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Kentucky 87, Chattanooga 62
Quotes and Notes
COACH CALIPARI
Q. How did you play tonight and how is Terrence's (Jones) finger?
COACH CALIPARI: We just played okay. I thought some
of the guys played well. I told them, what happens to me, one of
my many, many flaws is that when I get mad at one or two guys, I end up
getting mad at the whole team. And it's not fair, because we had
some guys that played well today. We did.
But the guys we needed to play and do the things we needed to do,
did not, and I wasn't real happy. This team forced us to shoot a
lot of 3s. We are not a team that shoots 33 3s. You have to
take those. I thought Marquis Teague played well.
And Terrence (Jones) dislocated his finger; so I don't know what
that means, how long he'll be out, but he did dislocate it. He
tried to come back and play but just couldn't do it.
Q. Talk about Anthony Davis a little bit, what a huge game
and doing little things, too. He was all over the place in the
passing lanes and stuff.
COACH CALIPARI:
Anthony (Davis) played well. You know, there was a couple of
plays where he didn't hold his position, but they do a good job.
What they do, defensively, is they trap the post and then try to get
you to throw crazy passes. We had good spacing, and when we
didn't, they did steal the ball.
The second
thing they do is they squeeze on pick and rolls; in other words, the
man that goes to screen the ball, their man just jams you way high, and
you've got to go low and be in a good position.
We worked on it for two days. Guys walked into the game and
just got pushed to the top of the key and they weren't ready to
play. Anthony held his ground, which is why Marquis Teague got
the shots he got, because he held his ground. He wasn't
pushed. And then he rebounded every ball. He could have had
20 rebounds today. I mean, if I had left him in a few more
minutes, he would have had 20.
Q. On what finger Terrence Jones injured …
COACH CALIPARI: I think it was his pinky finger, I think. I didn't ask to be honest with you.
Q. On much did Terrence's (Jones) (injury) effect his play …
COACH CALIPARI: You couldn't tell. You couldn't
tell. But he tried to play. I've got to give him
credit. He tried to go back in and fight.
Q. How important is this period, and what are you trying to get out of this?
COACH CALIPARI: We'll probably go twice tomorrow.
We'll go once or twice Monday and we'll play Tuesday. We'll go
once or twice on Wednesday, and we'll play Thursday and then they go
home for three days and when we come back, we start back at it.
There is no classes. So if we need three times in one day, we'll
go through. It's where we really buckle down and zero in on what
we have to do.
What I liked was after a week of
really zeroing in on Marquis Teague, I thought he played well. I
thought he had control of the game. He missed some shots.
But the reality of it is, he probably took two shots he shouldn't have
taken. Missed both of them, or he would have been 5 for 11 from
the floor; now all of a sudden it's a little different game. But
he had eight assists. One time he controlled it, he got the ball
where he wanted. Defended pretty well. Much better than he
had been defending, which we have zeroed in on him.
We just have a long way to go. I look at us right now and
say, okay, you know, what are we going to have to do to take this to
another level? What do we have to do to get guys to understand,
let's just be a vicious team, let's go out and fight, we are just not
that right now.
That game got
again, and we had some guys that just ran for the hills. You
can't. You've got to want a rough game. You've got to want
to be rough. I want it to be that way. And you can't count
on Anthony Davis to get every rebound. That's what happened.
But Michael Gilchrist played pretty well. When you talk six
assists and 17 (points) and eight (rebounds), he played pretty well,
without taking a whole lot of shots.
Q. Is this one of those things that could possibly build on
itself with Terrence (Jones); that he dislocates a finger, doesn't have
a bounce back game, and carries on?
COACH
CALIPARI: I hope not, because he's one of those guys we are
counting on. So I hope not. I think he'll be fine.
You know, and we'll see. I mean, will he be able to play
Tuesday I don't know. I really don't know.
Q. You talk about it looked like Anthony
(Davis) tried to take a couple of charges and the guys were trying in
some respects.
COACH CALIPARI: Those were
all charges in the end, on us, those same plays. That's why I
said I wish you guys were in Indiana. They all would have been
blocks up there instead of charges on us. Sliding, jumping in the
air, body, chest to chest.
