"I'm not King Kong...yet" and other GameDay sights and sounds

Cal really loves that blue pullover. Photo by @derekpoore. Cal just spoke to the GameDay crew, and due to a technical difficulty, the crowd couldn't even hear what he was saying. But, one thing we did hear was this epic quote: "I'm not King Kong...yet." Consider that a teaser, as Ally will add a recap of his comments at the end of this post. 15,087 fans came to ESPN's College GameDay taping today, a record for the show this season and the second-largest crowd in GameDay history, behind UK's crowd in 2010. Here are some pictures from the court: During the breaks, Stone Cold Willow had dance-offs with other students and fans. And yes, he let those Hershey Kisses feel the cool air of Rupp. This guy, who was holding a TeamNF sign, got kicked out of the student section. Anyone know why? Finally, Jay Bilas didn't try to win over the BBN with his choices during the team draft: Indiana, Louisville, Florida, Duke and St. Louis. Jalen Rose won the crowd over by picking the Cats as his non-ranked team. Be back in a few hours... **Re-cap of John Calipari's comments during his GameDay interview: - The segment began with a montage of many of John Calipari's comments in front of various microphones this season about his team. The clips ranged from, "They deserved to beat us by 50" to "Yesterday was our worst practice in 3 years" to the "uncoachable" comment. The video might have been a little awkward for the Kentucky team sitting in the crowd, but perhaps it might inspire them. - When asked about the infamous dodgeball game, Calipari said he "got hit pretty quickly. I had every ball coming at me. It was just a spur of the moment, we gotta loosen this thing up." - Cal then talked about some of the pressure of playing at Kentucky, "I don't blame these kids. You're here at Kentucky, you're expected to win every game. You're under the glow of a media that's all over you. But at the end of the day, the guys that play the best are having fun playing and they play. They aren't worried about the end result. They just play basketball." - When asked about the "bubble projections," Calipari said he doesn't think it matters. He once again brought up the "Bell Curve." Calipari said his team simply needs to "stay in the moment." - The best part of the segment wasn't anything from Calipari's mouth. Instead it was the John Robic dodgeball fathead right behind his head. Kudos. Props. 3 goggles to whoever that was. - When asked by Jay Bilas who the biggest talker on the team is, Calipari quipped that it was probably "Orlando Antigua." He said at times they have to tell the staff to stop talking so they can evaluate who on the team is actually talking. - As Tyler mentioned in the teaser, John Calipari was asked about the impressive play of Willie Cauley-Stein in Kentucky's last game. Calipari said that after the game, Willie Cauley-Stein said after the game that he will do what he has to do, but "I'm not King Kong...yet." Calipari said the message from WCS was that he will do his job, but everyone else has to do the same. - And finally, "We still have the ability to do whatever we choose to do..." And then Willie Cauley-Stein and Nerlens Noel played an awkward game of "Know Your Teammate." The highlight was the miscue with the answers, when ESPN mixed up two of Noel's answers. As a result, it looked as if Noel answered that Rajon Rondo was the one thing that could make him change his hairstyle. (h/t Derek Poole)