Q&A: Calipari on Cats keeping their edge

Everything Kentucky's big whistle had to say to preview his team's SEC opener against Ole Miss, plus video of freshman guards Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker talking today before practice:

JOHN CALIPARI

On Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis' bond and if he was confident once he got Ulis that he'd get Booker: "Is that the order it went in? All I know is, you have two competitive young people who want to get better. They're a little dinged up right now, but they don't use it. They try. And they've driven our practice. Now, they're not the only ones. There are times Dakari will dominate. Trey Lyles has gotten so much better in the last three weeks, he's not even the same player he was. It's scary how good he's gotten. But it's nice when it starts on the ball. It's nice when it starts on ball pressure. It kind of feeds everyone else. And then the other team sees it, and they feed off of each other. The same thing's happening in the game. I mean, both teams are feeding off each other, but one of the things – we don't expect them to make every shot. They're gonna turn it over some and they're gonna make some dumb plays. But we expect them to compete at a high level. That's what they've been doing."

On how the team is physically: "We're OK. I'm fine. I'm walking OK. We're OK. Just the normal stuff."

On Alex Poythress' surgery: "He left early this morning. He'll have it tomorrow."

On Camp Cal: "I told you before Louisville – and I talked publicly about it – our defensive rebounding was atrocious. And we zeroed in on it. And now this week, we zeroed in on two or three things – really one, with a couple side items that we just wanted to make sure we were getting better at. After we get through this week, it may shift to something else. What I did with the guards was really a simple thing, to get them to think different as they play, which is some of the things I did a year ago. Tried to get Julius Randle – 'Here's how I want you to play. I need you to think different. And you're capable of doing this.'

"Most of the things I ask them to do are just harder. Yesterday, Dakari Johnson ran so hard and posted and scored so quickly, and I stopped him. I said, 'You can do that, but that's really difficult, so you choose not to. You choose to jog down, catch the ball, ball fake, ball fake, bounce it, bounce it and not hit the rim. Like, not get it to the rim. Your other way is, I sprint, I fight, I quickly make a move one one and I score, and I look really good. But that's really hard.' I mean, the same things with what I'm asking these guards. Some of the stuff we did as a team was geared toward guard play.

"Some of the stuff we did individually that I did with the guards – are you ready – I also did with the big guys. The same thing I'm teaching the guards right now I'm teaching the big guys. I'm not teaching them, 'Here's how we play, so you've got to be able to do this. This is just playing basketball. To be a good player you've got to be able to do this, and you're not doing this right now.' So, we'll see."

On challenge of keeping players engaged with several SEC coaches saying Kentucky is head and shoulders above the rest of the league: "Well, that's the challenge we have right now. One of the things that I've done is I asked them – if you know how I am this is about these kids, so I went to them and said, 'What do you want to add to your game? Everyone of you here, tell me what you want to add. Figure it out. Spend a day. If you don't know, ask a coach what you can add to how you play, and then our job will be to help you add that. Now, you're going to have to work, but if you do add it to your game I will add it to how we play.' Some things we did with Willie now we've changed a little bit offensively so he can do the things he wants to do and add to his game. He's going to have to work at it. Why am I doing that? I'm trying to keep him engaged. Why am I focused on one or two things every 10 days, 12 days? For the same reason. Just got to keep them engaged.

"It's kind of like when they watch video. If they watch video of themselves, they can stay focused for four hours, five hours. They don't even go to the bathroom. Just watch it. If they're watching team video, you've got them for about three, four minutes. So part of this is I want them engaged individually. 'We got you. You've got to have each other.' I know they care about the team, so I'm kind of shifting this away from team and putting it on, 'How do we get individuals better?' "

On if they can learn from losses in practice since they are dominating games: "Yeah. A few days ago white smashed the blue, and then two days ago blue absolutely smashed the white. They had no chance. And that's how it's been, and if you don't show that's what's happening. One guy on your team doesn't show, that's what happens. When they really are going at each other what happens is it's like touch and go, it gets physical and they get emotional and they talk. Like I told them, we've had nine days between games but we've played each other probably – at least four of those days we've played each other, which is a heck of a game. So, we're competing.

"Again, it comes back to those guards, how they're playing and they're challenging. Aaron and Andrew have been better. Trey Lyles is the guy right now that I just see the confidence level – and mainly because he's doing it in games, demonstrated performance. He's now believing more, he's playing harder. The things that – they're hooked up to a monitor to talk about how much they exert during the game and how much they sprint. Of the big guys, he's first every game. He sprints. Now, you have to understand it was only a month ago that I was on him because he wasn't sprinting. Whatever you tell him, he listens to and he does."

