Rating:

5.0 (2 votes)

When you read Cal's thoughts about practice and what he thinks about this team as he gets ready for the Blue-White scrimmage Wednesday night, happy isn't too strong of a word to use.

Many times Cal talked about how much he likes this team. He's just coaching. He doesn't have to push for effort from his players. This team gets it. They come back at night on their own to work on their game.

Cal is pushing Terrence Jones not just for SEC player of the year, but he wants to see if there is a better player anywhere.

Cal loves it when the light bulb goes on for a player. It has for Eloy Vargas. Plus, Cal says that Darius Miller has never played better.

On how practice is going ...
"Very good. We are pleased. We are cutting back a little bit because I don't want us to get too far ahead. I don't want us to be playing like its December when it's October. Some of the practices we have cut short simply because they are getting done what I want them to get done. When they hit that spot, we just stop. Again, we are practicing most times with 10 guys on the floor, so those 10 aren't leaving very often, so you don't have to go very long. We practiced two hours and 10 minutes yesterday; we will probably practice the same, maybe a little bit less today. Guys are coming in at
night, and it's great. They are getting their own work in. When you do it the way we do it, you have time to do all of that other stuff, and you get time to do whatever you want to work on."

On if he knows what type of style he will play this year ...
"Not yet. It will all play out. Kind of like last year, you figure it out as you go through games and you think something is going to work, and then you play some really good teams, and you say that (isn't) working against really good teams, so we have to go back and figure out what we do. What I have liked right now is a guy like Terrence Jones. If there is a better player in the county, then I've got to see him. Maybe that guy is in our gym, I don't know. If there is somebody better than Terrence (Jones), then I have got to see him. He is first in all the running things, first out on the court, comes back in the evening and shoots. I had four scouts in here yesterday that said his whole focus on basketball and what he is compared to last year is not even close. Now you are seeing a young man who has changed his habits, changed his body, added skill level, and now a different attitude towards basketball. Who does that sound like? Josh Harrellson. So now what you see is a different player.

The competitiveness of our practices has changed. You should see the wars between Darius (Miller) and Michael (Kidd) Gilchrist. I mean absolutely vicious. After it's done, they hit each other on the butt. They like each other and they like what they are doing for each other. Darius (Miller) has never been better.

Eloy (Vargas) is not the same. You know what Eloy is doing in the morning and at night? Conditioning. Wow. So now, all of the sudden he has changed his habits to practice, he has changed his conditioning, he has changed some of his skills and his attitude towards basketball, and you would be surprised. He has changed the outcome, so now he is a different player. That's the only way this works. I tell these guys 20 times, if you need a chance, go play the lottery. It's a buck, and you can win 150 million. There's your chance. You're not getting it here. I mean, you either earn your minutes, or you earn your way out of minutes. It's simple. We've got a good group here."

On if he will look to vary playing styles throughout the season ...
"Well, you have to settle on something at some point of how you are going to play. What I'm finding out is the pick-and-roll with this team has really been interesting. I have never run pick-and-roll partly because I didn't want to bring two defenders to my best player. Why would I do that?

Especially when he didn't need someone to get himself open and drive by him. Whether it was Derrick Rose, or Tyreke Evans. (Evans) was so physical, he didn't need another guy. He could beat his own guy. How would they have played John Wall if we would have played pick-and-roll? They would have gone under. Now I would have had John Wall shooting jump shots instead of attacking the basket. Now, we are a little different, mainly because as we attack, we have the players in there that we do want to get the ball too, and we do want to create space, and we're using the pick-and-roll to get into the dribble drive. So instead of just going down there and getting started, we are getting the ball off a pick-and-roll and we play. We are doing pretty well."

On what fans can expect tomorrow night at the Blue/White scrimmage ...
"We are just going to scrimmage. We may just do warm-up lines and scrimmage. Yesterday was the first time in the 13th practice we have scrimmaged. Last year, we practiced at the 10th practice. I waited a while because we had so many guys that just weren't ready for us to be scrimmaging with officials. We will do it today. From what I saw yesterday, we will probably scrimmage from here on in. The competitiveness we are getting out of it is good. We can do drill work on whatever and then throw it up for an hour."