John Calipari

LEXINGTON - Because he sensed his team was not having fun, Kentucky coach John Calipari turned to an unusual tactic Tuesday night to get his team ready to play Vanderbilt. Coming off road losses at Florida and Tennessee, Calipari turned to dodgeball. He paired his players against the staff - and joked that he had to put on a helmet because all the players wanted to throw and hit him. The coach joked he had a couple of players he wanted to throw at as well. But mainly he wanted his team to have fun. “You've got to enjoy what you're doing.

Kentucky coach John Calipari tried to make it clear Monday that he's not given up on his team despite a 30-point setback at Tennessee Saturday that prompted him to say after the game that he had players that were not coachable - and he was even overheard telling one player the same thing during the game. “First of all, let's go to the context. During a game, on the bench, there are a lot of things I say that, if a guy is not listening, is not playing rough enough, isn't coming up with 50-50 balls.

Kentucky coach John Calipari tried to make it clear Monday that he's not given up on his team despite a 30-point setback at Tennessee Saturday that prompted him to say after the game that he had players that were not coachable - and he was even overheard telling one player the same thing during the game. “First of all, let's go to the context. During a game, on the bench, there are a lot of things I say that, if a guy is not listening, is not playing rough enough, isn't coming up with 50-50 balls.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Jarrod Polson has been known for giving Kentucky a lift off the bench this season. Even in times of adversity, Polson did his best to make a difference. The junior guard made the first start of his collegiate career Saturday and proved to be somewhat of a silver lining in the Wildcats' disappointing 88-58 loss to Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena. Polson started in place of Ryan Harrow and finished with 11 points, a career-high. His performance came when Kentucky entered Knoxville as a wounded animal.

It's hard for Carol Wiltjer to not be around her son, Kentucky sophomore Kyle Wiltjer. However, she knew when he came to UK to play for coach John Calipari that she would most often have to be content watching him play on TV with only an occasional trip from Portland, Ore., to Kentucky. “We have really missed him a lot. All we had in reality was a day and a half at Christmas with him,” said Wiltjer's mom during a recent rare week-long visit to Lexington when she got to she her son play twice.

It's still hard to try to put into words just how bad Kentucky was in Saturday's 88-58 loss at Tennessee - and the game really wasn't as close as the 30-point margin might indicate. So to try and explain what happen to the Cats in their first game without injured Nerlens Noel, I went back through my postgame notes looking for quotes to shed light on this epic collapse by the Cats. Kentucky coach John Calipari: “We have a couple of guys who are not real coachable. You tell them over and over and over again what you want to do, and they do their own thing.

KNOXVILLE - His team is still not listening to him the way he wants or playing with the overall intensity he wants - problems Kentucky had well before Nerlens Noel went down with a season-ending injury. Now Kentucky coach John Calipari says the Cats have to know they better start listening or else. Those weaknesses and many more were exploited by Tennessee here Saturday when the Vols started UK's No-Noel era with an 88-58 victory, the biggest win ever by the Vols over UK. “We won the game.

LEXINGTON - Life without Nerlens Noel got off to a record-setting start for Kentucky here Saturday, but it was not the kind of records the Wildcats wanted to be part of. Tennessee beat UK 88-58 - it's biggest victory margin in 216 games against Kentucky - and snapped a six-game losing streak to the Wildcats. It was Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin's first win over Kentucky. Tennessee's previous biggest win over UK was 87-59 in 1968. The only other 20-point victories came in a 107-85 victory in 1992 and 30-10 win back in 1917.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has seen the gloomy forecast for his team now that star center Nerlens Noel has been lost for the season due to a knee injury suffered in Tuesday's loss at Florida. But Calipari is not ready to abandon hope for a successful season going into Saturday's game at Tennessee. “I believe in the team. I believe in these guys. I believe in our talent,” Calipari said on the website coachcal.com. “We're still young, I know, but we're talented enough to win. We've got enough pieces.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has been teaching his team the value of life lessons. His reach has extended beyond the basketball court into the daily lives of his players. He has provided his team with inspirational and uplifting books to read in an effort to bring his fourth Kentucky squad closer together. Calipari has a young team, with most of the players getting their first taste of college, while carrying the weight of last year's national championship team on their shoulders.