On always wanting the players to sort of police themselves and if the competitive practices help with that: "Yeah, they're doing it some. But there were some other plays where I'm telling the Blue, 'Why you making me tell them? You tell them? I don't need to tell them.' So we're still there. That's the point where they're empowered. This team is farther along in that than teams I've had here in the past. You know, well, again, let's be real: I finally have a veteran team. If for some reason, this goes to two years (players having to be out of high school two years to enter the NBA draft), hopefully this is what you see every year: half the team is veteran and the other half are young and you figure out how they play together and you've got enough to compete like this. But right now, we're losing teams. We're losing teams and coming in with new guys, so it's hard to empower those guys."

On no other ranked SEC teams: "Yeah, Arkansas is ranked, and you've got South Carolina getting votes, you've got Georgia getting votes, you've got LSU getting votes. So it's better than you think. And our RPI is, I think, two or three. I mean, South Carolina just beat Iowa State, who is a ranked team. Mississippi State, who they say is struggling, beat Florida State. I mean, the league is better than everybody gives us credit for and gives our teams credit for. But for us right now, our focus is on us. Our focus is on how do we improved individual players and how do we get them even closer? Are there small things that we can do to make our team better. But those areas that we're zeroed in on more than – like I said, if we play really well and lose, I'm going to be fine with it. Now, if we play poorly and win, I'm going to be upset. It means we're slipping.

"So we're focused on us. How do we keep growing? How do we going? And there may be someone that plays out of their mind. Mississippi is going to shoot 25 threes in this game – maybe more. If they make 20, we lost our first game. They're shooting 25. They are shooting them. And their three guards are their leading scorers. Their three guards take more than 50 percent of their shots. They offensive rebound 13, 14 a game. They're going to play a zone where they're changing defenses. It could confuse us. And if they're making shots, you know, we've got to try to drive them off the 3-point line. But you just, when you're playing teams that are willing to shoot that many, you just don't know."

On if this team wants to learn more than other teams he's had: "They are – I told them yesterday, the uniqueness of this group is I'll come off the road and it's 11 o'clock at night and we'll have three and four guys in the gym. All right, granted, they walked 12 steps to the gym, OK? So it's not like they had to go across campus, railroad tracks and get in a bus to get here. They go 12 steps and they're in the building, but they're here. They're calling coaches to come over. They're getting extra stuff in. They're wired different. They know they've gotta continue to work and get better."

On what players have asked to add to their games: "Well, you had Willie, wants to handle the ball more. OK, then you can't run people over and throw lob passes off the shot clock. But you want to handle it more? OK, then we're gonna get in the gym and we're gonna work on your handle and we're gonna add that into how we play. But, it's your responsibility. We're gonna work with you, then you gotta understand, here's how I've gotta play if I wanna handle the ball more. Those kind of things.

"Dakari Johnson — 'I wanna shoot more 12-footers.' OK. OK. 'I wanna shoot more around those elbows. I want to shoot more step-outs." Well the other day in practice he made five. Short corner, short corner, elbow — guys are going nuts. Now, do I want him off the block? No! But look, this isn't just about us winning. I'll give you and example: They said Dakari Johnson against Louisville, 'He got you 11 rebounds.' Yeah, but he hurt himself because he couldn't get the ball to the basket. He was too slow, he looked slow and unathletic. He helped us win but he hurt himself. We came back and said, 'It's all good, OK, you got us…' But no, not for you.

"So again, this is not just — if I worry about them, believe me, you can't say they're not worried about team and they're only worried about themselves. You can't. Well no, let me take it back. You can say it, then say it over and over and over and hope it's true. But when you watch this team play, you say, 'This is an unselfish group, boy. They play for each other.' Well then my job is to coach for them, and that's what we're trying to do."

On how Andrew Harrison has responded to clutter since the UofL game: "I don't think he's listened to it. I know I haven't. All we did is got back to work and made some adjustments for him and the other guards and said, OK, alright, this is what works, this is what doesn't work and let's keep going. But it's like anything else. I mean, Willie after that game said, 'I played awful.' They're not machines; I say it all the time. He didn't play well. The UCLA game — I wish he could duplicate that 28 times. Guess what? Hard to do."

On what Andrew wanted to add to his game: "He's wanting to do some mid-level pull-ups and some runners in the lane and do all that stuff and I said, 'Let's go.' Elbow jumpers, pull-up. Again, some of this stuff, I had them go directly to the coaches, some of the stuff I asked them what are you thinking about, and we did a couple of other things that were geared toward individual players. And again, people may say it's crazy, you're at Christmas and you're talking about individual guys getting better and you're not worried about your team. They worry about the team. I'm trying to worry about them."

* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.