Q. You talk about the guys wanting to play rough
COACH CALIPARI: If you want to win, you have to figure it
out. We had guys in Indiana at the end of the game that had a
will to win, and they were coming up with plays and playing through
bumps and getting balls, and we had other guys that weren't. You
have to have a team full of guys. And the good news is they were
not getting on each other up there, and here a little bit.
One of the things this team isn't doing is, too much of the stuff
is coming from me. And I'm telling you, until this team gets
empowered, they are not going to be as good as they need to be.
If everything has to come from the bench, if everything has to come
from what I'm saying, instead of guys doing what they are supposed
to. I mean, we left the corner today five times. Now, if
you're anywhere near my bench or if you have ever come to a practice,
we do not leave the corner. From the first day of practice to every
game we play that is all we talk about is we are not leaving the
corner. We left the corner five times today. That stuff I have a right
to be angry about.
Not coming off with balls where guys won’t stick
their nose in there, I have a right to be angry about that. ‘Well, let
him stick his nose in there, but I am not going to put my nose in there
because I might get hit.’ We can’t be that way.
The thing that
they are going to try to do beat us is that they are going to try to
hit 3s, try to beat us at the foul line and they are going to try to
rough us. Is that what you would say? If they can get away with fouling
us a 1,000 times and the officials don’t call it or they rough and push
and shove. That is how they have to play. Well, we have to say, ‘We
want you to play that way. Play rough. Grab and rough and hold on every
possession like you do because it is not affecting us.’ Right now it
affects us.
The other thing is, maybe they do hold the ball, when
then you pressure. You don’t back away from people and today we were a
little bit better at that. You make them play a little bit.
Like
I said, it is good to get that one under the belt after that one last
weekend and now it is a quick turnaround and we will play Tuesday and
see what happens.
Q: On Kyle Wiltjer’s play and what that does to the offense?
COACH
CALIPARI: He did some good things. And again, I told him, all I am
concerned with you is defensively and rebounding the ball. You play
offensively. If I give you 8-10 minutes, play offensively, take shots.
If you don’t have them, pass. Like he had one and the stepped through
he didn’t need to take. The guy had him. He one dribbled pulled and the
guy had him and it wasn’t there. Everything else he took was wide open.
I would also like to get him in the post some and with the 2-point
shot. You don’t have to shoot all 3s, but we were wide open.
If
a team is going to do that to us and we shoot 33; you have to
understand, we have been making five, six 3s a game. We doubled
that today because of how they played. If you play us like this
team played, we'll shoot 3s. Hopefully we'll make a few more, and
we are not used to shooting this many. Doron Lamb made them in
the second half. Darius just makes two of seven; so we have to
get him on track because he's shooting about 25 percent for the year
right now from the 3. He was a 45 percent 3 point shooter, but we
will see.
Q. Your thoughts on how Doron (Lamb) played, the shoots he was able to make?
COACH CALIPARI: He did make some 3s in the first
half. I thought he played hard. He's trying. We need
him to speak more. This team doesn't talk enough, and it starts
with him. When you don't talk, you're into your own self.
You must talk on offense and you must talk on defense, and that's what
we are trying to get him to do.
Q. When you talk about being at the free throw line and 3 point line, why is it so important?
COACH CALIPARI: Because you are going to get everyone
blocked around the basket; if you try to drive on us, they are going to
block it. Indiana, they know we have got to make 3s, we have got
to create good shots from 3s, and we have got to get to the foul
line. Anthony Davis fouls, so we get to the line, because
shooting 2s, we are holding people to about 25 percent.
So when you talk to my players now think about
this: Darius (Miller) went under a pick and roll to give a guy a
3. With this team? The only thing (that can beat us),
shooting 3s, what were you thinking? Well, it's going to be
harder. You may get bumped. You can't you
can't no. Pick and roll; why would you go under
if the guy is going to shoot a 3? We are going to make him
dribble it in; we talk about it every day, but I'm going to tell you, a
bunch of young kids, I'll give this to you.
Going over the 5.6 against Indiana five times, here is what we
do. Two days ago, not just today, but yesterday, I went over it
on the court. We did it live. We shot the free throw, we
went up two; we screwed it up again. We did. We screwed it
up again. What it tells you is, we've got freshmen; what you're
saying is not necessarily what they are hearing.
