Kentucky coach John Calipari is nothing if not convincing. Sitting on the dais next to five blue chippers, including Anthony Davis, the de facto No. 1 overall pick in the next NBA draft, is evidence enough.
But then Calipari leans into the microphone.
“Everybody is like ‘This must be a hard team to coach,’” Calipari said, referring to unifying such a collection of talent and potential egos. “Folks, it isn’t. You know what’s hard? When your players are bad. That’s really hard. This is not hard.”
Calipari still was basking in the glow of top-seeded Kentucky’s 102-point offensive clinic Friday night in the NCAA regional semifinal against Indiana. And maybe he was a little punchy, given the late hour. It was past 1 a.m. when Calipari began his postgame news conference.
But then, some 12 hours later, albeit on a short night’s sleep and some Dunkin Donuts coffee “if you want to know specifically, and I get cream and two Splenda,” Calipari’s message was the same.
“Last night we scored 102 points ...” he said. “How many turnovers did we have?”
“Six,” came a reply.
“We had six turnovers,” Calipari continued. “We’re a good basketball team. Let’s just play basketball. I don’t care what else is going on in the tournament. I’m not watching any of the other games. Why do I care? I’m just worried about my team.
“And I’ve got a good team. So let’s just do that. Is that what I’m doing? That’s what I’m saying. It’s not like I’m saying it to you and not to them.”
To his left, five heads nodded.
It seems Calipari has been trying to convince his team that these are just another couple of basketball games. What tournament? Sunday’s matchup in the South regional final against No. 3-seed Baylor at 2:20 p.m. is just another chance to have some fun.
In one sense, Calipari is acknowledging that the expectation on the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament is more than a group of guys should bear, especially now that the second overall seed North Carolina is dealing with point guard Kendall Marshall’s broken wrist. So Calipari is out front, trying to absorb the pressure for them.
“It seems like there’s only one team that is not allowed to lose in this tournament, and that’s us,” said Calipari, who has taken Kentucky to its third consecutive Elite Eight and is still looking for his first national title. “I don’t want them to feel that.”
In another sense, it seems to be working. While No. 1-seed Michigan State lost to Louisville, No. 1-seed Syracuse sweated a first-round game with North Carolina Asheville, and No. 1-seed North Carolina nearly got bounced by No. 13-seed Ohio, Kentucky followed a pair of 16-point victories by rolling past Indiana. And that was despite giving up 90 points and getting only 25 minutes and nine points from Davis.
The night before playing Indiana, when the Wildcats could have been watching Michigan State lose or Ohio State hold off Cincinnati, they were at Atlantic Station watching “21 Jump Street.”
“The movie was awful if you’re 53,” Calipari said. “... There were some of the stupidest things in this movie I’ve ever seen. But people were laughing. I was the only one not laughing.”
The movie choice seems to be the only thing right now that Calipari and his players can’t agree on.
“I don’t know what Coach Cal is talking about; it was a great movie,” said Davis, who picked it. “Coach Cal, I just don’t think he likes movies. I think he likes movies like Red Tails, old movies, old western movies.”
After Friday night’s game, Calipari said he got about three hours sleep before he was up breaking down film of the Indiana game and watching several Baylor games.
From the sounds of it, Kentucky players got about twice the amount of sleep Calipari did, and that’s just how he wants it.
Kentucky is one win away from a second consecutive trip to the Final Four. The Wildcats face a team they see as the most athletic they’ve faced since North Carolina in December, with the length and quickness of Perry Jones III and the two Quincys — Acy and Miller — inside.
But Calipari said he planned to show his players maybe five minutes or so of Baylor film and let them focus on what they do, what they enjoy doing.
“These guys — do you want to play slow or fast?” Calipari said when asked about the kind of pace he expected Sunday.
“Fast,” five players said in unison.
“Huh,” Calipari said.
It was a “huh,” as in hmm. He said it with shades of contentment, and yes, confidence. Whether it was a ploy for the benefit of players sitting next to him, or just the truth, Calipari knows he’s onto something. And it sounds pretty convincing.
