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11–13 minutes

John Calipari talks Reed Sheppard and ‘random’

basketball after UK’s season-opening win

So far, so good for John Calipari and the Kentucky men’s basketball
team in the 2023-24 season.

The No. 16-ranked Wildcats opened with a win, dispatching New

Mexico State 86-46 on Monday night in Rupp Arena.

The Cats used a balanced scoring attack to ease away from the
Aggies: Five UK players scored in double figures, led by Rob
Dillingham’s 17 points.

Reed Sheppard often brought the Rupp Arena crowd to its feet with
his defensive tenacity and offensive exploits: Sheppard had a stat-
stuffing performance of 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, two
steals and two blocks.

UK’s defense also swallowed up the New Mexico State offense,

holding the Aggies to 32.1% shooting from the field.

None of UK’s three sidelined big men — Aaron Bradshaw, Zvonimir

Ivisic and Ugonna Onyenso — played in the game.

Following that 40-point home win to start the season, here’s

everything Calipari said:

Q. Define random basketball…

When you have five guys, really more than that, that can all pass,
dribble and shoot, you can play random. When you have two or
three, you can’t. You’ve got to have five.

It is kind of like you have five 3-point shooters. Do you know what
you would do? Shoot a lots of 3s. And, so, I even said it after the
game, you know, we played random the whole second half, ran two
or three things, everything else was random. And random is we are
spacing the court and we are playing off of one another. That’s

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random basketball. So spacing, wide, there’s actions that will

happen, three guys together, two guys together. So…

Q. Defensive effort tonight seemed really solid. Obviously

Reed played really well, as well.

He and Rob. I mean D.J. played good defense, too. He just wasn’t
as disruptive. Reed and Robert both, you have two guards, you
have three that can guard the ball, that’s a really good sign.
Because if you can’t guard the ball, you can’t play. You can’t —
your defense is done before you start. We guarded the ball pretty
good. But those two are really disruptive.

Reed played great, did good stuff. Robert played, Robert has two or
three, like, what in the world (moments), but as long as it is not five
or six. If it’s five or six I’m going to have to take him out. I told him,
I’m fine with one or two, because he can’t help himself.

But I will tell you that he creates space for himself and his
teammates as good as anybody I’ve coached.

Q. All three of those guys, especially Reed and Rob, it seemed

like really pressured the ball on the ball, reaching in a lot. What
gives you the confidence to let them do that?

Because we’ve got seven-footers on the way who will be in the lane
and if you try to beat us on the dribble we will have a big guy in
there.

Q. John, congratulations on adding another victory to

Kentucky’s all-time win total. I think you still lead Kansas by
seven games. How important is it to the program to stay in that
position?

You know, we are — I’m trying to get these kids to take all that kind
of stuff off their plate and just learn to play. Here’s my new, that I’ve
been riding real hard because of all of these young kids, we’re
trying to help them develop habits. And not break old habits. Those
aren’t — they are there. We are just trying to make these new
habits be more dominant than those old habits.

That’s Justin spinning. Like spinning. You can’t spin like that. You
have got to stay facing. And if you can’t, then back out. But you
cannot spin. He had three turnovers today spinning. But that
happens in these games. And the more that you put on their plate,
the less they can, one, play random. Because random means you
have got to be really unselfish. You can’t have one guy try to dribble
it 12 times.

Yeah, we want to do that. We want our fans to take pride in what

we have been able to do. The other side of it is, I don’t want them

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to have to compete with a five-year period that was like maybe

never done before and then try to compete against that. Or
compete against something else. Let’s just compete against
ourselves and let’s see how good we can be.

Now, I come back to, we rebounded today because the guards

rebounded. Robert got five. Reed had five. Antonio stuck his nose
in there a few times. And it’s going to be who we are going to have
to be. Last year we had one of the best rebounders in a generation.
Like we may never see that in our lifetime again, what we saw for
the two years that Oscar (Tshiebwe) was here. Now we have got to
do it a little different. One, we have got to block out. And that means
everybody. And that means we have got to gang rebound, stuff like
that.

So I kind of walked around your question. But, yeah, we want to do

that for the fans, but I’m trying to get us to think about us playing
against ourselves, how good can we be, how do we get these other
habits to be the dominant habits that we’re trying to play with.

Q. Cal, Coach Hooten said you guys were pretty amazing in

transition and one of the reasons he thought you were so
dangerous was that most of the time you plan on one or two
guys who can bring the ball up, but you guys have so many
different options to push it.

Yeah. The way we practice, the people that have watched us, it’s —
you’re getting in shape by how we’re playing. And a lot of our drills
are, you got to sprint. You are not running. Robert took off one time
and went down the right side and we threw it to him and he shot a
lay-up. You think about it, ‘boom boom’ up layup. And their whole
bench was screaming. And, so, we can play that way but you have
got to really run and, are you ready, you have got to throw it to them
when they run. If you don’t throw it to them, they won’t run. They
will stop running.

