 17 and 21 minutes.

    Calipari again stressed his system was not “communism” in his press conference that included a large contingent of national media members and that if a player deserved more minutes, he would get them.

    “If someone is playing themselves out of time, I’ll deal with that. If one of the platoons is playing so good one game, they’ll play 25 minutes or 30 and the other team’s not they won’t,” Calipari said. “Will I ever going to playing eight guys or seven? I hope not. Because I want to be fair for all these kids. I’m not trying to do this to be a genius. That’s not why I did this. These guys will tell you, I’ve never coached this way. I’ve never done these things before. What I’m doing is, this is what’s right for these 10 players, and really 12 players I have that have a chance to be on the floor.”

    Calipari said he still has to figure out what works best in various scenarios even though about everything worked against Kansas.

    “If somebody comes out and zones us, I may put a different lineup in the game, just tell them, ‘Guys this is what we’re doing. We’re going to kill this zone with this group.’ I may do that,” Calipari said after the game Tuesday night. “I was planning on playing zone today. We were going to play some zone. Then the way we defended, I said, ‘Nope. You’re not playing any zone today.’ But I had planned on it and we had worked on it.”

    Junior Willie Cauley-Stein, a projected NBA lottery pick, played 21 minutes Tuesday and had 10 rebounds, seven points, one assist, one block and one steal. He was 3-for-7 from the field.

    But he said buying into Calipari’s philosophy is not that hard.

    “It’s just trust. We trust in what Coach is telling us and we trust in each other,” Cauley-Stein said. “At the end of the day, if we got each other’s backs and everybody’s having fun it doesn’t really matter who’s on the floor. And if you’re winning it makes it a lot better. If you’re winning and everybody’s got the same stats, kind of, everybody’s on the board on some stat, everybody’s going to be happy. It’s that simple.”

    Homecoming: Trey Lyles returned to Indianapolis with Kentucky Tuesday night when the Wildcats pounded Kansas. Lyles was only 1-for-5 from the field and had four points, four rebounds and one steal in 19 minutes.
    “Well, it’s typical of guys I brought home. He was 1 for 5. (Staff member) Tony Barbee, when I brought him back – we played at Purdue – he went 1 for 12. So normally when you bring a kid home he’s so hyped up he wants to play so well," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "But he did fine.
    "The play he went in the lane he pulled up and shot it. He rebounded the ball. If I remember right, he had four rebounds. Two free throws.
    "He is a skilled 6-10 player. Skilled. Really, really a good player and we’re so happy he’s here. But he’s another one. He’s been great. He and Alex (Poythress) go nose to nose. Today, these guys’ll tell you, if (Kansas junior) Perry Ellis was hurting us we were going to put him on him. But the good news is he had to guard (Kelly) Oubre and Oubre scored two buckets on him. So I told him, ‘If Oubre scores on you again, you’re out. So you better figure it out.’”

    All-out effort: Karl-Anthony Towns is an articulate, bright athlete who always enjoys media interviews and goes to great lengths to give insightful answers to media questions. The Kentucky freshman played well in his first marquee matchup in college Tuesday night here when he was 4-for-8 from the field and had nine points, eight rebounds, four blocks and three assists in 18 minutes against Kansas.
    “I really think for us it was just a matter of, we needed to come out with the energy. But for us, it was just another game,” Towns said after the win over No. 5 Kansas. “We had to execute. We really had to do what the game plan said. Just really bring energy, focus a lot on defense, and I’m glad we executed defensively and were able to do what we did today.”
    Next Towns was asked if he liked the two-platoon system coach John Calipari was using, a question he’s been asked often the past few months.
    “I really love it. It gives everyone, like he (Calipari) said, a fair chance. But at the same time, it gives us the ability to go balls, you know, to the wall. Go hard to the wall all the time,” Towns said without smiling.
    Calipari and junior Willie Cauley-Stein, who were on the postgame podium with Towns, both broke into laughter.
    “What?” Calipari said after the “balls to the wall” comment. “Did you say that. Stop. Wipe that out. I’m telling you, he’s a great kid. He really is.”
    That gave Towns time to amend his answer.
    “It allows us to go hard all the time,” Towns said.
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