Calipari, Kentucky keeping it light ahead of run for 40-0 season
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
His joke will be taken out of context.
With John Calipari, things are often taken out of context. Such is life when you are the king of college basketball, and when you have a team that's chasing history, and when some three dozen members of the media show up in a hotel hallway a day before your undefeated Kentucky Wildcats take on Florida to hear what gems of wisdom you have today.
And so, when someone asked Calipari on Thursday which teams he most feared facing in the NCAA tournament, and he said what he said, people will inevitably point to his answer as hubris, or as an example of a head coach looking past the next game, when all it really was ... was a joke.
"They called the Lakers and they can't pull out of the NBA, so they won't be in there," Calipari said. "If we have to see Oklahoma City or Cleveland, those would be tough."
Ah, he jokes.
And yet there is a huge amount of truth in the jokes of a man whose team is nine games away from making history as the first team to ever go 40-0.
Who can beat Kentucky? That's the singular question that will dominate the college hoops landscape between now and April 6 in Indianapolis, when Kentucky — or some other team, I guess — cuts down the nets after winning the national title.
Can someone beat Kentucky? Of course someone can beat Kentucky. Virginia can beat Kentucky. Duke can beat Kentucky. Arizona can beat Kentucky. Wisconsin can beat Kentucky. The Lakers can beat Kentucky.
But in order for any of those scenarios to happen, Kentucky's collection of elite talent — which has taken Calipari's coaching and played like a selfless team, sacrificing minutes for wins — will need to play at a level less than it is capable of playing at. What's the level at which another team can beat Kentucky? I don't know. I know if Kentucky plays its 'A' game, no one is beating the Cats. Maybe a Kentucky B-minus game means the 'Cats could be upset — but only if their opponents play their 'A' game.
"I'm concerned about my team and nobody else," Calipari said. "If someone else is playing out of their minds, and we get beat? We get beat. My thing is how do we continue to be our best? And if that's not good enough, that's not good enough."
If you were going to gauge Calipari's mindset heading into the SEC tournament, you'd call it focused on the main goal — a national title — more than any goal that involves chasing history.
He focuses on the national title by focusing his players on improving on the margins, he said Thursday.
"We have some guys that are playing better than they ever have in their life," Calipari said. "The question is, as you go into these last few weeks, how do you add two or three percent to your game? I'll give you an example. Trey Lyles' two or three percent may be flying up and down the court. Just go a little harder and attacking the backboard, rebounding just a little harder. Aaron (Harrison), it may be attacking the basket. Not settling. Will you be a defensive playmaker every possession? The same with Andrew (Harrison). Each guy has their own little thing that they can do a little bit better. And that's what we're trying to do."
But the other thing they're trying to do — the reason that Kentucky might be the hottest story in sports at the moment — is become the first Division I team since Indiana in 1975-76 to go undefeated, and the first team to go 40-0. (Indiana had to win only 32 in a row to cut down the nets 39 years ago. Weak.)
Calipari swears he doesn't talk with his players about going undefeated. He swears that his only concern is winning the national title: "The real part starts Sunday, when we hear how tough our brackets are," he said.
I gotta be honest: I don't believe him. Calipari is a man who has spent his career as a maverick, as a villain, as a guy who says what's on his mind and rubs people the wrong way and pays the price. He's now a finalist for the basketball Hall of Fame, and that level of acceptance from his contemporaries is something he lusts after — that, and a legacy that puts him among the game's greatest of all time.
Which is exactly what a 40-0 season would do.
I asked him on Thursday how he has handled the psychology of going undefeated with his players. I wondered whether it's something he's brought up to his players or whether it's the elephant in the room.
"We had (Kentucky sport psychologist) Bob Rotella come in and do some individual (assessments) and meet with our team," Calipari said. "I told him the way I was approaching it was I just wanted the regular season over. Let's get on with the real stuff. We had two weeks left. And I told him, 'If we get dinged, we get dinged. Let's just get on with this.' And he said to me, 'Well, (the players) don't feel that way.' So it's kinda neat to know they are not afraid of what's going on.
"We've been in positions where we've had to make plays, and we did," he continued. "I don't think they're afraid of it. I think they have confidence in each other, that someone will do something."
Does the game against Florida on Friday in the SEC tournament matter? Not really, I suppose, if the only goal is to win a title. A loss on Friday — or on Saturday, or on Sunday in the SEC tournament final — could be a learning experience for the Wildcats.
But in the big picture, when we are looking at the scope of history, every single game Kentucky plays between now and April 6 matters, and matters a whole lot.
"I told them a long time ago (that) they're not going to realize what they just went through until it's all said and done," Calipari said. "We have a sign outside our video room when we go in: 'Where's the time gone?' It's flown by. I have one concern: my team playing well. If that's not good enough, then you go back and get ready for the tournament."
Email Reid Forgrave at reidforgrave@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @reidforgrave.
