After UCLA out-hustled Kentucky last weekend, the Cats playing archrival Louisville on Friday seems well-timed.
But coach John Calipari was not assuming his players will see red _ so to speak _ in a game against Louisville.
"I don't know," he said Thursday. "We're going to see. We had no aggressiveness (against UCLA)."
UK fans may recall Calipari made no assurances about how his historically inexperienced team would play against UCLA.
Hamidou Diallo came close to assuring reporters Thursday that Kentucky will play with intensity against Louisville.
"We just came off a loss," he said. "So it's definitely going to be a sense of urgency, and we're definitely going to want to get a win. We don't like losing. We're going to bring a different level of intensity."
While saying he has been trying to stoke his team's competitive fire, Calipari made an arresting observation. Surely, it hit his players right in their NBA pocketbooks.
"Think of the guys I coach here," he said of the one-and-done players who've made UK seem like a way station. "I have to get you to play?! Then you're kidding yourself. No, no. no. You're going to play, but it's Y-M-C-A. It ain't going to be NBA. You've got to want this. It ain't me pushing you."
Sacha Killeya-Jones suggested that there could be a palpable sense of when UK players wanted to compete.
"Everybody can feel when there's a buzz, and all five guys are playing," he said. "All are on the court talking (and) running to the huddle. It's a feeling that we get. We get that feeling for seven or eight minutes.
"Then we'll get up six or get up by 10, and kind of take a step back. That's what we have to avoid. You can definitely tell when we all are doing what we're supposed to be doing. But you can also tell when we're not."
Calipari said Kentucky had a good practice on Wednesday.
"We're OK ...," he said. "Told them I wasn't mad."
More than once, Calipari blamed himself for the inconsistent play, perhaps trying to shield the players from the unblinking scrutiny that comes with playing for Kentucky.
"My thing is how do I get them to play different ... .," Calipari said. "If they're un-aggressive, I created a culture to be un-aggressive."
The un-aggressive play against UCLA took the form of being slow to contest 3-point shots. On his radio show Monday night, Calipari said that of UCLA's 12 3-pointers, "we let them shoot nine of them."
Echoing that sentiment Thursday, Calipari said of UCLA's 3s, "We didn't guard them. It was like a set shot."
The bonanza against Kentucky increased UCLA's average of 3-point baskets per game to 7.8. Louisville averages 7.9.
But Calipari did not absolve the players of responsibility. He said he wanted to get the players into what he called "a fighting mode." This process resumed in Wednesday's first post-Christmas practice, which apparently included a pointed question from the coach.
"I'm asking questions of myself," he said he told the players. "Are you asking questions of yourself?"
