Cal says this team is in crisis
Coach Cal met with the local media this afternoon for his pre-Tennessee chat. He spoke often about his team being in crisis right now and how he thought they would positively respond to having their backs against the wall. A few notes…
– In talking about the team being in crisis, Calipari acknowledged that it would have been different today if Brandon Knight had made the shot at the end of the game, but the concerns would be the same. He said that the good thing is that crisis can bring about change and that he wants his team to do a number of things to get out of the rut. He said there hasn’t been enough passion, toughness, togetherness or the “will to win” fight from his guys. He kept emphasizing that this crisis will bring about change in the team and the only way it wouldn’t would be if they didn’t care. He thinks they do.
– Calipari again reiterated how important it was for his team to avoid bad stretches early in the game and said that is where they are being lost. He said that sometimes it’s substitutions causing the change in play, sometimes it’s defensive breakdowns and sometimes it’s bad shots. But, what he is most angry about is that he’s seeing the same things on the Florida tape that he saw against Alabama and Ole Miss and he spent the flight back calling guys up to the front to go over the film.
– Calipari said that all they’re doing right now is playing to get better every game and that by doing so, the wins will come. He said that the Cats are not where they need to be for March and that if they don’t get better, it will be “ugly”. They are a close group, but they haven’t clicked yet in the way that last year’s team did. Right now, he says everything they want is right in front of them and it’s up to them to take responsibility and figure out how to get there. If they don’t, he’s going to have to take a chance on guys who haven’t gotten a shot at minutes so far. He cited Eloy Vargas as a guy who stood up and said he was going to show people he could play and out-performed Josh Harrellson against the Gators.
– On the subject of Harrellson, he said they had to get him back to where he was before and that he’s not talking a lot on the floor and that he believes it all comes back to work ethic and wanting to build your own self-esteem. He said similar things about DeAndre Liggins, who he called the best defender in the country.
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41 Comments for Cal says this team is in crisis
Um, we have less than a month until March.
crisises are the worst
do the hokey pokey
It’s time to Bounce Back…
I’m so sick of calipari bull. He says the same
things all te time. We will never be great because we Are inexperienced and always will be.
This team has no margin for error. Last year we had the play makers to make the big shot to win the game. This year, not so much.
Has anyone ever seen that black warmup suit sported by Cal available for sale anywhere?????
Great motivation for Jorts-you got outplayed by Eloy.Darius you got outplayed by Parsons and so on and so forth ;if they can’t be challenged they will be damned. Good luck Cal we appreciate you! BBN rally- Rocky Top is headed to our house two nights in a row!!
In his post game he said they weren’t tired of losing, now its lack of a “will to win”. Is that just an expression or does he really mean that?
What crisis?
We gonna be sick next year though.
Davis is a Beast. He’s better than Jones already.
Gilchrist is gonna make everyone forget about Miller. Miller’s a senior and hasn’t yet been drafted. He’s no good.
Teague will be better than Wall and Knight combined. he gonna be sick.
Wiltjer is quesionable. He’s too white – therefore too slow, non-athletic and probably will recommit to Duke.
And the class of 2012 is gonna be sicker than sick – it’s gonna be fatal.
We gonna be sick. We gonna have Drake and Lil Wayne and Ice Vanilla Cube all up in the Rupp House.
“We are struggling this year, but we have a sick recruiting class next year!” – ARE PEOPLE STARTING TO REALIZE HOW STUPID THIS SOUNDS, WE ARE SO BUSY FOCUSING ON RECRUITING THAT WE DON’T REALIZE THAT WE ARE NOT PLAYING WELL. COACH CAL HAS GOTTEN EVERYONE TO BUY IN EXPECT THE PLAYERS.
I didn’t need Coach to tell me that this team is in CRISIS. He has a tough job figuring out this bunch, especially the more experienced players. How they can do some of the things they do amazes me. I do know the keys are Jorts, Liggins and Vargas. Without some serious step up from these three players, we’re not going to be able to win the tough games. I fully expect the cats to get their *&*& together and win 6 out of their last 8 games. GO CATS!!!
Crisis? Wait until we lose tomorrow to UT at Rupp…[email protected]$ is about to get really raelly low fellas.
How does Harrelson play at all with that big dip of Skoal bulging from his front lip? I’m sure his concentration would immediately improve if he spit that crap out before tipoff.
WANNA TICK OFF CARDS FANS??
Go here: http://www.bigeast.org/Sports/…YearReport.aspx and vote for the player from Rutgers!!!!
I would absolutely thrilled with a 6 or 7 seed at this point…give it to me now…I’d take it. And honestly, a sweet 16 would be an absolute miracle run for us this year. Which means next year is a HUGE year for Cal…need to get us to a FF…tick tock…tick tock. It’s what we’re paying you for big guy.
The on the court personalities of Brandon Knight and Darius Miller are deflating.
Yes, lifeless facial expression are an external glimpse of what’s going on inside their heads.
Only the coaches and teammates know the energy that those 2 bring to the team but I can tell you from years of playing team sports…
He who has the most energy to usually wins the big prize in endurance athletics.
John Wall had it, Wesley Woodyard had it, Patrick Patterson had it, Terrence Jones has shown signs of it but he has yet to claim it consistently.
There are also cancers on teams. They might not even know they are doing it, yet they can suck the energy out of moments with their lifeless external presence. It’s really hard to read Knight since he could be just holding a poker facing, but think about it… that really isn’t what our PG needs to be doing.
Darius, I hope your reading this. As an upperclassman, show some life on the court with your expression. Let the non-Kentucky natives see what it means to bleed blue. This small adjustment could change the destiny of this season in a blink.
I never believed the excuses I heard from people who said they cared yet didn’t show it. Rarely in history do they achieve the pinnacle with that mindset. It’s not complete, it’s lacking balance.