So every team we play, like even this team came in and New
Mexico State in the first half kept themselves hanging around. It’s
everybody we play. They make shots, they do things, they come in
excited. We just have to keep the pressure on and then create a
gap at some point, and I thought we did that. But I thought we did it
with the guard disrupting their offense. The guards, Reed, Robert,
even D.J.

D.J. did a good job in the pick-and-roll defense. But Rob was kind
of blowing things up, do you know what I am saying, jumping high
side. And then Reed was just — Reed may have the best hands of
be anybody I’ve coached. I mean, his feel to get — blocking balls.
And he was really good today. Really good.

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Q. John, speaking of those 7-footers coming, any updates on

those guys?

I don’t have anything. Adou has — he had a headache, so it will be

a day to day thing with him. And now, you know, going through the
process with Z, but he was sick for four days. This kid lost 10
pounds. Are you kidding me? I mean, I’m saying, you have got
buzzard luck, kid.

I mean, now, so, whether he would be eligible or not, I don’t know if

he could play Friday. He hasn’t practiced for five, six days. I think
Aaron is ahead of Ugonna by two weeks.

Now, what does that mean? I don’t know. But he is ahead of him.
He is jumping and doing stuff. He’s probably still probably a week,
two weeks away from trying to, you know, practice and be with us.

Q. With all of the new guys you have, was there a point earlier
in the year where you said we will be a random team next year
and you went out and recruited to that?

No. I recruit the best players we can get and then we figure out how
we are going to play. And this is a crazy one. There’s not one way
to do this. ‘Oh, you have got to do it this way.’ There’s not one way.

You look at your team and you say what’s the best way for them to
play. And normally, you know, it takes me time. We had Toronto, so
I had a head start. I had a little look at this and how we are trying to
do this.

I like five out. Why didn’t you do it last year? What would that have
meant? Say it. Oscar’s out there. Now, you know who led us in
assists? Were you watching the game? Tre did. Oscar wasn’t that
guy. Oscar, historical rebounding we will never see again. Now
we’re different. So we will play different. How about that?

I mean, it’s just what we do every year. We have a new team and
we try to figure it out as we go. What I like is these guys are trying
and will listen and we’ll coach. And then I told the staff, they are
going to do whatever we tell them. It’s unbelievable. So let’s make
sure we are telling them the right thing, because they are doing
what we’re saying. And they are trying. And we have got some
dogs.

I said at the beginning of the game, you just can’t do this. Antonio
didn’t get any looks for six minutes, five minutes. He can’t. He is too
good a shooter. That means, someone drive down and find him. We
don’t have to runs plays. He’ll move to get free, but you have got to
keep an eye on him. So…

But, again, we only had six turnovers, guys. And we’re playing fast.

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And three were by one guy. Think of that. Why? All these guys can
dribble, pass and shoot. You are not going to have a whole lot of
turnovers if you have two that every — the ball squirts out. We don’t
have that. And that’s why we are doing it. And that’s a team. And I
know (Hooten) is just getting started with (New Mexico State), but
that is a team that is disruptive.

They try to deny different wings. They try to do different things to be

disruptive. That’s his history. Last year his team was in the top three
percent defensively, like holding people to ridiculous numbers. So
he is going to do that where he is now, it is just going to take him
time.

Q. Cal you touched a little bit on the last answer, having so

many guys that can dribble, pass, and shoot and how you
need to heat up offensively. Do you think this team has the
potential to be one of the best offensive teams you’ve had
here?

The 2012 team was pretty good offensively. The 2015…

Q. I didn’t say the best. I said one of the best.

Yeah, I would say they are one of the best.

Q. With Reed being the legacy player he is, it seems like every
time he touches the ball the crowd kind of buzzes. Can you tell
us about the impact this has on this building.

Were you watching the game? Did you know what adjustment I
made at halftime? I love this because you guys have no idea, yet
you will tell me how to coach and what I should be doing and all of
that stuff. So what adjustment did I make in the second half? I love
this. I am not going to tell you. It was a tweak.

Q. A November tweak (Laughter).

I am not going to tell you. That’s too bad. Look at the tape. You will
figure it out.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari calls to his players during the
season-opening game against New Mexico State at Rupp Arena.
Silas Walker/swalker@herald-leader.com

Kentucky opens basketball season with plenty of flash in win over

New Mexico State

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over New Mexico State

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Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 86-46 season-opening win

over New Mexico State

Shot chart from Kentucky basketball’s 86-46 win over New Mexico
State

‘Elite transition team’: What was it like to play against UK basketball

in season opener?

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