Terrence Clarke is one of 10 new UK players who will be making their Kentucky debut Wednesday. (UK Athletics Photo)
Forget the financial losses involved in Kentucky not being able to have 20,000 fans in Rupp Arena for basketball season. Kentucky coach John Calipari says fewer fans hits his team harder than any other team in the country.
“The reason it is, people coming into this building are always playing in front of 20-something thousand. And it’s a big advantage for us. Our fans and our building play a big part in our success. I don’t know what our record is during my 11 years here, but I think it’s pretty high in this building,” he said Tuesday.
“Well, if it’s just a building and a court, we don’t have the advantage we usually have, so it’s going to hurt us more than anybody else.”
Kentucky opens the season Wednesday night hosting Morehead. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network. Calipari understands COVID safety protocols need to be in place to protect not only his players but fans who do come to the game.
“My hope is we figure out a way that fans that want to come to the game can be tested so that we feel comfortable being in our building -– not just with the thermometer and saying, ‘OK, they don’t have a fever’ because there are asymptomatic people. But there is a test given a couple of days before,” Calipari said.
“Now, a test isn’t the vaccine, but people will feel more comfortable having a mask on and having social distance. Maybe we can get more in our building if we figure out a way to try to test so that everybody is comfortable. And maybe we show the rest of the country this is, like, the only way you can increase the number of fans there. But I think we’re a ways away.”
Kentucky has three games in a five-day span that Calipari knows will be hard on his young team in the best of circumstances.
“We scrimmaged yesterday and I came home smiling. I told my wife. She said, ‘Wow, was it good?’ I said, ‘It was our worst scrimmage since I’ve been the coach here.’ I’ve got both feet and hands on the panic button right now. I’m just hoping that they needed to play against somebody else and they just got tired of each other,” the UK coach said.
“Because if not, I’m going to have to be the most patient soul on the earth when we start the season like 0-6. ‘Just be patient.’ That’s what you should say to me: be patient. Because I like the team.”
Yet he knows his team is not playing hard enough daily or locked in on defense how it has to be.
“Everyone is still locked into their own thing. ‘I need my stuff,’ instead of making easy plays. ‘I’ve gotta make a play.’ And so, it leads to turnovers or putting guys in bad positions. We have a ways to go. And again, we’ve got 10 new guys,” Calipari said. “So, we’re not very good right now, but I think in time we should be OK.”
