UK head coach John Calipari had some time to think, apparently, about what set his teams apart from others over the years, about what breeds that culture of success he desires.

None of them are anything entirely new: Players first, work ethic, refuse to lose, hard practices and unselfishness are all themes that have been reiterated, in some form or fashion, throughout the year. On his website, Calipari expounded on these five traits he wants his team to have. An excerpt:

“Practice is where you break barriers daily. My best teams would just devour practices. They would set out to beat the practice every day, and that’s how they began to break barriers. Nobody is going to feel like coming to practice every day, but you’ve got to fight through that and bring it single day. That’s what I’m trying to convince this team of.”

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