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John Calipari finally speaks on Kentucky’s recent issues

John Calipari

Kentucky head coach John Calipari on the bench during the second half of a first-round NIT college basketball game against Robert Morris on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Coraopolis, Pa. Robert Morris won 59-57.(AP Photo/Don Wright)

AP

Controversy has once again found Kentucky head coach John Calipari, as the young Wildcats lost on the road at South Carolina on Saturday and Calipari was ejected in the second half.

The loss was deemed “rock bottom” by a few national writers and on Monday, the head coach decided to place the blame on himself after not speaking to the media on Saturday.

Calipari responded to members of the media and the Courier-Journal‘s Kyle Tucker has many of the quotes, including Cal placing the blame on himself for Kentucky’s recent struggles:

“And again, look, my team, we’re talented enough to do what we want. We could beat anybody in the country, but we’ve also proven we can lose to anybody in the country. So it is on us right now, and basically it’s on me. I don’t put this on 18, 19-year-old kids. They don’t know. You think they know why they’re going through what they’re going through? Most cases they don’t. It’s our job and my job as the head coach to figure out what we have to do, how we have to do it, to get them to play as well as they can possibly play.”

Also interesting was Calipari talking about his teaching methods and how it applies to Kentucky’s confidence levels. Kentucky seemed to have things figured out a few weeks ago, but Calipari is potentially going back to the drawing board.

“But let me say this: I will be whoever I have to be, because this isn’t about me. This is about this team. And I’ve gotta get them more confident and figure out what do they need me to be. A cheerleader? What do they need me to be at this point? And that’s how I’ve always coached. It’s never changed. If I have to be tough, I’m tough. If I have to be easy, I’m easy. But again, it was only a few weeks ago that’s what we talked about. So as we go forward, the whole point of us is: How do we get our defensive confidence? How do we get our offensive confidence? Well we just had it 10 days ago, two weeks ago. How did that change? What did we do different? How did we think different? That’s what we’re going through now.”

So is Kentucky seeking its identity -- again -- as we get into March? That appears to be the case as there seems to be more questions than answers surrounding the Wildcats right now. Kentucky is one of the most talented teams in the country, but they are running out of time to figure things out as we get closer to the SEC Tournament and March Madness.

There are plenty of more enlightening comments from Calipari from today and they can be read in-full here and here.

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