LEXINGTON, Ky. _ If you want to compare coaching this season's Kentucky team to being a musician, then John Calipari plays jazz. Improvisation and inspiration dictate his decisions.
"This is a game-to-game team more than any team that I've coached," he said Friday.
The player you see one game may not be the same player you see in the next game. So, Calipari all but acknowledged that Saturday's game at Florida to wind up the regular season will be its own adventure.
For example, Nick Richards. "You say, you couldn't throw it to Nick today," the UK coach said. "What do you do? Throw it to Nick anyway and lose that game?
"This is one of those-type teams."
Freshman guard Tyrese Maxey is "growing up right before our eyes," Calipari said.
But, for all the clutch plays Maxey has made, the label of Kentucky's go-to guy might not fit each and every game.
Calipari used the example of Kentucky's victory at Texas A&M. With the outcome on the line, UK went to Immanuel Quickley for clutch scores.
"I could have put it in Tyrese's hands," Calipari said. "Some of you (reporters) may have done that. But, when I saw the kid (Quickley) making all those shots, you won't believe this: I said, maybe not in (Maxey's) hands. Maybe Immanuel's hands."
At Texas A&M, Quickley made a career-high eight 3-point shots en route to a career-high 30 points.
Then, as if to bolster Calipari's argument that inconsistency and unpredictability mark this Kentucky team, Quickley has made 8 of 26 shots and 3 of 10 3-point shots in the two games since UK beat the Aggies.
Florida coach Mike White spoke highly of Quickley on Friday.
"Am I allowed to say it?" he said. "Am I allowed to talk about who we're voting for? Who we're not voting for? Should I say it? ... I think Quickley is deserving to be the conference player of the year. He's had a fantastic season."
If a player of the year candidate has ups and downs, what player can elude inconsistency?
For instance, Ashton Hagans has struggled with his shooting: 6 for 23 in the last two games and 25.8% accuracy on 3s for the season. His issue with turnovers is well documented.
Incidentally, Calipari dismissed the idea of anything significant involving in cameras catching Hagans and Richards exchanging words late in Kentucky's loss to Tennessee on Tuesday.
"The heat of the moment ...," Calipari said. "When you coach young kids, this is what pops out. And you won't believe this, I get emotional sometimes. I don't mind when other people get emotional. I get it."
Keion Brooks echoed something Quickley said after the Tennessee game. That the Hagans-Richards exchange showed how much the players care.
"We're competitors," Brooks said. "We're not always going to agree with each other. I wish I could say we all sit here and say, kumbaya. ... We all still believe in each other. And that's all that matters."
When asked about how teammates deal with the bumps on Hagans' road, Brooks said, "Just continue to let him know we love him and care about him. ... Everybody goes through their lulls, their bad stretches. We're not going to give up on him. We'll continue to let him know he's a great player and he's going to break through."
Calipari suggested that EJ Montgomery, Nate Sestina or another player might experience such a breakthrough in a given game.
"Someone has it going, we've got to ride that guy," Calipari said.
SEC Network analyst Pat Bradley said that the mystery surrounding a go-to guy extends beyond Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference this season.
"Who is the guy who emerges?" Bradley said. "We thought it'd be Tyrese Maxey with the Michigan State game.
"To be quite frank, I don't know that we've got one in the league. ... player of the year? It's, like, game by game."
Of course, it would help if Calipari could call upon the experience of dealing with past teams he's coached that required regular experimentation and adaptation.
"Every team is different," Calipari said. "Normally, you'll have an idea of who we're going at. But, this team is different."
