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Following potential 2014 draftees

A Calipari quote from yesterday that many will find controversial, I bet.

On style of play:
Now, we're not playing any pick-and-roll basketball right now. See, I think pick-and-roll basketball has set our game back. What happens is, 'cause you watch the NBA run pick-and-roll, what's every team from seventh grade on running right now? So do you get movement, do you get motion, do you get cutting, do you get screens? You get none of that. Two guys come down, and the other guys space out and you go pick-and-roll. Well, think about it. So we're not, right now, there is absolutely no pick-and-roll basketball when they play. You've got to create for your teammate, you've got to get it on a drive, set a screen for your man, run the court, create, cut hard, get a back-door, cut to the ball. You've got to learn to play basketball. So that's what we're doing right now.
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I'm more posting this stuff because it's slow and semi-relevant to our next draft.. more so than it's some earth-shattering news...

On Julius Randle:
Oh geez. In his workouts, he's like, you know. And you know there are times where he wants to settle on the perimeter, be like a guard, but we were doing drills where he had to attack. He's a little -- he's got to get to his right hand more, 'cause you know how everybody's going to play him: Make him go right. They may even play him, and he can. But he's more comfortable getting to his left. But when he missed it, he was -- his head was right back on the rim until it went in. Like, oh my gosh. And then I tell the guys what happened two years ago was Michael dragged us to that level as a team, and that's what I'm asking Julius to do. 'Forget about everything else. Just do that right there and drag us. We'll help you with all the other stuff. You don't lose that.'
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On James Young:
The thing that turned me on against James: I'm watching him and I always questioned, 'OK, is he rough enough?' On this team, you don't really have to be rough because you've got three guys that are pit bull dogs, three. OK? So that's pretty good on one team to have three guys like that. But I always said, I want to see. So he played a team that put a football player on him down (at Peach Jam) in Augusta, and I watched the whole game. And the guy beat the living crap out of him. He went inside, he wasn't afraid, he still scored and it didn't faze him. And the dude put him in as a football player to play him and try to beat him up, and he held his own. From that point I was sold. I'm like, 'OK, let's get this kid.' Cause that was my only question: when this stuff gets rough, what's he going to do? He didn't back away one bit.
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On Willie Cauley-Stein's defense:
I know this, Willie can guard a bunch of positions. The thing with Willie that makes it nice in having a 6-5 point guard that weighs 220 pounds is that you can switch all pick-and-rolls. So all this pick-and-roll, high pick-and-roll, I only pick-and-roll, coach better try something different. That ain't working. Cause you just switch everything. When you have a 6-5, 220-pound point guard and your five man is Willie Cauley and can play the point how do you pick-and-roll? Like, he can guard your point and I can guard your five. Now, it's not like I'm starting a game that way, but in a pinch, the ball swings, we switch back, we may do it. We're not going to start that way, but there's things you can do and why Willie has a strength that makes us unique and different.
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On the Harrison twins:
Like, Andrew in the small period of time that I worked with him the other day, Aaron is unbelievable getting to his (left). He's better than I thought. Everybody's saying Andrew is way above Aaron, that's not true. You won't believe this: They really look the same. Like, they do. And I'm telling you he went to his left hand, shouldered and laid (in) easily, like lefty. And I'm like saying, 'He may be a strong left driver.' Andrew seemed to want to go a little more right. When he went left, he didn't do it as well. I told Aaron after, 'You need to teach your brother what you're doing going left, because I'd like him to be able to go left and maybe start the offense on the left side instead of the right side.' But I can't do that unless he can go hard left like that. But Aaron did stuff, like, I'm like 'Wow, I didn't realize.' So, I'm going to learn about them. I don't know all the stuff about these kids.
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He also gave a detailed account of exactly why last year ended up the way it did.. but it's not board relevant. (and I am a Jazz purist with re: to content.. and family friendly)
 
PKM said:
He also gave a detailed account of exactly why last year ended up the way it did.. but it's not board relevant. (and I am a Jazz purist with re: to content.. and family friendly)
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Don't be ghey. Tell us!!
 
dalamon said:
Don't be ghey. Tell us!!
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A lot of this has been known but not everything was put together and said directly by Cal himself until yesterday.

He said that up until the F4 Marquis Teague was 100% coming back to school. There was no doubt at all. Then, Teague goes on an incredible run to a championship and his stock rises quickly. Calipari met with him and, very unlike what he normally does, tries to convince Teague that it's fools gold and that he would be much better served to come back another year. Marquis' brother Jeff convinced him the time to strike NBA dollars was now. Cal thanked him for the chip and wished him all the luck.

Now looking at his roster and knowing Teague would have been a battle tested PG to lead the group of Noel, Poythress, Goodwin, etc.. with Harrow as a not-much-needed backup. So he said he faced a choice. Try to go out last minute and sign another PG but the pickings were very slim or just dig in, coach his *** off like never before and hope for the best. He also admitted yesterday that he knew VERY EARLY that he would be getting the Harrison twins and also didn't want to do anything to compromise 'this' year's class.

So he decided to roll out the team with Harrow and potentially Goodwin running the point. Both obviously proved to be inadequate.

He said last year was 100% on me and I will never let that happen again, ever. (although when you're a OAD school .. like UK is more so than anyone else, by far.. it's somewhat inevitable to happen from time to time)

So he
 
Every coach/person speaks like that, obvi. Just a matter of whether the writer feels like cleaning it up.
 
PKM said:
Every coach/person speaks like that, obvi. Just a matter of whether the writer feels like cleaning it up.
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I can't believe you didn't think that was even a little bit funny. I'm like wow.

It stuck out to me as I read.

Thanks for the posts and the info, but I'm not sorry at all for being a jerk. *shrug
 
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