Last Saturday, the game preview story in a local paper in Auburn contained an interesting quote from one of head coach Tony Barbee's players. He said Auburn's post-Christmas improvement coincided with the players understanding they needed to play harder game in and game out, adding that since Barbee didn't have to “coach effort,” he could instead focus on the Xs and Os.
After Kentucky overcame a rowdy crowd and that improved Auburn team with a 22-point road win, I asked John Calipari about that quote and how it applied to his young team.
“Exactly what we're talking about,” Calipari answered in the postgame interview on the UK-IMG radio network. “I said (to my staff) prior to the game, ‘I don't want to coach as much in this game. I want the players to make calls. We're going to let them know what we want run but I want them talking to each other more. I want to do less.' It becomes grueling as a coach when you're coaching effort and you're coaching every bounce of the ball. I'm not going to do it. One, it doesn't work over the long haul. At some point, this has got to be their team and they've got to run with it. I think we're getting closer but we've got another tough one (at Alabama).”
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.