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  • Calipari: Wisconsin may be a better offense than Notre Dame

    By: LARRY VAUGHT



    Kentucky coach John Calipari says that Wisconsin, the team No. 1 UK plays in the Final Four Saturday in Indianapolis, might even be a better offensive team than Notre Dame.

    The Wildcats held off Notre Dame 68-66 in the Midwest Region final to get a rematch of last year’s Final Four game with Wisconsin (35-3), a winner over Arizona in the West Region final.

    “They're outstanding. We just played a great offensive team in Notre Dame. This team rivals and maybe surpasses because they can iso you in the post. They shoot the three the same as Notre Dame does. They have that one guy that's a big guy, not a guard, and their guards are good, too, in Frank (Kaminsky) who can go get his own,” said Calipari Monday on the Final Four coaches teleconference. “But (Sam) Dekker has proved he can do the same. They're really good there.

    “They don't foul. (Coach) Bo (Ryan) and I have talked about it. You could play tough, hard‑nosed, even physical defense without fouling like on every play, every player. That's what he teaches. That's what we try to teach. We want you to be aggressive. We want you to be physical. Just don't foul. Physical doesn't mean don't let them cut, don't grab.

    “I mean, they do what they're supposed to do. They give you a tough look. They rebound the ball. They're outstanding. This will be a really hard game for our team. We know that. Bo has done what he's done with every team. He's just made them a cohesive offensive and defensive unit.”

    Here’s more of what Calipari had to say during the teleconfernce.

    Question: How do you try to make sure Karl-Anthony Towns avoids early foul trouble with Wisconsin having a player like Kaminsky, who averages 18.7 points per game?
    Calipari:”Most cases you're fouling when you're out of position. Instead of playing the guy before he catches it, you're trying to play him after he catches it or after he cuts. Karl has a tendency, as all freshmen, to stop playing during the game, get screened. He did it against Notre Dame late in the game, a simple screen, shuffle screen, and he died in the screen, it was an and‑one late. But that's freshmen. So hopefully the excitement, the focus is going to be to where we're playing people, Karl and everyone else, before they catch the ball.

    Question: Since your team normally does not watch much game film of an opponent, will that change with a week between games?
    Calipari: “However we prepare teams at the beginning of the year, whether it's North Carolina or North Carolina A& T, everything is the same kind of preparation. Our focus this week will be on our team. I'm not going to be able to control, nor will our team, how Wisconsin plays. You're not going to force them out of what they want to do. The things that we'll work on will pertain to Wisconsin, but our players won't know it. They won't know why we're doing this drill. The breakdowns will all be based on what we coaches have seen.
    “Now, they may have watched Wisconsin play. They may have watched an NCAA tournament game. I tell them don't watch the games. They don't listen to me ever, so I imagine they've seen them. Our team played them a year ago, so they have an idea how good they were and are now. But we won't watch Wisconsin tape as a team.
    “Our staff, I'm starting to get overloaded with it to be honest with you, then I stop. I don't need to watch 10 game tapes. We all start losing our minds. I got to prepare, I got to work harder than the other guy. Stop it, just stop it. You can watch the tapes you need to do, then get your team ready. That's what I do. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but that's what we do.”

    Question: Are you seeing a change in Kaminsky’s physical presence? Does he look stronger to you than he did last year?
    Calipari: “He looks stronger. He's working angles better. He's a really confident perimeter shooter. He's passing because he gets double‑teamed so much. He's passing better. Look, I love when I see players from year to year get better, whether it's my players or another player. That gets me. That means they're committed. They understand the grind. Frank is about his team now. He'll go get 29 (points) or he'll get 8 (points), he'll have 7 assists.
    “I imagine Bo has had a ball watching him go from three minutes a game to last season to where he is now. I bet you Bo would say, if you asked him, he'll smile, because that's how we coaches are. Even for me, having a player come in and have all this reputation, whether it's Anthony Davis, John, DeMarcus, it's where are they at the end of the year? What kind of improvement have they made? What have we taught them?
    “As coaches, we want to see guys develop those kind of things, take those things with them when they leave our programs.”

    Question: What about the development of freshman Trey Lyles for you this year?
    Calipari: “Two things happened. He didn't play in the summer because he had an injury, and then he got sick in the middle of the season, was out I believe three weeks. But his progress as a player has been phenomenal. I've said all along, he's the X factor for us. At the next level, he's going to be a four. He's going to be a four that spreads the court. We're training him as a three, which means he's guarding guards at 6'10", that he's being guarded by smaller players, which means we're throwing him in the post some.
    “He is a finisher. He likes to think he's a playmaker. Drives me absolutely crazy. His play making is turnover making. When you talk about finishing around the basket, when you talk about one‑dribble pull‑ups on the run, you talk about being able to avoid and finish near the rim, making free throws, making pressure free throws, he is our X factor. He's the one guy that can separate our team.”

    Question: How much of a home‑court advantage do you think you'll have at Lucas Oil Stadium?
    Calipari: One, we don't know that. I do know Michigan State travels, Duke travels, Wisconsin travels. They all can get there easily. I also know that what an area to have the game. Indianapolis is like San Antonio. I mean, it's the place to go. So I would imagine that the town's going to be overrun by fans for all of us. My hope is our guys figured out how to get the tickets more than the other people, but you just don't know.
    “At this point in the year, it's not going to be 'a home court.' You're not going to have that kind of advantage. The other team is going to have 10,000 fans, too. Okay, you have 20, they have 10. It's not going to have an advantage. Now my hope is our fans enjoy themselves. Most of the fans that go cannot get in Rupp Arena. That's why they go on the road, go to the conference tournament. They can't get tickets in our building.”
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