Go Blue!
7—-no, I have been looking for it myself and cannot find it anywhere…
My point is when you have to remind players who are wearing Kentucky jerseys that they need to play with more passion… well, those kids better go look in the damn mirror.
I’m sure someone will say they are just kids but you know, I can guarantee that a kid like Wesley Woodyard didn’t need anyone to remind him to play with more passion even when he was 10 years old.
Each of us have to own up to our responisibilities. And I ask you… how many people would give 4 years of their life to get a chance to win for the Blue and White???
18 year olds can fight for their country. Give their life for the cause. Some live and some die. In the end, no one can question if they gave their all.
The players need to be their own witness of greatness. No more coaches telling them to run extra. They need to be the guardian of their work ethic, the self disiciple.
eloy shall lead us
19 – agree with that. But how do you get guys who have their eyes set on the NBA to have their eyes set on the banners at Rupp and be willing to bust their butts to hang another?
How do you get guys whose goal is to impress NBA scouts to focus more on team goals than personal ones?
The conflict is created by Cal’s recruiting strategy.
#11 Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a kid?
Heck, we could get results like this with Tubby. Get it in gear, Cal!
Kentucky really is like the basketball version of the Marines. The Few, the Proud. That’s what these wet-eared primadonnas need to learn.
22. old-school – I believe Calipari recruits kids who he can keep focused (within limits). Once Cal has his own upper classmen, that will be his to live and die by.
But what do you do when you’ve got an in state kid (Miller) who you didn’t recruit and most likely doesn’t fit the Calipari protype yet still seems to have potential. It’s really frustrating to watch. I bet Gillispie would have starangled Darius too death in a bathroom stall by now if he was still the coach.
It’s almost an insult to the uniform to demand playing time and play like your conserving energy.
I just don’t think people get how damaging this one player can be. Yea that’s a lot weight I just put on his shoulders. But really… it’s his time. THE upperclassman, THE starter, THE native. It just happens to be the position he finds himself in. Own it!
i smell a lot of dirty tardinals in cats clothing today
18 – That’s what she said!
Everyone complains that Cals recruiting one and dones, claiming he needs experience to go with talent. Well guess what, the only reason we are decent is 3 freshman. The experienced 3 are hurting us more than the freshman. You can’t argue that if we had 6 freshman like the 3 we have that we wouldn’t be better than we are now. I’ll take our 3 plus sullinger, irving and Thompson from Texas and beat anyone in the country
Cal is correct. It is a crisis. It’s a crisis because they are continuing to do the same things over and over in game situations to lose them. Four losses by two points all on the road, isn’t a fluke, it indicates a big, big problem.
Mark Liptak
I guess a whitecoach can deliver kentucky with a 10-loss season, just like tubby.
it is a 10 loss season deja vu
Oh brother. Crisis? Is calling our situation a crisis a motivational tool? Kind of like commenting on a player’s confidence? Or calling players out by name in the press? Seriously doubt any of this will work. Coach ’em up and play, Cal.
It is a 10-loss season.
The problem i see with this team is not playing as a team. The assists are very low average. I dont think the fans or COACHES should refer to them as rookies or uperclassmen .J ust further driving them apart.
Cal lkooks like fat Elvis in that first picture.
Calippari should listen to its fan base; you just do not let go Matt Pilgrim and Cousins, what happened to a smoth transition between teams?
This is a so called vacancy at the post at both ends of the floor.
You know im so sick of people talking about recruiting players that will be around for a few years. This is UK, we have to win now!! players that will be around a few years need time to develop, meaning they wont be any good until year 3 maybe ( example: Jon Hood). Be for real people, we arent as good as last year because we dont have the players. we have a stud at point guard, stud power forward, stud shooting guard. we dont have our 5star center.. jorts is 2nd string at best, vargas just started to show life at Florida, D2 (darius and deandre) are very inconsistent. So do you guys really want a team full of those players? They have been around for a few years, still no progress. Do you want NIT championships or NCAA championships? Either Cal recruits these guys (5star top 10 talents) and wins now, or he will be fired due to lack of victories (by recruiting top 50 players that need to develop). WAKE UP BBN, this is KENTUCKY BBALL!!!
#5 is what is wrong with our fan base, take that bunch out !! you have the best fans in the country !!
Stating the obvious, “this team is not where it ought to be”!
#39 I couldnt agree with you more, I am tired of these fake [email protected]# Kentucky fans who think they know everything there is to know about the game! Go get a coaching job instead of working behind the counter of the neighborhood Speedway you f$%#^&&* losers!! Anyone who doesnt think Coach Cal is the best thing to happen to Kentucky in the past two decades is a MORON, we went from the NIT to the Elite Eight in one year, what do you want! The a#$holes from the NCAA took our starting center from us, that is our weakness down low put two and two together and you might understand you inbred fake underthecover memphis or louisville SOBS!! We have lost 3 games by 2 points and 2 games by 9 and by 7 all on the road. I am sure a STARTING center would be worth that. THINK PEOPLE!! And another thing I watch every Game on T.V. and when i see the games at RUPP the players arent the only one without passion you could hear a pindrop because the fans lack of enthusiasm probably because they EXPECT a thirty point blowout every game and most arent below the age of 60. But when see Alabama or Florida fans going F#$%^&* nuts anytime anyone of their players drop a bucket on us its Sickening, wish I had thousands of dollars to see them play I would be the lone nut in the stands screaming for the team i have loved since I was a kid!! And I am from Loserville!! Chill the f#$% out Coach Cal will take us to the promise land give the man a chance before you run him outta town 6 or even ten losses isnt worth the mans job, he is giving all he has and if you cant see that you are F%^$#@! BLIND!!!