'Frustrated' Calipari prepares No. 7 Kentucky for Troy (Nov 20, 2017)
No. 7 Kentucky will play the second of five consecutive home games on Monday when Troy visits Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
Kentucky (3-1) started the stretch Friday with a 78-61 victory over East Tennessee State. But that doesn't mean all things are coming up roses, as the Wildcats fell behind ETSU 18-8 early.
"I don't want to get frustrated," coach John Calipari said, "but I did (Friday) because I thought guys got selfish. But I don't know if it was selfish or if they just don't know. I gotta keep reminding myself of that because I want them to be better every night out. Well, guess what, they're not machines, they're not computers, they're not going to do that."
Kentucky, which has five freshmen in the starting lineup and only two sophomores among its top eight, missed its first eight free throws and committed 22 turnovers, a season high. Calipari knows he must be patient, but there is a job to do.
"I have a responsibility to help each of these kids grow individually and collectively," Calipari said. "If I see a guy slipping just because he's going to try to do things the way he wants to do them, I gotta say something and I gotta be firm about it."
For the season, Kentucky is averaging just 71.2 points per game, lower than the season average during each of Calipari's eight previous seasons in Lexington. Last year's team scored 85 points per game. The Wildcats also have more turnovers than assists, 64-63.
Freshman forward Kevin Knox leads the way at 15.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Freshman guard Hamidou Diallo scores 13.8 points a game, and freshman guard Quade Green checks in at 11.5.
Troy (2-2) played its first three games in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii in mid-November. The Trojans defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 81-57 but lost to North Dakota, 83-80, and Hawaii, 72-67, in overtime.
Returning to the mainland, Troy beat Brewton-Parker 106-71 on Thursday in its final tune-up before the Kentucky game.
Leading the way is senior guard Wesley Person, who is rewriting the Troy record book early this season. Person became the school's career leader in 3-point field goals in the win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Troy's career leading scorer since the move to Division I against Hawaii.
Despite all that, Person is not Troy's leading scorer. That nod goes to junior forward Jordon Varnado at 19.5 points per game. Person scores 17.0. Next comes sophomore forward Alex Hicks at 10.8. Hicks and Johnson share top rebounding honors at 8.3 per game.
The Trojans shoot 44.8 percent, including 34.2 from 3-point range. Troy is a 68.1 percent free-throw shooting team. The Trojans have 59 assists and 55 turnovers.
"I would tell our fans to just enjoy this because I'm the one dying," Calipari said. "You should be enjoying it, watching these kids. We got great kids that I've been very tough on and probably dragging them faster than they really are capable of doing this. I've given them so much stuff. ...
"We're preparing them like we would a normal team here, and they're probably not ready for all that stuff. But that's my job. You are asking your players to do more than they think they can do, basically doing the impossible and you're asking them to do it. But what they find out is, 'Man, I can do way more than I thought I could do.'"
Troy coach Phil Cunningham has a much more positive outlook on the Wildcats.
"Game to game, the half-court offense is getting cleaner and crisper," Cunningham told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "You can tell they're figuring out what they want to do in late shot clock (situations) and those kind of things. You can see small improvement game to game."
