Pre-Vandy Thoughts - Brought To You By Cal And Co.

by:Will Lentz02/10/11

The toughest opponent at Vanderbilt doesn’t even wear a Jersey.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, man, I really wish I could read what Calipari is thinking about this Vandy game on Saturday.  Fear not loyal readers, for I have that exact thing for you.

Coach Calipari

On if playing at Vanderbilt with the ‘end zone’ coaches’ box will be a challenge …

“I don’t think they listen to me much on the road, so I don’t think it really matters. But, I do know they will have to listen to each other. Maybe that will help them. Historically, our teams have always played better on the road because they were always supposed to win every game on the road, so when they went on the road, they loosened up a little bit and they played. With this team, part of it is that we haven’t played together. I tried to figure this out myself. Why do guys play so poorly at Florida, and then turn around and play so well against Tennessee? You know guys that stunk the gym up, and some of them gave up 30 points; so how do those guys come back? I think part of it is that they did it together, so that makes the game easier. If you try to play by yourself, the game is really hard. It’s hard on offense, you don’t get any space, guys are up in you, no one gives you an easy shot, and no one frees you. And on defense, it’s just you and that man. If he is a little better than you, or quicker, oh my goodness gracious, you are just looking to come out of the game. One of the things you do is foul to get you out of there. But if you are together, even a young man that is faster and quicker, you can guard him. And offensively, a guy is trying to smother you. That doesn’t matter. My teammate will get me something. That’s something that I come back too. Usually a crisis brings that around. The guys say ‘man we have to do that together’.”

On if this team is rebounding better …

“We will see. That’s an ongoing issue. The biggest thing is the rebound attempts against Tennessee and Florida are so glaring. Just attempting, listen to me… attempt. All we are asking is for you to attempt to get the ball. We had guys rebounding 25-30 percent of the time, and they were our three, our four, and our five. Think about what I just said. Now, this game, Tennessee, they were all in the eighties. That means a shot went up on offense. If I’m on offense, and I’m a three, four, or five I try to tip it in and go play. If it went up on defense, all five guys went to rebound the ball. Well now we have a chance to out-rebound the other team. Before, we didn’t even have a chance. So again, it is on them? No. That’s why I put those (rebounding) rims up. Every shot we take, none of them were going in. ‘Why didn’t you go after that rebound?’ ‘Because I thought it was going to go in.’ Unless you can get it through a pinhole, it’s not going in. There’s a rim in there. So, we are trying to get them to develop some different habits.”

On if he will watch the Vanderbilt game tonight …

“I will not. I was thinking about having the team over to watch. Maybe they will watch it over in Wildcat (Lodge). I usually just watch the tape. And the reason is I will try to get the remote and try to stop it, when it’s a real game, so I can’t do it.”

Darius Miller

On the setup at Vanderbilt …

“It is kind of different. As you all know, the setup is different and it is going to be a pretty tough environment and a tough crowd. We are trying to get mentally ready and hopefully we can come out and have a good practice today.”

On all the road games being close on the road …

“Yeah, that is true (they have been close), but we haven’t played a whole 40 minutes on the road. We feel like we haven’t played a whole 40 minutes through conference play, really. We have to work on coming out and playing the whole game and get prepared and ready.”

Deandre Liggins

On dealing with the different set up of the Vanderbilt gym …

“The coach gets away from us so it’s pretty weird because he has to yell from in the end zone. We just have to make sure we communicate on every call we make.”

On worrying about falling off the gym floor at Vanderbilt …

“It’d be weird to see someone fall off, but if I’ve got to do that to win the game then I’ll do it. I’m just trying to come out with a win.”

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