Calipari on Marcus Lee

Here's Coach John Calipari on freshman Marcus Lee:

What do you expect from Marcus Lee?

 "Yeah, he's different than all these guys. He and I talked the other day and he was in the office. I said, 'Look, you just keep being you.' I said, 'What do you do well?' He said 'I defend, I block shots, I run the court.' Do that. 'We'll figure out your offense. You just do that.' So we're playing and doing drills one-on-one-on-one with the bigs and he's there, and I said – he gets scored on, didn't try to block it, and I go, 'Didn't you tell me you block shots?' Yeah. 'Well then block it.' Just standing there. 'Go block every shot. Go try to rebound every ball. I'm not asking you to be Dakari. Guess what? Dakari can't be you. Just be you.' So in time, he's going to be really good. In these practices, he wants to learn, he wants to get better. He's a guy that wants to be in this kind of environment. He'll be fine."

What kind of natural shot-blocking ability do you see in Lee, who blocked 500-plus in high school?

"When you look at his body, he's got that long legs, long arms, you know? You just, you have to – we're doing one-on-one-on-one with the bigs where you play him, he'll play you (and) just keep rotating. And he's going against Dakari. Now, Dakari weighs 50 more pounds than him, at least 45. So you're going to bang with him? You've got to out-quick him. So he's trying to bang. 'Stop. Why are you trying to do that? You'd lose that battle every time. Dakari's going to do it to you because he wins that battle every time, so you're going to use your quickness to not let him get the ball, try to steal from him, try to – you're going to use your quickness, try to block a shot that he's trying to put his body on you. And when you catch it, you're trying to run by him. He's trying to put a body on you. Don't let him.' So it's all, the coaching, them playing to their strengths, which is what we're trying to get them all to do. He'll be fine."