Would love to hit UK but no play after reading some things Calipari is saying...
"I told them we are going to practice like we are 4-3 because we could be 4-3, so let's practice that way. Let's not get arrogant or stretched out, because we aren't very good right now. We have to really settle in and get better. We are playing a team that lost some players, yet their starting five is all players that played in the national title game a year ago. Ed Davis may have been one of their best, if not the best player last year. (Larry) Drew is pretty good and Marcus Ginyard is pretty good. (Will) Graves played. Now, all of the sudden, they have five McDonald's All-Americans to play along with those guys. They aren't playing much, but they are on the bench. They are five McDonald's All-Americans. We are playing a team that is very talented, very big, very well coached and more experienced than us. We are not bigger, we are not more talented and we are inexperienced. The one hope we have is that they will be intimidated by Rupp Arena. But, they have played in Cameron Indoor and some other places, so they will not be intimidated by Rupp. We know what we are in for and it will be a hard game. It will be a hard game for us to win.
"They watched (North Carolina's game against) Michigan State and went from, `They're all right, to oh my gosh.' They watched the game together, so they understand we're talking about a juggernaut that rebounds. Yes, they went to the Madison Square Garden and lost to a team that played them in a 2-3 zone and they missed a bunch of shots, but they had a kid on the other team that made about seven three's in a row. He just went nuts. He went Tony Delk on them. Then, North Carolina beat a Michigan State team who was No. 2 in the country, and always known for tough play and roughness. North Carolina beat them to every ball and roughed them. They are a team of veteran players. They have all been to the highest level and played in the greatest arenas.
"They are fast, they are very aggressive and they are just as long. They are going to aggressively come into your body. We had teams like Cleveland State play that way. Initially, it stuns us because they feel like it's an AAU game. We don't understand until the game keeps going on that it's not an AAU game and they are playing for their lives. That is what we are trying to learn through all of this. These next ten days, we are going to learn about our team. Would you like to win every game? Yes, you want to win every game. But, the more important thing is learning about your team, and the only way you learn is playing the next level of teams. We need to say, where are we now? Can we play the way we want to play against better teams?
"I want to have fun coaching the game, I want my team to have fun playing the game, and the only way to do that is to play harder than they play. The only other way you do it is to do your job, whatever it is, do your job. Don't break down plays and try to do it yourself. Do your job. Come out together and make this easy on defense by talking. On offense, it's making easy plays and making sure you get open so you can make plays. All of that kind of stuff is where you have fun"
NO PLAY ON UK
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