Q&A: UK's Calipari talks Briscoe, Ulis, Towns
If you've listened to John Calipari talk much, you know that it often doesn't matter what a reporter asks him. He has talking points, and he's gonna get to them. Hey, Cal, what do you think of Tyler Ulis? Long spiel about Andrew Harrison. How can you be better offensively? Rant about defensive breakdowns.
You know the drill. We know the drill. But something crazy got into Calipari today on the SEC teleconference. He was asked about incoming recruit Isaiah Briscoe and current Cats Tyler Ulis, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Harrison and … talked at great length specifically about each of those players. The result? Some good stuff on all four, including a revelation that Calipari would prefer Towns have a larger rump. Enjoy:
JOHN CALIPARI
On call host saying UK plays Texas A&M this week (it's Mississippi State): "Well, I thought we were playing Mississippi State. These goofballs have me watching Mississippi State tape. Should I go watch Texas A&M tape (laughing). It would be a little more difficult. I'd see different color jerseys. OK. No, it's all good. We're just trying to keep these guys engaged and we're working on – physically working, mentally working. Kids have been great. They're responding. We're getting closer to having every player be the best version of themselves, and we're really focused on that more than anything else that we're doing."
On coming late to Isaiah Briscoe's recruitment and what finally got him interested: "Well, as everything was playing out, you want players that want to play at Kentucky, that understand what it means. When I met with him and his family, I said, 'It's not for everybody. It'll be the hardest thing you're ever going to undertake. I'm not going to promise you you'll start. I'm not promising you minutes or shots. You come with us because you want to get better. Individually, you want to go from A to B to C and you want to be on a terrific team and be a teammate.' He never asked me who was going to be on our team. He never asked me, nor did he care, who else we were recruiting. He wanted to play with us, and it's exactly the kind of young man that comes here, improves himself, gets himself better and understands why he came and does well.
"But he's not – it's different here. We don't recruit – we'll recruit some kids that we see and it's an obvious thing, but we want to make sure because I don't want anybody to come here and fail. Not every kid succeeds but we work real hard on making it so when we're watching they have a great chance to succeed. Good character kids, and that's what he is. Great family. I went and watched him play. He's exactly what we thought: great with the ball, good teammate. He's got a ways to go, but he's going to be good."
On Briscoe being open about his NBA aspirations, if Calipari thinks he's that type of player and his expectations for Briscoe's first season at Kentucky: "Well I don't know all that. I do know that you have to understand when I ask my team that question to start the year – 'How many of you have aspirations to play in the NBA?' – every player in the room raised their hand, including the walk-ons. So, that doesn't – I want guys that have that in them that they want to be the best they can be. They know to reach that dream they've got to be at their very best and the team's got to win. They understand it. What he'll do here, it's like everything else, I hope you see when he's playing for us, you say, 'I never thought he was this good. I never thought he could get to this point. I'm amazed at how much better he's gotten. Look at his body. Look at the pace of his game. He gets in the lane whenever he wants. I didn't realized this is who he was.' That's what I'm hoping the comments are after he's playing for us."
On Mississippi State playing good defense: "The tapes that I've watched and the games that I've seen, you're absolutely right. They had Mississippi down 10. They had a chance to win the game. They had Arkansas down at half, had a chance to win the game. And I've hit Rick (Ray) throughout the season. When I've watched his team, I'm amazed at how hard they're playing, how in sync they are with each other. They're playing zone, they're playing man, they're digging the post. They're fighting you on every possession. On the zone out of bounds, they're giving you nothing. They're making you throw it in the backcourt. And again, they're getting up in people. I told him I think he's doing a fabulous job. And again, you have to understand, when he took over, that thing was not in great shape. And it's taken time, but he's building a culture and it's being built on work and defense and rebounding and toughness. That's how you begin the process of taking that program where he wants it to go."
