By: LONNY DEMAREEJohn Calipari said his team had a great practice yesterday. Obviously when you practice well you come away from it feeling good about yourself. According recent proclamations his team needed to play with more confidence.
The coach wants his team to have fun playing the game and seemingly practice isn't carrying over to the game. He is looking for more consistency from his team and he said it's not the entire team and it's just a couple of guys. "When you've got a couple of guys on the team that's inconsistent that way it's hard to get rhythm and have fun," explained the coach. "You've got to come with the same mindset. You don't have to be perfect but you have to be in the same area code."
He said you have to practice well and then let it go. He allude to the clutter around them. Which is something kids that come to Kentucky have to experience and learn. They have to understand that it means more to the BBN than it does most every other places.
Asked about this time of the year and where he wants his team to be, he said "I'll say it again the inconsistency make's it hard to have fun. You want them to peak at the end of the year. We haven't peaked yet and that's not a bad thing." That entails playing a little more aggressively - more energy - more 50/50 balls - play tougher - make easy plays - stay connected defensively and offensively - lock in more - and that's all the things he said they have to do.
Turnovers have increase since the first the first of the year and what its the reason for that. Cal said - "You guys know that have been followed us in my time here and some of you haven't paying any attention, you know that early in the year we've got "our-thing" because no one knows our team. We're new. But then there comes a time when they say - alright this is what we have to take away." He said all of a sudden they (the Cats) are not frolicking, having fun, and not getting as many layups.
Calipari said then you've got a bunch of guys that are not have fun anymore and they've got to say how do we figure this thing out. "But when the game is rough and tough now we've got to figure out what do we do," the coach lamented. He said he's had to go through that every year. But now every team has something to lose. Throughout the year all the other teams have been playing on house-money. Meaning they go into every game with everything to gain and nothing to lose.
He said every team has issues by this time of the year they are dealing with. If isn't one thing it's another. "I tell you this, I don't think anybody is feeling sorry for us," Calipari said.
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