SPORTS

One-on-one with UK's Calipari, Part II

Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_CJ
Kentucky head coach John Calipari greets former Kentucky player and Dominican Republic team member Eloy Vargas following the teams' exhibition game in Nassau, Bahamas. August 15, 2014.

Part I of our conversation with Kentucky coach John Calipari focused on his flirtation with the NBA and his future with the Wildcats. Part II is all about the value of and lessons learned from UK's nine-day trip to the Bahamas.

Can the Cats really play this two-platoon system in the regular season? Yup. Have any of the top 10 players on the roster disappointed on this trip? Nope. That and quite a bit more from The Courier-Journal's one-on-one with Calipari, right here:

JOHN CALIPARI

On what has been the greatest benefit of this Bahamas trip: "Well, we came down to learn – individuals to learn where about where they are against men, our team to learn about each other so that they could learn about where everybody's strengths and weaknesses were. As a staff, to see what's the best way for this team to play at this stage – against men. It's hard to learn against Popcorn State. The French team was better. The Dominican team was better. (The French team), we get them the first time and then the second one becomes a good game, one we needed.

"And then I wanted them to enjoy themselves. Now, it probably went a day or two too long. So if I had to do it over, I probably would've said, 'Let's go five days, six days max and three or four games.' Four games would've been the perfect number, and then that's enough games. But normally if you're doing what we did, you're doing it a couple games in London, a couple games across the way in France; you go to Germany, you end up in Italy.

"You end up playing, in nine days, seven, eight games – just what we did, but we stayed in one site. But it was a great place to be. We got meetings at night, short tape sessions, different functions that we did. In this nine days, we got a ton done. So it wasn't a vacation. The teams that do this and say, 'We're just getting away for four days,' that's not what it was for us."

On whether this team is way ahead of schedule in terms of chemistry: "You can't say that yet. You can't say it because Willie's not playing yet and Trey's not playing yet. But what it does for them is it sets the tone of: It's not what you want to be; it's what you will be if you want to play. They saw it: This is how I'm going to have to play if I want to play on this team. And it was perfect. So even though they weren't playing, they got an idea of, 'I gotta be a part of this. I can't separate myself from this. That's not what those guys are doing. They're all together. They're hanging together.' If you don't want to be a part of that, then you won't play. Those two, I know, want to be a part of this. They want to do this. So it gave them a clear picture of: Wow, this is what this is. This is how I'll have to come back and what I'll have to be like."

On whether he can – and might – actually play the two-platoon system in season: "I think so. I think so. There may be games it's difficult to win (doing that). The only ones that are the most important to win are those last six. So, yeah. And I think what happened here was, the greatest thing is everyone had a chance to show they should be playing more or less, they should be playing or not playing. You can't say, 'Well, I've never had an opportunity.' The games were on national television against professional players, and real games with fans. So there it is. Now, what are you as a player? And then you can be honest.

"That self-evaluation was a big part of what we were doing here. Having players – and I'll have individual meetings when we come back at some point in September – talking about, 'What'd you learn about yourself? Tell me what you learned. Tell me what you think your strengths are. Tell me what you think your weaknesses are. How can we utilize you as a player? Where do you have to go with your game to ever be what you want to be? And I think every player, they can self-evaluate on this."

On whether this was easier than he thought it would be for these guys: "We had 10 good practices and we had, really, went almost two weeks because of the days off. So you had a two-week period that we really zeroed in on, 'This is how we're going to play.' It wasn't overloaded with stuff, both defensively and offensively – we didn't work on defense because we don't do that in the summer and we don't do it in September. So the defense was: guarding our offense got them better at defense. The second thing where we really focused on: getting the ball moving. And after 10 days of it, they come down here and they played that way.

"I also think that when you two-platoon and you have guys playing 20 minutes, which is plenty of time; the reality of it is three or four more minutes a half (in a normal rotation). Just play harder. You get more done, you're more efficient. So playing 20 minutes a game, everybody had their time. And I think every guy shined. I don't think there's one guy – no one hurt themselves. Some guys helped themselves more than others. That's just how life is. But no one you look at and say, 'Man, they're just not ready. They can't do this.' No. Just other guys were better and helped themselves more."

On whether he's ever had a team this deep: "I've had some teams that I've played nine or 10 guys and teams did well, did fine. They weren't as talented as this, but there were nine and 10 guys. I've also played five and six guys. I've done both. I mean, I've never two-platooned. I've never played this much pressure or maybe this much zone. This could be a terrific zone team. I've never done that, but I'm not afraid of it, and that's the challenge of what we do. Every year, the team is different. No one's going through this.

"I like the fact that some (other) guys are going to have to play freshmen this year, not just us. Like, OK, you're going to have to start three freshmen or four freshmen. It isn't that hard. Have at it. (Smirking) So I like the fact that people are going to go through what we've been through, the growing pains, the process, sticking with it, being patient, developing players. If you don't develop players and you just try to build a system, young kids can't win. They won't win. So you're either developing players at the cost of the system, or you're saying, 'It's the system,' and you will not win with freshmen. You just, it won't work, because they're not ready to do it.

"And then when you put them in that system, they never really blossom to be what you have to have to win at the end of the year. But the two-platooning stuff and the pressure and the zone and the more pick-and-rolls than we've ever run – I mean, this is all new, but it's how it is here. When you have a different team every year, in my humble opinion, you can't say how you're going to play. You have to figure it out as you go."

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