By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Kentucky coach John Calipari is finished with making excuses and wants his team to take responsibility for their actions beginning Thursday night at Ole Miss.
“I’ve been a little bit tougher in practice as far as holding them accountable,” the Kentucky coach said Wednesday. “(I’m) making it clearer what we’re looking for and then holding them accountable. So that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Part of his strategy has been including more scrimmages during practice to help his squad get an idea how to handle opposing schemes going into the second half of the season.
“The biggest thing was putting them in situations because there are so many that come up in the game that they haven’t seen, so we’re doing more situational work, whether it’s man or zone and scrimmaging,” he said.
Calipari also wants his team to become more disciplined, an area of concern coming off a 73-70 loss at sixth-ranked Louisville last week. In addition to schemes, Calipari said the Wildcats have been working on gaining more trust on the court, which translates into more dialogue between the players in a game environment.
“A lot of that (discipline) comes from us talking and communicating with each other on the court,” Kentucky guard Isaiah Briscoe said. “And we’ve been trying to be better at that ever since we got back. So just with more practice and us talking to each other and making one another feel comfortable on the court.”
Another point of emphasis for the Wildcats has been a renewed emphasis on making better decisions, especially in the half court, an issue that was problematic in the loss to the Cardinals.
“What happens in the half court at times is, OK, shot selection, where the ball needs to go, situational why are we doing this? When to put them into pick-and-rolls, and that’s all stuff that I’ve got to teach and they’ve got to learn,” Calipari said. “We shoot it well enough. We penetrate well enough. We have enough of a postgame. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t be good enough in the half court. Historically, my teams can play really fast and beat you or play in the half court and beat you.
“It’s going to take time. I hope we’re ready for a road game in the league in an environment, where I would imagine is going to be off the chain like everywhere else we go, that these guys are ready for it.”
Ole Miss (9-3) has won three straight and is coming off a 92-58 win over South Alabama last week. Calipari, who is 12-4 and has won seven straight games over the Rebels, admitted his team’s first appearance at the Pavilion at Ole Miss will be a “hard game” for his team.
“Ole Miss is a good team,” the Kentucky coach said. “Where are we on the 29th of December on the road within our league, we’ll find out.”
The Rebels traditionally employ a variety of defensive schemes and have been known to use a 1-3-1 zone against their opponents. Calipari said the Wildcats are prepared if Ole Miss goes in that direction and likes his team’s chances of attacking the Rebels’ defensive attack with success.
“If you spread the court on my team, it’s usually pretty good for us,” he said. “If you spread the court on us, whether it’s in a press – it’s usually pretty good for us. But, this is a young team. We’re prepared to go against it, but in that environment, you don’t know. That’s why I said these are all great learning experiences. You want to win every game you play. You want to win every league game you play and road game you play, but it’s learning, especially when you’re as young as us. (You have to) keep learning.”
Although the loss to Louisville cost the Wildcats two spots in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Briscoe agreed with Calipari and said the three-point setback was a learning experience from top to bottom.
“That was a good game, actually,” Briscoe said. “It was a good test for us. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out with the win, but I think we all grew from that loss.”
Gametracker: Kentucky at Ole Miss, 8 p.m., Thursday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, 98.1 WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter