Kentucky coach John Calipari met with the media today to discuss the Cats' upcoming matchup with Lafayette. Here's a few of the highlights from the press conference:

* Asked about Ryan Harrow's status, Cal said "He's doing better. Worked out yesterday. But he's just not ready to go 100 percent, and I told him until you're ready to go 100 percent" (he won't play.) "I think he'll be fine," Cal added. "I just want him back. We were a little bit short the last game, and we know it, but you gotta look at a kid's health first. Get yourself right, and let's go."

* Kentucky officially announced 5 new signees today, but Cal declined to talk about the players. "We put out a press release, so we'll let you guys take it from there, if that's alright... We're excited about it, don't get me wrong. I'm jacked up. It's a good class and a good bunch of guys." (Huge grin on his face while delivering that part.) Cal did, however, add later on in the press conference that he intends to sign "one or two" more guys in this class. Could reach seven in the spring.

* Asked about Archie Goodwin's play at the point, Cal said it was "Not bad, but still plays too fast, gets himself out of control. There were easier plays he could have made a few times, but I went through this with Tyreke (Evans). They've got to see it on tape, they've got to learn, and he'll be fine."

* Cal shot down the notion that Nerlens Noel is having trouble leaving his feet to block shots. As I said during our game chat Tuesday, that's how he coaches it. The issue is with the lack of help and rotations, which UK was so good at last year. Cal said it's a learning process. They're trying to learn how to be the helper. The next step is learn how to be the helper's helper. Bottom line: He wants Nerlens being aggressive and doing his thing. "It's not Nerlens. I was REALLY happy with Nerlens."

* Cal said Maryland and Duke were two good games to learn about his team. Asked what he learned, he said that they're a post-up and pick-and-roll team. "Kyle (Wiltjer) cannot get the shots on his own. We're going to have to help him. He did not play as hard as he needs to play, and he saw it on the tape. If he's not getting shots off, then he won't be on the court as much. I'm not mad. I love him. But he better figure out how to get shots off. If he can't, then he won't be on the court as much."

* Cal said last week's practice focus was primarily on getting the beast mode out of Alex Poythress and some things with Nerlens Noel, both which paid off. This week will be getting Kyle Wiltjer up to speed and finding ways to make him more productive (5 points and 3 rebounds in 32 minutes vs. Duke.) "We can't expect our team to find him all the shots. We're freshmen."

* Cal said Willie Cauley-Stein should have played more than the 7 minutes he got against Duke. He took the blame for that. On the flip side, he said he played Julius Mays too many minutes and it helped lead to "Curry had his way with him." Cal made a switch late in the game, and Mays took it on himself to go back on Curry. "That's not his call to make."

* Lafayette will run a lot of pick-and-rolls, backdoors and shoot a bunch of 3s. The 4 and 5 players will shoot 3s. They'll hold the ball deep into the shot clock and make you work. "If you get lazy, then you're going to pay a price," Cal said. 

* Cal said they can't listen to everyone saying "that (Duke loss) was OK, we're going to be great in March. Look, we could have won that game. We didn't deserve to win the game, but I don't care about that. We still could have won the game. We broke down late again just like we did against Maryland. Same kind of issues, same guys. We're going to be in close games all year, and the last 2-3 minutes are going to be critical with how we play."

* "We have to understand what we are, a post-up team, a pick-and-roll team, create some shots for Kyle. We must get out in transition and get easy baskets. We got none. None. Does that mean we've got to put Archie at off-guard so he can get out ahead of the pack? Probably. But we've got some figuring to do. We've got to get ready for zone. I think tomorrow (Lafayette) will play a lot of zone, so it's a good time for us to start working on that."

I agree with Cal that we could have won that game, but he always seems to take the opposite view of everyone else. If the fans had been saying we could have won, I think Cal would have pointed out that we shouldn't worry because we'll be good in March. LOL

CatFever49 wrote: I agree with Cal that we could have won that game, but he always seems to take the opposite view of everyone else. If the fans had been saying we could have won, I think Cal would have pointed out that we shouldn't worry because we'll be good in March. LOL

So true. 

It's funny. We've overreacted to losses in BBN for YEARS, and now the fan base finally chills out and says "It'll be OK," and Cal goes against the grain. 

Cal apparently didn't see the several times when Kyle worked himself open, waved his hands for the ball and was totally ignored by the ball handlers.  Aree Wiltjer needs to keep going hard even when he's not being "allowed" and certainly not helped with pics, etc. to get his open three attempts.  But surely Cal does know how much he will need some Wiltjer bombs against some of the tougher opponents.  IMO, it's the newcomers who should be criticized and coached up on getting the ball to Wiltjer and helping him get open if necessary.

Many won't agree with me but i don't agree with Cal as far as Noel leaving his feet. He is quick and athletic enough to wait and then block the shot. If he is jumping for everything on a pump fake then it will be easy to get in foul trouble if a guy decides to jump into him. Also teammates rotating does help but not so much if the ball is swung quickly (especially with Wiltijer out there).  Coach's always teach their bigs to stay aggressive but go for the block after the guy has shot or once he is at his high point and about to release it, especially when the shot blocker is quick off of his feet. All top NBA shot blockers have said that as well.

Agree about Wiltijer but he also needs to shoot when open, one play that sticks out is when the ball is swung to him and he's open but instead swings it to the corner for Poythress(announcers even mentioned it) He needs to remember he is the best shooter on the floor at all times and if he gets it and is open or even if he is kinda open he should shoot it because his jumper is that nice

I have to agree with Cal on the Wiltjer getting his shot to add to that Kyle is getting beat way too much on D. We have a really good team that needs to be more intense and really has to work togeather and stop standing around.

insider129 wrote: I have to agree with Cal on the Wiltjer getting his shot to add to that Kyle is getting beat way too much on D. We have a really good team that needs to be more intense and really has to work togeather and stop standing around.

I initially thought that, too, but when I went back and watched the game again, I didn't see him get hurt a lot in one-on-one stuff. He didn't rotate and help like he needed to, but his man didn't beat him any more than the other guys did.