No more Mr. Nice Guy for Cal

Perhaps sensing a team beaten down from the previous two seasons or wide-eyed newcomers, Kentucky Coach John Calipari tried to be good cop.
Sensing that didn’t work, he became the bad cop on Wednesday, He instituted a curfew, called for two-a-day practices (the first beginning at 6:15 a.m.) and generally whyen from Camp Cal counselor to Parris Island drill sergeant.
“It’s a new Coach Cal,” freshman DeMarcus Cousins said. “Intense and focused. It’s not the laid-back, chilled Cal no more.”
Calipari attributed the change to what he saw in Kentucky’s opening exhibition game against Campbellsville. Although Uk won, the coach did not like how the players went about it. Fatigue set in, causing the coach to question the team’s conditioning. Few took the initiative and drove assertively to the basket, the trigger mechanism for Calipari’s dribble-drive offense. Defensive intensity waned.
Calipari likened the situation to a scrimmage performance by his Memphis team last year against St. Louis.
“I saw right there the team was not tough enough, not in condition and the attentijon to detail wasn’t there,” he said. “When I saw the same thing against Campbellsville, I went to sleep with what I call blood sweats.”
Calipari all but promised a better performance against his alma mater, Clarion, in Friday night’s exhibition or a continued effort to get there.
Noting his own new exercise routine (reflected in the sweat-soaked t-shirt he wore to practice), Calipari said, “Either they catch up to it or get dragged through glass.”

Calipari noted that he’s been counseled to stay patient. It’s only early November.

“The problem is we’re opening the season against a NCAA (Tournament) team,” he said in reference to the Nov. 13 opener against Morehead State, which played in the NCAA Tournament last March.