Everything John Calipari said after Arkansas' SEC Tournament win over South Carolina

Following South Carolina’s 72-68 loss to Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Tournament, Razorbacks head coach John Calipari spoke with the media on Wednesday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“At this point, you want to win games. I’ll look at the tape and figure out. But I just thought we got
tentative and was trying to get out of the gym. You can’t play that way. We have a bunch of guys that compete and did what they had to to win the game, so I’m happy. Would you like to have it a big score? Yeah. But at this time of the year, everybody’s fighting for their lives. South Carolina, in a different league, they’re good. They got big guys. They got guards. I mean, this league is unforgiving.”

In the last three wins, Texas, Mississippi State and today, you had double-digit leads in the second half that were cut down to single possessions. Is that something that’s a concern for you?

“First of all, you got to say, Geez, you got up double figures on all those teams. What’s happened is, it kind of tells you that we’re still in the process of getting better. Did we win all those games? *Yes* We figured out how to win ’em. Did we let people back in the game with a chance to beat us? Yes. All of ’em.
Now it’s that time of year where you’re going to show some tape and just say, Was this necessary? Was this necessary? Let’s got beat ourselves. But this team… Let me tell you, whether it’s individuals who were in a dark place, whether it was our team, we start 0-5. Some of it was schedule, some of it was us. These kids stayed together. Then we have an injury. Starts with an injury to Jonas where he has to have an operation and be out four months. Nelly falls off a golf cart and hurts his wrist. Shooting hand. Then you have another kid flip off a scooter. Out.

“Another kid, concussion. Out four months. Boogie goes down right before our game with Georgia, two days before. And now Aidoo. This team has withstood all of it. I’m telling them, the rest of their lives, you’re going to be able to look back knowing individually they were in a dark place. You walk through it. Yes, we had to keep building guys up, keep coaching individuals, all that stuff. But we’re not on the court with ’em. They’re out there. Nelly missed a layup, then came back and made all the free throws. Well, a little while ago he didn’t miss the layup and he missed two free throws. He’s walked through the fire. All these kids have. All I know is we’re playing our best basketball. We’re letting people back in the game; still winning. But let’s see. There were other teams we played we put away. We got up and then put ’em away. They never had a chance. Some of the others. The last thing on this. They’re all good teams. One kid had 40 points against us, Texas. Johnson. I mean, he made every basket, five, six in a row. Going to close the game, make it closer. Proud of these kids really. Bunch of good kids, too. We got to get Z going, though. Z has to play. I’m telling you, it’s not offensively. Defend and rebound and do those things so we can get you back on track offensively ’cause if we want to win, he’s going to have to be a part of this.”

Does this win, in your mind, make the NCAA Tournament a certainty?

“I don’t know. I’m not in the room.”

Either of the guys that are out right now, do you expect Boogie or Aidoo to have a chance to come back this season?

“Depends on how far we advance.”

Follow up: Not in this tournament?

“Not in this tournament. We advance a couple weeks, maybe.”

Looked like the last free throw you kind of embraced Nelly.

“Which I’ve done that before. You’re up three, there’s two seconds to go, miss it, by the time they
get it, there’s a second. Now, the other side of that is what if they throw one deep and bank it in? I’ve done it before. I do some unconventional stuff. He banked it in. I was, like, happy. I told him, I’m glad you banked it in. He listened too me. He tried to miss it. He shot it flat and banked it in. It’s kind of like being up six with 18 seconds, 20 seconds. You’re up six. How about your foul? ‘Cause what are they coming down trying to do? Shoot a three. Foul. It’s a four-point game. It’s 12 seconds. Get it in, you’re back to six. Do you foul again? Maybe not, maybe so. Foul, up six, it’s not conventional, but… Things that make a difference sometimes.”

You haven’t played Ole Miss since January the 8th or 9th. Anything you can take from that game or has it changed so much?

“Well, my team is different. I got totally a different team. They’ve played well all year. Chris has
done a fabulous job. It will be a hard game for us. It was a long time ago. It was the second game of the year.”

This is one of the most anticipated SEC Tournaments maybe ever. It seems like your thoughts on the tournament haven’t really changed a whole lot. You said you couldn’t care less about it.

“Not quite. Every tournament we go in, we’re doing it for one reason: We want to win games to build up our seed. Now, along the way, for a guy that does not care about conference tournaments — I’m guessing it’s 15 or 16 — if you don’t care, the kids don’t care, no one cares, then I’m a magician. How about maybe you’re taking the pressure off the kids? This is just another thing for us to get better and improve ourselves. Then along the way, you know what, you’re reaching for stars, you grab a moon, all of a sudden you’re standing there with the trophy. So yeah, it matters. We got to play. Now, there was another coach in this league that said, I’m not sure I really want this tournament because last year we
got a guy hurt in it. I’m not sure how I feel. You’re going to ask him that same question, aren’t you? His team was one of the best teams in this league. He’s saying, We got a chance to win a national title. This league has been a meat grinder. Is it going to be any different here? No. We want to win every game we play. But I don’t need the kids, Got to do this. You don’t. You don’t. There’s the next tournament. Then you win it anyway. It would be nice to win it again. I don’t know exactly how many of those we’ve won. How many?”

(No microphone)

“Somebody told me 87 tournament games. For a guy that doesn’t care (smiling). I think it is. I don’t know. You’ll have to look. They tried to tell me yesterday. I don’t know. I think it’s about almost 80% win. For a guy that doesn’t care. Should be a lot of guys not caring. But anyway, last question, ’cause I got to go.

How has D.J. handled the scoring load with all the injuries?

“Better. He’s really working. He’s in the gym, spending extra time. He’s shooting the ball so much better. But the other stuff seeps in sometimes. These kids, they’re not machines, robots. The ups and downs of this… My job as a leader of this, when I see a guy, he’s doing this, probably get him out and talk to him. You’re going to be all right, get yourself together. That’s what we try to do.”

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