Notes and Quotes: Calipari on Miller, Jones, lobs, Davis and Camby
November 18, 2011
- Calipari liked what he saw out of Darius Miller against Kansas — five points, four rebounds, four assists in 20 minutes — but wants him to crash the glass more often. UK was outrebounded 39-34, and Calipari wants a more cumulative effort. “Defensively, he’s got to go get balls,” Calipari said. “Michael rebounds like crazy, Terrence got some tough balls. He’s got to get in there.” UK doesn’t have a single prototypical rebounder — Anthony Davis is too skinny, and Terrence Jones and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist aren’t quite that tall — but together, especially if Miller mixes it up, UK could consistently win the boards.
- Asked if Terrence Jones was UK’s go-to guy, Calipari said, “The good news is he made free throws yesterday. So now you can go to him. You can’t go to players if they’re not making free throws. Well, he’s making them.” Jones has only taken four free throws this season (he’s made three), but he needs to improve on his 64.6 percent rate from last season if he will be the primary option, especially late in the game.
- Calipari said Kansas made a concerted effort to eliminate lobs. It didn’t work —Anthony Davis had two at the start of the second half — but teams will try to keep defenders from roaming off Davis to take away a free path to the basket. Calipari sees that as an option to attack in different ways. Against Kansas, Calipari said, cross-court skip passes were open “the whole game,” but UK (especially Marquis Teague) only took advantage of one. “We have to recognize that,” Calipari said. “You cannot take away everything. You can take away the lob, but other things will be there.”
- Calipari said he texted Marcus Camby after the Kansas game to ask if Camby saw similarities between himself and Anthony Davis, who blocked seven shots (three of which, Calipari said, were on players he wasn’t directly defending). Camby said yes. Calipari replied, “But he (Davis) shoots it better.”
