John Calipari says having a team at Kentucky playing empowered this early is unusual and he has the officials at Arkansas to thank for it.
“The only thing I would tell you that the officials that threw me out at Arkansas I need to kiss them on the lips, because they did us a huge favor,” Calipari said. “Where we became empowered and it became a team driven by players instead of me and them looking — they’re down at half and they come in at halftime looking for me to give them a bailout. And I’m, like, Hey, guys, you didn’t play hard. Nothing else. If you want to win, talk to each other.”
When Calipari was tossed at Arkansas two weeks ago, it forced the Wildcats to play without him in a tough situation. The UK head coach loves when his teams can make decisions on their own and they did that in Wednesday’s 71-62 win vs. Vanderbilt.
Kentucky put the game away late behind three lob dunks to Nick Richards, who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season.
Out of a timeout, the Wildcats ran the first play for Richards, who finished it with a dunk. It might have looked like Calipari called the set. However, it was sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley’s decision to set a back screen for the lob.
“The difference in the second half — and now I got to tell you, this is what’s great about a player-driven team. We were going to run a play and Immanuel said, let me set the back screen, put the other guy down. Player-driven team. I said, all right, let’s do it. So when we got the first lob, did you see him point to me? And you thought it was me that did it, like, Great job, Coach. No, he was pointing. I told you. And then we ran it three times and dunk, dunk, dunk. That was Immanuel Quickley. That was not me. And that’s where I want this to go.”
