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Thank you for that nice introduction, UKFCU. 80 years is a long time.
Now for John Calipari’s comments from the day. He logged into Zoom from the team hotel in Nashville to discuss Thursday’s game against Mississippi State. Below you’ll find five comments that stood out followed by the full video of his press conference. Enjoy.
1. Terrence Clarke is available if needed.
Clarke sent out a couple photos to his SnapChat followers that suggested he is cleared to return to basketball and back practicing with the team. Only speculation until today, Calipari confirmed Clarke is back and might play if needed.
“I’ll let everybody know, the training staff and medical staff came to me about Terrence last week and I said, ‘If he can get through individual work, two days, without limping… And if he’s limping, I don’t care what you tell me, he’s not playing,’” Calipari said. “So he did and I said, ‘Okay, now we’re going to throw him into some of the scrimmaging. Does he pick us up or take us back? If he takes us back, he can’t be in right now.’ So, he’s had a couple good days.”
Clarke’s last action was an 0-for-4 day against Louisville prior to the start of SEC play. He’s been out with a lingering ankle injury ever since.
2. Coach Cal will be dancing if they win Game 1.
Four in a row? Calipari wants to win one first and then see what happens from there. “If we can win that game, I’m going to be dancing,” he said of Thursday’s game against Mississippi State. “Just that game. Forget about four. Let’s just worry about the first game.”
On that point…
3. He will play everyone he needs, as many minutes as it takes to win.
The one-game mindset means Calipari isn’t using his depth to keep guys fresh in case they keep advancing. He will play whoever is playing well as long as they need to play to earn a win, he says.
“You’re just trying to win this game and then we’ll worry about the next one later,” Calipari explained. “I need to use the entire roster, there will be no pitchers left. I’m using every pitcher I can. The knuckleballer, the curveballer, the fast pitch, the middle reliever, the last-inning (guy). I’m throwing everybody.
Now, what if the pitcher that we start the game with is really in a groove? Then we won’t go to the bullpen. We won’t. We’ll just go with who we have. This is not about, OK, it’s a 10-point game, let’s get us some subs. No, we’re playing to win a game. Everything you’re doing, your mentality is let’s go, leave nothing on the table, including timeouts. You do whatever you have to to get through. And it’s going to be a hard game.”
He told his locker room, “Guys, every game we play in this tournament, there’s not going to be any 20-point blowouts. This thing is going to come down to the wire and we’ve got to be tougher and fight and throw daggers more than they do, or your season ends.’ So, that’s what it will be about.’”
4. “Tomorrow is going to be hard.”
Kentucky is 1-0 against Mississippi State this season but that game needed double OT before the Cats could finish the job.
“I mean, it was a double-overtime game,” he said of the early January meeting with the Bulldogs. “It took Dontaie making seven 3s, two of them banked in, and it took us to double OT to get them.
“Their guard play is good. Their big men are good. They’re a better team at this point, but so are we. And we’re different. We’re not playing the same way we did then.”
5. Some kind words for Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin, a former member of Calipari’s staff at UK.
Morehead State is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over a decade with fourth-year head coach Preston Spradlin leading the Eagles. Prior to becoming a head coach, Spradlin, a Pikeville native, spent five years in various positions on the staff at Kentucky, four under Calipari.
When asked about his former staffer and Morehead’s NCAA Tournament berth, Calipari said, “He was running the camps and involved in all of our meetings, our staff meetings, video, really bright basketball guy. Really level-headed. As a matter-of-fact, if I remember right, I put him in practices because he could still play.”
Calipari spoke to Spradlin yesterday and told him, “You should go into this thing, ‘Look it doesn’t matter.’ No one is going to want to play them. You’ve got some teams out there that are mid-major teams that you’re like saying, ‘Sheesh.’ Who wants to play them?”
“I’m happy that those guys have done what they’ve done and they’re in the NCAA Tournament and they won their league.”
