John Calipari to DJ Wagner: 'I am not worried about you at all'
The freshman stars for the first few games of the season were Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard, and while those two are still playing great basketball, DJ Wagner is warming up at the perfect time.
Wagner didn't have the start to the season many imagined, but over the past two games has scored 50 points, grabbed four rebounds, dished 11 assists, blocked two shots, and stolen the ball four times.
The best part of his 28-point game against Marshall was his efficiency as he shot 71.4% from the field in the Cats blowout win.
After the win over Marshall, John Calipari was asked about Wagner gaining confidence. In his response, Calipari talked about both Wagner and Justin Edwards.
Calipari said, "I told him after, in front of the team, I said where D.J. and Justin are to where they were two weeks ago. But I never worried about D.J. and I told him that. I went up to him and said, "You know, I am not worried about you at all"; Because he has a great temperament about it and he's living in the gym. So it will bust through."
"Teaching the stuff with Justin, how you get prepared for a game to play great. How do you lock in and focus on it? What do you do? How do you practice to get ready to play great? And he's coming on. I mean, he's just -- you know, I just think there's so much more to him. I said, there's more that people are going to be seeing as we go forward. But you have Reed and Robert and Antonio and we have got -- you know, those guys are -- even if they are all playing 25 minutes and then whoever is playing the best maybe play a few more minutes. I think they will all accept it. They have accepted it to this point."
Hearing about the confidence Calipari has in these two players is really great to see.
We have seen Edwards slowly start to get it going, but he hasn't had the breakthrough yet that Wagner had against Marshall.
There would be no better time for Edwards to break out than when the Miami Hurricanes come to town on Tuesday.
This quote shows why Coach Cal is so beloved by all of his current and former players. He believes in them and wants to see them succeed.
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