BJ Boston and his Kentucky teammates have to learn to be better leaders. (ESPN Photo)
He’s not thrilled with his team’s 1-2 start or even he put together for the team, but Kentucky coach John Calipari emphasized Friday that he was “not going to panic” this early in the season. Kentucky plays Georgia Tech in Atlanta Sunday after losing games to Richmond and Kansas, both top 20 teams.
“My job is, how do we get better? How do I get through to some immature guys that, ‘The way you’re playing is not going to work for you or us. Can’t play that way now.’ All right, well, if I’m asking them to play different, how are my drills getting them to understand and feel it?” Calipari said.
“It can’t just be telling, talk. Do they feel what you’re saying? And, not how I’m saying it. I’m loud. I mean, the individual meetings we had, it’s probably the first time guys heard the truth about how they’re playing. Ever.”
Leadership is a skill Calipari counts on and right now his young team is struggling to figure out how to develop leaders. That’s why he told players they could not lead if they did not care about the players.
“You can’t lead when you have any disrespect. If they don’t respect you, they’re not going to follow. This isn’t high school and you’re the best player and whether they like you or not they follow. Those days are done. And so, are you the first into practice or last? If you’re the last into practice, no one’s following you,” Calipari said.
“They see you — ‘I’m not going to follow him.’ Are you going to be the first into practice? All this stuff. One of the players said, ‘I would like to lead but I don’t know how.’ And you know what you find out? None of them know how to lead. They don’t know that you serve everybody else.
“As a leader, you’re there for your team. You’re the first. You show it in practice. You lead by example. You pick guys up. You help guys get better. They’ll all follow you. But if you’re about yourself and how I can get mine and I’m the best player, you’re not getting followed. So that’s my job also.”
Calipari wants every player to be a leader that can make a “difference for everybody” on the team. He was hoping sophomore Keion Brooks Jr. would be that player but he’s missed all three games with an injury and won’t play Sunday.
“You know what? After the last game he (Brooks) did take a little bit of a leadership role. For the time being it’s probably going to be staff driven. But if we’re ever going to be a team I think we can become, they have to be enabled and it has to be player driven,” Calipari said.
“But you’ve gotta have leaders. You can’t have everybody (be like), ‘Let me get mine.’ You can’t play that way.”
