Before the SEC Tournament, John Calipari said in a Press Conference that he had made a “tweak” to Kentucky’s basketball team. He was vague about what that actual “tweak” was, but said that they were going to see a different Wildcats basketball team. He also said that he was upset that he didn’t think of it earlier. After he made those comments, Kentucky made it to the SEC Final where they lost to Florida by 1, and made it to the National Championship Game where they lost to UConn (a march that included beating Kansas State, Wichita State, Louisville, Michigan and Wisconsin).

Today on Mike & Mike In The Morning, Calipari explains what that “tweak” was. He talked about the different things he did such as, fouling in practice so they could get more accustomed to the physicality of play, showing Julius Randle tape of Zach Randolph and getting Randle to model his game more like Randolph, but he highlighted one thing in particular…He showed tape of Deron Williams to Andrew Harrison. He took a game where Deron Williams had 11 assists and asked Andrew after each assist what he would have done in that situation. Andrew responded that he would have shot it after he was shown tape of 9 of those 11 assists. He told Andrew in practice before the start of the SEC Tournament that he wasn’t going to take a shot during the practice. Calipari tracked Andrew’s assists and “hockey assists” (the assist that leads to the assist). Calipari says that was the turning point. He said the team became looser, and Andrew made the game easier for Julius Randle, Aaron Harrison, and the entire team. Calipari says he was so pissed during the practice that he was was throwing basketballs against the wall because he was upset he didn’t think of this earlier. The next game against LSU, UK won 85-67 and Andrew’s assists were twice as high (8 assists) as his season totals (4 assists per game) and all of a sudden, UK looked like the team they were supposed to.

So the mysterious “tweak” has been revealed, according to John Calipari.

Pretty creative there. Obviously, it worked out for the most part.