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  • Calipari: The story is sharing

    By: LARRY VAUGHT

    Forget the defense. Forget the balanced scoring. Forget the easy wins.

    Kentucky coach John Calipari says everyone is missing the big story about Kentucky basketball this season.

    “They're sharing. The story, everybody wants to talk about defense, they all want to talk about the energy, the blocked shots and the length, and the story is you have 10 guys sharing minutes. That's the whole story in a nutshell,” said Calipari after UK rolled to a 92-44 win over Texas-Arlington Tuesday to improve to 6-0.

    “Why is that happening? Because they're allowing it to happen. Is anybody being hurt by this? No. Will their NCAA stats be as much as some other players? No. Their team NCAA stats will be way beyond most, and their efficiency stats, the big data stats, will be some of the best in the country. And that's how they're evaluated more than anything else.”

    Going into Sunday’s game with Providence, the evaluations are glowing for No. 1 Kentucky and have been since a 32-point win over No. 5 Kansas when the Jayhawks managed just 12 points in the second half.

    But if push comes to shove as Calipari is building this team to win a national title, would he rather have his defense ahead of the offense or vice versa now?

    “Well, the dribble drive, teaching dribble drive as an offense, even if we're running things into it, it gets them to guard the ball, and I think that gets us usually ahead defensively. But we didn't do any defensive teaching this summer. We didn't do any in the spring when the kids came back. We did it on Oct. 3rd. We started talking defense,” Calipari said.

    “This team has a chance of being one of those teams you talk about defensively, like of all time, if they choose to be. But they're going to have to choose to be that. My job right now, and it's on me, is offensive execution. There you can say, well, they're getting a lot in transition. Well, if you guard, you're going to go get it versus anybody, but either way, you've got to be able to create a good shot and a good rebound opportunity each time down the court.

    “We are so big, if we take great shots and we have opportunities with two and three guys around the basket, now with that defense, we become really tough. That's what makes the difference, I mean, when you're offensively really efficient, and we are right now, but still, we're not executing. We're really not.”

    Defensively the execution has been much better with UK yet to allow an opponent to shoot 40 percent from the field and two have shot under 20 percent. Kentucky players are openly talking about wanting to be the best defensive team in the country, something none of them mentioned when they first came to Kentucky.

    “Just tells a lot about who they are. I'll come back to this: 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,” Calipari said. “That's why I say, for anybody 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? I don't understand why you wouldn't root for this? You're not rooting for Kentucky or me, okay. Short of that, why wouldn't you root for this? Most of us do care about society.”

    He used freshmen Devin Booker and Trey Lyles as examples of players who have bought in to the value of defense.

    “You have to understand, in high school he (Booker) didn't guard. He was like the biggest guy on the team, so he never guarded the little guards, he never had to go play like this, so now he's playing, and absolutely running up and down, sprinting up the floor, staying in his stance, playing with great energy, and then trying to shoot a ball, and he was stepping in holes. He was bank missing shots like, ‘Oh, my gosh, he bank missed that.’ Well, that's all he's getting used to it,” Calipari said.

    “Trey is getting used to playing guards out on the floor. Alex (Poythress) and he got to catch up. They've got to catch up. I mean, what I did today, I told the guys if anybody out there was not playing with great energy, you are allowed to sub him if he's at your spot. So if a guy didn't play, sub him. There's nobody giving away their minutes. You must respect that.”

    The buy-in showed another way with sophomore center Dakari Johnson Tuesday. He went 12-for-14 at the foul line after struggling to hit half his free throws before.

    “I'm happy for him. He does want to play, and he knows I'm not playing him at the end of a game if he can't make free throws, so he's making them and now Karl(-Anthony Towns) is missing them,” Calipari said.

    Towns was 3-for-5 at the foul line Tuesday, but he had 13 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and one steal — without a turnover — in 17 minutes.

    Calipari says UK’s depth and platoon system should make it impossible for players not to play hard.

    “You've got to go play. You're playing 20 minutes, 21 minutes, 22. You have to play. You've got to go. And if you're being tentative — even if it's because of me you're being tentative, that doesn't matter, you're still not going to be in. You've got 20 minutes,” Calipari said.

    “See, the greatest thing is a lot of guys, I need some time to get going. How much? About seven minutes. Really? Yeah, I need about five shots, and then -- what? Well, those are players who don't play on winning teams or winning programs. These guys getting in and being ready, we haven't had great starts right now, but the other teams are pretty hyped u
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