John Calipari evaluates Jacob Toppin's improvement this season

On3 imageby:Peter Warren02/08/23

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Kentucky head coach John Calipari has gotten some great contributions recently from Jacob Toppin. During this past weekend’s victory over Florida, Toppin scored 17 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field. He also grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Toppin is fourth on the team in scoring with a 11.7 points per game average and second in rebounds with 6.5. His improvement throughout the season, Calipari said, was a mindset change.

“He went through something that a couple of our guys have that I would tell you you don’t want to go through,” Calipari said. “Instead of being the best version of himself, he was trying to live up to expectations. Then all of a sudden it started piling up. After Missouri, when I started him that next game trying to basically say, I believe in you and I’m starting you for that reason. But he has built his own confidence where before if he made a mistake, you had to take him out in past years. Now, he’s got it. He’s doing it. He’s really an intelligent player. Quick twitch. He’s rebounding balls. How many rebounds did he have today? He had 10 rebounds. He did some good stuff. He did some good stuff.”

John Calipari likes how Jacob Toppin, Kentucky are staying the course

The Wildcats beat the Gators in a game that John Calipari called an important win for his program.

“This was a heck of a win for us,” Calipari said. “To do it and you’re seeing teams all over the country get beat. I only read about us when we could beat. But they’re teams across the country that are getting beat. It’s because that happens. You play a good schedule, you’re gonna lose some games. You play a team that’s trying to figure themselves out, it takes some time.”

The team has been operating with a day-by-day mindset the past few weeks, and that has resulted in some major improvements to the team’s performance.

“Now, it’s not done with this schedule,” Calipari said. “What we’re doing is staying the course. We’re trying to win now Sunday. It’s all we’re worried about. We want to have a win on Sunday, and then we want to have a win on Monday. Then let’s play the game and see how it turns out. We’re just trying to win days. That’s what we’ve been doing since Tennessee.”