So instead of me trying to be tricky, and think, well, if I don't
foul here, they are going to say, why didn't he foul. Play your
man, and let's make him not score, how about that. Instead we have got
two to give when they get near halfcourt, we are going to
foul not yet. We are not ready for that.
And there are things happening in the game because they are so young,
that they are going to make mistakes, you and I will look at and say,
he didn't know no, he didn't.
But let me say this: I like my team, we have got a good
team. We want a team with 33 percent 3s, and I'm not happy.
We had 13 turnovers and 17 assists, out rebounding them, I'm not
happy. Because, this team should be one of those teams that every
night out, you've got to strive to be that. Thank you. Kentucky is 9-1 and Chattanooga is 3-8.
Kentucky leads the series, 12-0, and is 18-0 all-time against teams from the current configuration of the
Southern Conference.
Tonight opened a five-game homestand. The Wildcats have two more games before the Christmas break,
Tuesday against Samford at 7 p.m. (ESPN2) and Thursday vs. Loyola-Maryland at 1 p.m. (Fox Sports
South).
First-Half Facts
Kentucky started with the lineup of Marquis Teague, Doron Lamb, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones
and Anthony Davis for the ninth-straight game.
UK opened the game with a 13-0 run.
o UK won the tip and began the scoring with an alley-oop dunk by Anthony Davis.
o The Cats followed with two steals and baskets.
o UTC didn’t have a shot hit the rim until 18:08.
o The Moccasins got on the board at the 16:11 mark on a turnaround baseline jumper by Drazen
Zlovaric.
UK led by as many as 20 points in the first half and took a 39-23 lead into the locker room.
Anthony Davis notched a double-double in the first half with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The last Wildcat to
get a first-half D-D was DeMarcus Cousins, who had 15 and 10 against LSU on Feb. 6, 2010.
Second-Half Story
Ahead 53-37, UK made a 13-0 run that featured consecutive three-pointers by Kyle Wiltjer, giving the
Wildcats a 66-37 advantage.
After an emphatic follow dunk by Anthony Davis with 3:09 to go, UK had its biggest lead of the game at 87-
53.
o Coach John Calipari removed the starters from the game at that point.
o Twany Beckham, a transfer from Mississippi State, made his first appearance as a Wildcat.
Team Notes
Kentucky has scored at least 87 points in five of its 10 games this season.
UK made 12 of 33 three-pointers, season highs in both categories.
UK limited the visitors to 33.3 percent from the field, 21 of 63. UK has held seven opponents under 34
percent shooting this season.
In its 109th season of basketball, Kentucky is the NCAA’s all-time wins leader with 2,061 wins.
The Wildcats extended their home winning streak to 40 games, the second-longest active streak in the
nation. The run includes the 2009 NIT game at Memorial Coliseum and the last 39 games at Rupp Arena.
UK is a perfect 39-0 under Coach John Calipari at Rupp Arena, the longest win streak in venue history.
UK owns a 465-60 all-time record in Rupp Arena.
Since the 2000 season, Calipari-coached teams have posted a 193-19 record at home.
Individual Notes
Anthony Davis totaled 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
o It is the fourth double-double for the freshman from Chicago.
o Reached a double-double in the first half, see note above.
o 14 points broke a two-game stretch in which he scored in single digits.
o Added five blocked shots, more than his already impressive average of 4.1 per game.
Doron Lamb led all scorers with 24 points.
o Lamb had career highs with four three-pointers made out of nine attempts.
o He also claimed a career-high six rebounds.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist filled out a nice stat line with 17 points, eight rebounds and a career-best six assists.
o Kidd-Gilchrist has had his two best scoring games in the last two outings, with 18 at Indiana and 17
tonight.
Darius Miller contributed 12 points, including a pair of three-pointers, his first multi-three game since hitting
4-of-5 against Portland.
Marquis Teague had 11 points and a career-best eight assists.
Kyle Wiltjer had nine points, all coming on a career-best three three-point shots.
o Most points since 19 vs. Penn State on Nov. 19.
Twany Beckham, a transfer from Mississippi State, made his first official appearance as a Wildcat and
played the final three minutes.
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