LEXINGTON - A lot of emphasis has been placed on John Calipari's "Dribble and Drive" motion offense. However, little has been mentioned on his defensive philosophies.
Calipari touched on his defensive principles during an interview last week at the Joe Craft Center. Calipari said his teams have always succeeded on the defensive end and will focus on man-to-man schemes.
"The basis of how we'll play will be a half-court defense, but it's man-to-man," he said. "We'll also press and some games we'll press from the tip off and the end of the game. Other games, we'll press on and off. We'll play some zone, but not a whole lot of zone. We may go five games where we won't touch a zone."
Calipari said keeping an opponent's field goal percentage low is a big part of his defensive philosophy.
"Our teams have also been based on great defensive field goal percentage, big rebound margin, blocked shots and steals," he said. "That's what we're trying to lead the league in - those four areas. Team field goal percentage plays (a role) into that, too."
