Opening statement…
“We’ll have to play our best game of the year to beat Kentucky. We’re playing better. We’re improving. We’ve still got a ways to go defensively, turning the basketball over, protecting our backboard. Some of the things that Kentucky is really good at, we struggle with. They’re the benchmark of our league. So people will measure you against how you perform against the best. That’s how you should be measured. This game matters. What game in the SEC doesn’t matter? The last few games – Alabama and Georgia, our rivals – and Kentucky, you’re playing against the premier program in our conference. So it’s kind of an opportunity, and it’s an honor when you play against the Wildcats.”
On what Kentucky does well that Auburn struggles with…
“Keeping them off the boards. They’re a great offensive rebounding team. They lead the country in block shots. And so inside shots, if you don’t have advantage or disadvantage and you put it up there, that’s a block and it leads out to transition, which has been one of our challenges, getting back in transition. So those would be a couple of areas that I think would give us some problems.”
On an update on Justin Powell…
“It’s way too early to tell, in the sense that based on the concussion protocol, his scores had allowed him to get out there on Monday and start to move around a little bit. So he didn’t really practice, but he was at practice. After practice, he moved around a little bit. As a result, he didn’t continue to make progress with his concussion protocol. He needed to be able to do some other things to be in a position where he could play, so he really never practiced at full speed. One of the things you do when you get them back is you move around a little bit, see how they respond. And he didn’t respond great to moving around. Therefore, you have to shut him back down. He’s still day-to-day.”
On the importance of limiting turnovers Saturday…
“It’ll be important but, both teams play really hard. We try to bother and we try to turn some people over. That’ll obviously be a factor. Alabama, on Tuesday night, coming off of beating us at home, coming off of beating Tennessee at Tennessee, arguably playing the best basketball of any team in our league, and they played great. (John) Petty was incredible. And they made shots. They defended extremely well. Right now, Alabama is playing as well as anybody. So, while you think Alabama beating Kentucky at Rupp (Arena) is an upset, in some ways, it’s not just because how good Alabama is playing. Kentucky’s playing much better than they were early in the year. They’re sharing the ball. They’re getting to have an understanding of how to play with one another, which just does take some time. So, yes, turnovers will be a factor in the game.”
On Samir Doughty…
“Samir was really, really close to getting some two-way contracts. He and Austin Wiley were probably as hurt by the pandemic as much as any seniors coming out there because he had great senior years and were playing really, really well and would have benefited tremendously by a normal draft process – Portsmith, the Chicago combine, a draft in June – but instead, none of those things happened. So he’s trying to keep his powder dry right now and not necessarily take a contract overseas and stay right and ready for an NBA opportunity.”
On Kentucky blocking shots and Isaiah Jackson…
“They’re really, really long. Isaiah Jackson is the leading shot blocker per minutes played in the country. He’s got great timing. He’s got great length. He and JT Thor will be matched up and so those are two really long, athletic dudes. They’ve probably played against each other a little bit on the AAU circuit. We don’t have as many Nike players that played on the Nike circuit as much as Kentucky would. Devon Cambridge, Sharife (Cooper), Stretch (Babatunde Akingbola), Dylan Cardwell – all those guys played for AOT, and Brandon Boston was their teammate. So those guys are all really good friends. So that’ll be an interesting dynamic from the standpoint of seeing BJ again.”
On team’s improved free throw shooting…
“I told Andy (Burcham) last night on the show, the No. 1 reason why the free throw shooting has been better is because I wasn’t getting asked any questions about free throw shooting, and now that you’ve asked the question, you can go ahead and put the jinx on us. If we don’t shoot good free throws tomorrow, I’m going to put that on you. We work at them. We put them in pressure situations. We spend lots of time on it. One of our keys to try to be a championship team is being a good free throw shooting team. But obviously Sharife (Cooper) getting to the line, he’s a great free throw shooter. Allen (Flanigan) getting to the line, he’s a great free throw shooter. JT (Thor) has gotten to the line more, and he really has got a great stroke. He’ll shoot better than his percentage right now. Jamal Johnson has shot it better. So getting the right guys to the line, and then some of the guys have improved and worked really hard at trying to make them when they get an opportunity.”
