Although Kentucky doesn’t play Ole Miss until later this week (Saturday at 4  p.m. on the SEC Network), there was still plenty to talk about on the Southeastern Conference teleconference Monday morning.

Here are some key quotes as they relate to John Calipari’s Kentucky team and the upcoming matchup this week. We’ll have plenty more on Ole Miss and the showdown Saturday later on.

Coach Cal

On Ole Miss’s physical play …
“Mississippi’s playing well. We’re talking about a team that’s very, very physical. They were up 20-4 on Florida, ended up getting beat. They’ve played well and done some really good stuff, and we expect it to be a tough battle.

On running the table in the conference …
“We’re not talking in those terms. It might happen, it might not happen. My concern is are we improving as a team. What I’m seeing is we are. I expect our game at Florida will be very, very difficult to win. Our game here against Vandy will be very, very difficult to win. We still have hard games with Mississippi State on the road who may be as tough as any body we’ve played this year; very, very difficult for us to win. Now Georgia is playing better, and Mississippi obviously gives us matchup issues because of their size. So it will be very difficult for us . It’s not about running the table. What it’s about is putting us in the best position we can be in at the end of the year to make a run. Last year’s team at the end of the year was the best team in the country in my opinion. Now we lost six league games on the road during that stretch that you’re talking about, and we became a very good team. So we did what we were tying to do and we’re trying to do the same with this team.”

John Calipari is making a strong case for SEC Coach of the Year after guiding the top-ranked Wildcats to an 11-0 start in the league. (photo by Chet White, UK Athletics)

On the improvement of Kyle Wiltjer’s game and his needed playing time …
“He’s getting better and there’s no question that he’s understanding defensively  what he’s going to have to do. He’s rebounding the ball better which leaves him in the game. You and I know that when he’s in the game, boy does he stretch defenses; wow. That means now you’ve got four guys, you’ve got slashers, people that are shooting 3s. His offensive skill, his ability to pass the ball; what you’re going to find out with time is he gets stronger from the waist down, you’re going to see him go to completely another level. Some guys come in and are physically like a Michael Gilchrist, who are physically advanced, even though Michael is the youngest player on my team, he’s physically advanced, where Kyle is not physically advanced. Anthony Davis wasn’t physically advanced, so he’s trying to figure out where he is physically, where I have to play to survive. And Kyle is doing the same kind of thing. His ability to score the ball makes us a totally different team when he’s on the floor. It really does. Now all of a sudden all the other coaches are saying ‘Oh my gosh.’ Now if he has Darius Miller, Doron Lamb and Kyle Wiltjer on the floor, you’re talking about three 45 to 50 percent 3-point shooters on the floor. Oh my gosh, what do we do here? It makes us a better team when he’s out there.”

On the possibility of Wednesday’s practice being televised …
“Right now we’re in the process of putting it all together in our meeting this morning and we’ll have some information probably on my website that you can then put in the newspaper by then. I’m just teasing you. It’s not completely out yet. We don’t know yet. We’re putting it all together. We’re trying to figure out exactly; I want it to be a great experience for our students and then possibly if not just students, maybe there’s some way that we’ll recognize that there are 3,000 students to 5,000 students coming, if we open up to whoever else doesn’t get to see us play. There’s so many fans in this state that never get a chance to feel the experience and see the players and feel up close that if we can get three or four thousand in here to watch them, then there’s what we’ll do. So we’re just walking through this this morning on exactly how we’re going to do it. It may only be students if it’s 8,000, but if it’s 4,000 students and 4,000 fans that don’t get a chance to see us play, then it may be that to.”

Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy

On his view of how good Kentucky is as a team …
“I think they’re scary good. When you look for holes maybe that you can have an opportunity to exploit, they don’t have many. They’re tremendous defensively. I think they play as a cohesive unit, which is really a tribute to Cal when you’re mixing in freshmen along with a couple of upperclassmen, and you’re doing it at that level where they really look, as impressive as they are as individuals, I think they’re even better as a team, which is a tribute to Coach Cal and his staff.”

On playing Vanderbilt and Kentucky the next two games …
“For me, obviously I just started looking at it a few hours ago (laughs). I try not to get too far ahead. As coaches we all look at different segments and say this one’s going to be tougher than that, but when you get in to the grind of the season it literally is, you’re just trying to get to the next day. That’s really been our approach and that ‘s what I want our kids to do. And so therefore I try and limit myself. Vanderbilt is outstanding. Like I said earlier about Kentucky, there’s not a lot of holes in their game. They’ve got a great collection of players and Kevin (Stallings) does a great job year in and year out. So it’s going to be a tremendous challenge. And honestly other than watching Kentucky play this morning, just trying to get to the next day.”

Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings

On comparing Kentucky to some of the SEC’s best teams in recent years …
“They’re certainly very good and I would put them right up there with some of the best that I’ve seen, yes. Particularly on the defensive end, I think they’re outstanding so, yes, I think this Kentucky team is as good as a lot of the really, really good teams, great teams that I have seen in our league in years that I’ve been in it. I would expect that they will continue to do very well and will have a great chance to make a run for a national championship.”

On how difficult it is to go undefeated in SEC play …
“I think it’s very difficult. Very, very, very difficult actually and I don’t recall it being done one time since I’ve been in the league. That would speak to the difficulty of it. Because of the way they defend, they’ll have a chance to do it. They’re really a terrific defensive team. They’re a good offensive team as well, but I think it’s their defense that gives them a chance to win every night.”

On Anthony Davis’ candidacy for national awards …
“I would be surprised if there was anybody out there that was any better. I can’t profess to say that I study all the top players around the country and who even would be the best candidates for Player of the Year or any of those things, but I have a hard time believing that there is anybody that’s having any more of an impact on the success of their team than Anthony Davis is. And that would be whether it’s a freshman or anything other classification for that matter. I can’t imagine that there’s a more impactful defensive player in all of college basketball than he is. It would not surprise me in the least if he swept all those awards and I think he would be very deserving. Again, I say that and I can’t really say that I pay attention to what people in other leagues are doing.”

Florida head coach Billy Donovan

On Darius Miller …
“I love him. I’ve always loved him. I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for him because I think just what he’s been through. I think he started off with Billy Gillispie there as a young player and then John came in and then he’s playing with (John) Wall and (Eric) Bledsoe and (DeMarcus) Cousins and those guys, and then they basically lose a lot of guys to the NBA, and then last year comes in a new crop of guys. I just think he’s a Steady Eddie. I think he’s an incredible core, glue guy that probably in a lot of ways is overshadowed by maybe Gilchrist or Davis or (Marquis) Teague. But he is a really, I think, a guy that presents a lot of problems because one, he’s highly intelligent. He plays a lot of different position. He’s a mismatch when you play him at the three. He’s a mismatch at the four. He can even play the two. He’s battle-tested, he’s been through it. He’s got incredible leadership qualities but I just think there’s a lot of intangibles that come with him. He just seems like he always embraces the new faces that come in there. John knows better than I do, he’s with him every day, but I always just see him doing whatever he has to do to help his team win. I just don’t think on any team you can have enough of those guys and I also think he’s very talented. He’s a very talented player but he adds a different element to their team.”

On the element Miller adds to UK’s team…
“I think his versatility. I think being a senior, an older guy, playing on a lot of different teams,  I would assume that he really understands team chemistry and understanding how to work. He doesn’t seem to be an ‘I’ guy. I never see him with a bad attitude out there. The thing that I had mentioned about Kentucky after our game was I love their disposition. Even their younger guys, they’ve got a great presence and a disposition when they play and I respect that and I think Darius has got that kind of disposition as well.”

On comparing Kentucky to some of the SEC’s best teams in recent years …
“I thought Coach (Rick) Pitino’s team was really, really good my first year here (1996) when they won the national championship when they had (Antoine) Walker and (Tony) Delk and (Ron) Mercer and (Derek) Anderson. I mean, they were really, really good. I think depth wise, talent wise I think John’s first team may have been as talented as any team that’s been there. They had incredible depth in the frontcourt with (Daniel) Orton and Cousins and (Patrick) Patterson, and then you obviously had incredible depth in the backcourt with Bledsoe and Wall. I mean that was a pretty talented team. These guys are very, very good. I think every team brings a different element and wins in different ways but this Kentucky team is a very, very good team and has played very impressively.”

On how difficult it is to go undefeated in SEC play …
“I think anytime, in any league, it’s very, very difficult. Very hard because you’re always going to have, there’s always going to be games where you’re maybe not going to be at your best and things are not going to go well. I don’t know how many games they’ve had like that but there’s always those games. They’ve been able to have the ability to, I think, win. When you have an ability to win in a lot of different ways, when one of those ways is not working for you, you can rely on something else to help you win. I think they’re a good shooting team but they’re not a great shooting team. They shot it very well against us but if they have a bad shooting night, they can still do it with other things: defensively, posting up, getting to the free-throw line. There’s other things they can hang their hat on and I think what makes really, really special teams is when you have a variety of different ways you can win. I think they can win in a slow-down game, a fast game. I think that they can win if they’re not shooting the ball well. I think they can win in almost any kind of situation that they’re in.”