On if someone has to be self-motivated to achieve at the level Ulis has at his size: "Well, this is going to take a moment or two, with all due respect to everybody that's listening. First of all, I watched this kid play and I couldn't believe his fight and the fire he had and his ability to play to win. We were – I kept watching him based on one thing: his size. Just one thing held me back from going all out was his size. But I had him come down to Kentucky and I said to him: 'If you don't have pro aspirations, do not come here.' And the second thing is: 'If you think you're going to be here four years, don't you come here.' In other words, people were telling me, 'Wow, you get him, you got a four-year point guard.' Why? Why does that have to be the case, unless Tyler wants it to be the case.
"Second thing I did is I sat down with Isaiah Thomas, went to watch Washington play Sacramento at the time and I sat down with him and said, 'Tell me what I've got to do and what this young man has to do to be in your league.' He gave me some ideas. I talked to Doc Rivers. 'Can a 5-10 point guard play in your league?' He said, 'Absolutely, if he does these three things,' and they're three things that Tyler does. Now, he's not healthy right now. Second thing, he's gotta gain weight. He's gotta get stronger. You gotta have some weight to you. So there are things that he's gotta do. He's gotta be a more consistent shooter, especially free-throw shooter. Things that he can do. But I'll tell you, the kid's fight and desire to win and how he plays as a teammate, he's outstanding."
On Karl-Anthony Towns' development: "Well, a friend of mine was in town this weekend, and we went to see him play in high school in a game that he had a 6-3 guy guarding him that he charged into three times. He jogged the floor, he tried to play on the perimeter, and my friend said, 'Cal, are you sure this kid's good enough?' Now, I knew what he was because I'd been around him, and let me just tell you: You're talking about a big kid with skills – making free throws, making jump shots, scoring next to the basket, got a jump hook – but doesn't have the physical maturation yet. He's like a normal big kid. Now, within two or three years, when he gets that weight in his butt, in his thighs that he's gonna have, now it becomes another one of those kids you look at and you say, 'Oh my gosh. I didn't realize he was gonna be like this.'
"He's physically not caught up to all the other stuff that he does. But he can guard pick-and-roll. He can defend. He blocks shots. He does all those things that win basketball games. And he is getting better. Now the greatest thing for him is, he's had Dakari here and Willie here. You're not just doing what you want to. And we're a little bit on warp speed here. Like, you got to catch up and you got to go, and we don't have time for you to mess around. His maturity's catching up to him. But he is a wonderful kid. He's a great student. He's all that you want in a player. He's like a son. Him and my son, they're the same age. Well, they're one year apart, but they watch cartoons together. Let me just leave it at that."
On how close Andrew Harrison is the last five or six games to being the point guard he wants, and what was up with the camera on Sam Malone's headband: "I don't know about the headband stuff. I don't know what you're talking about. But I would tell you that when Andrew plays where he's attacking the lane – get in the lane – he is a totally different player. It's what we – let me say this: To play that way all the time is really hard. That means you have to be alert. That means you have to be playing before you catch the ball. It means you have to play with speed and pace all the time. When you throw it ahead, you're ready to get it back and attack the lane. Really hard to play that way. But when he does and that's who he is, he's as good as any guard in the country. The same when he posts the ball. If he's ready to play before he catches it when they throw it out of the post or off a drive, that's where he's getting to.
"But the other side, he's also defending better. He's defending the ball better. He's playing weakside where he's a defensive playmaker. And again, we all expect these kids to be the finished product at the beginning of the year. This is all a process for all of these kids. Every single one of them. And the same with Aaron. Aaron now is driving the ball more, not settling for all threes, not expecting someone to always get him a shot. Go get your own, man. Bounce into the lane. We're setting you a screen. You got to create your own shot. They're starting to do that, and you're seeing (it). That's why I come back to, we're working on each individual player becoming the best version of themselves. Not just our schemes, our plays, team, the program, take the names off the back. This is about each individual player becoming the best version of themselves. They care about one another. They're unselfish. Let's just get better individually. I'll worry about the team stuff. They're worried about each other. I'm worried about each individual guy. It's been a fun thing to go through."
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