On how Sharife Cooper’s return has helped Stretch (Babatunde Akingbola)…
“I’m sure it’s giving him confidence to be out there with one of his best friends and high school teammates. They’re like brothers for sure. So that probably gives Stretch some confidence, but also some responsibility. Sharife will get on him when he’s not in the right spot or helping him out in ball-screen defense or whatever it is. That’s part of the reason why Sharife came to Auburn. He wanted to play with Stretch. He wanted to play with Devan Cambridge. He wanted to play with Isaac Okoro. He wasn’t expecting Isaac to be gone after one year. Those were all high school teammates and AAU teammates. So it has helped Stretch. It’s helped Dylan (Cardwell) as well. It’s helped all of us.”
On the impact of Sharife Cooper, comparison to Tyler Ulis…
“That’s a great comparison because they’re both such incredible competitors and winners. Most people look at basketball players and they see their height. ‘Oh, you must play basketball, you’re tall.’ When you get guys like Tyler Ulis or Sharife Cooper or Jared Harper, can you imagine the amount of time and effort those guys put into their skills and into their bodies to overcome what they don’t have in height? I have such respect for those guys, including Sharife. Sharife is a self-made player. He’s also a really intelligent player. He is also able to see the floor in dimensions that we can’t see it. He sees it horizontally, he sees it vertically. It’s like the Matrix. Those great players have that feel. But he watches more tape than anybody. He studies the game. He studies the game at the next level. He makes everybody better for us for sure. Obviously, we have tried upon graduating Jared (Harper) – because don’t forget Jared was supposed to be a senior last year – we’ve been recruiting Sharife since he was a freshman in high school to basically take this program over after Jared and then last year J’Von (McCormick) and Samir (Doughty) moved on. That’s part of the reason why I started him the very first morning he was back because he is one our leaders.”
On any concern with Sharife Cooper’s turnovers…
“No, because with the efficiency of placing the ball in his hands, I’m asking him to do a lot. You’re going to turn the ball over some because he’s going to be the focus of every scouting report. I’m sure Kentucky is going to trap him and zone him and be physical with him, make him guard, and get him in foul trouble and do all the different things to try to wear him out. We’ve got to do a good job of making sure we don’t play him the entire game because we do ask a lot from him, and why wouldn’t you?”
On coaching strategy with one-and-done players…
“It doesn’t (affect my mindset). In recruiting, you certainly have got to prepare if you know somebody is going to be one-and-done. I think we make those decisions when the season is over. We did not anticipate Isaac (Okoro) being one-and-done. Isaac didn’t anticipate it. He came in, he worked so hard, he got put in the right positions. I had mentioned this pre-draft last year – I said he’s the most ready to play right away of anybody in the draft. That’s what I said. You look at his minutes, he plays all game long. You look at his plus-minus, he’s playing. He’s not leading them in scoring, but he’s leading them in affecting winning. We really weren’t able to prepare for that. With Sharife (Cooper) or any player, we’ll sit down at the end of the season and we’ll see what they tell us. Isaac really wanted to come back and play with Sharife this year. He really did. When we looked at where he was going to be and talked to NBA clubs, we said ‘Dude, that’s not an option. You’re not coming back. You can take classes all summer and you can hang out here, but you’re not playing for the Auburn Tigers next year.’ Our job is get to those guys ready, and when they’re ready, they need to go and start to take care of their families.”
On his thoughts if he had five or six one-and-done players every year…
“You’ve got a very short window to get them right and get them ready. But nobody has done it better than (John Calipari). Nobody has done it better than him. Are you asking me the question, ‘Would I like to have the best recruiting class in the country every year?’ Yeah, that’d be nice. But with that comes a lot of challenges. Putting that together, putting all that talent together, putting all those egos together, getting them to play hard together – nobody has done it better than Coach Calipari.”