John Calipari covered a lot of ground when he had the microphone to himself in front of reporters on Saturday.

Here's his pre-Elite Eight Q&A in full.

Q. Cal, if I remember correctly, there was some confusion when you went to visit Tyler and offered him a scholarship about which recruit you were going to see that week.

JOHN CALIPARI: What?

Q. There was a report you might see Zion on the same day and you went Milwaukee instead. What made you go see Tyler and make that offer?

JOHN CALIPARI: Well, again, you know, when you're doing what I do and as hard as this is here and as much as you have to do in a short period of time, you don't have a whole lot of time for B.S. You just don't. You have to keep it real. The only kind of guys that really will be into that are the guys that really want to play for us. And for me -- and, you know, the word came back that that was the case with Tyler.

So, I flew up, let me meet him, meet his family, watched him a little bit. I had seen him in the summers, but he had committed to Wisconsin so we really never really followed him that way. The more I was around him, you know, I said this kid reminds me of some of the guys we have. I didn't know he worked the way he did. His work ethic is unbelievable. Reid said it right, he has the confidence but it's not fake. I've had guys that, you know, you've had to explain what it means to be fake confident, like, you know, you're swagger is fake. You haven't earned it. You haven't worked for it. You haven't done enough things to have that and you're acting like you have it. This guy has earned his stripes and, you know, we've been blessed. You think about him, Jemarl -- guys that have been late, late coming to us that have been vital to what we're doing, and not every kid wants to play here. They don't. That's fine. It's not the right place for everybody.

But if you really want to get after this and you want to see how good I can be, want to learn to be a great teammate -- you know, I always said we probably have more volume shooters in the NBA that played for us than not even close, probably. They weren't volume shooters here. Anthony Davis is going back and forth texting me yesterday after the game. Here is a kid that wasn't a volume shooter. Shoots every ball now. But, you know, you can do that, but you learn to win, to be a great teammate, to do it together, to sacrifice, to serve your teammates, to be that servant leader, and he's learned it. We just told him you're not coming here to be a jump shooter. You're going to learn to play basketball. You'll be able to get to the rim. You're going to create fouls so you can shoot free throws. You're going to defend. If you don't guard, I'm not leaving you in the game. If you remember in the Bahamas, he couldn't keep anybody in front of him. Now all of a sudden, he's like one of our defenders that you go to.

Q. John, how would you characterize your relationship with Bruce Pearl and has it changed over the years from your time at Memphis and his at Tennessee?

JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think there's respect between us. I mean, I really respect what he does and how he coaches his kids and how he builds a culture. You know, I think sometimes you're at places, it's hard to have a relationship. The Memphis thing kind of bothered him because we were at Memphis and he was at Tennessee. They were the big state school and we're in the little corner over there and getting a lot of play, and it probably bothered him some. Even then, I mean what he did there, you know, have respect for him.

Q. John, transfers this year, why do you think that's out of control if it is? Number two, do you think kids should be able to transfer without sitting out if the coach got fired or goes to a bigger job?

JOHN CALIPARI: I haven't dealt with a lot of transfers in our program. We've had a couple. The crazy thing is I've stayed in touch with them just as much as kids that played in our program or stayed four years. I would tell you that if a coach is fired or leaves, the kid should have the ability to do what he wants. That's my opinion. I also think they're talking about kids not having to sit out, and the one thing that happens is you probably can't lie to them in the recruiting process. If you lie and they know you lied and you didn't do what you said you're going to do, they're going to transfer. You tell them you're going to start and play 30 minutes, everything is going to run through you and you're telling every player that? Now all of a sudden there's three of them, they're not going to be happy because they're not true and they leave it. May do that. I don't know -- haven't spent a whole lot of time on it, but I do know that when they are moving from team to team, they're going from high school to prep school, going to another prep school, it's probably not the best environment in that the one thing that's hard for these kids is when you keep it real, they've got to -- when I'm evaluating a player, I want to see when he's not at his best. Let me see him now. Let me see when he's not at his best what he looks like.

And for a kid really to make it, in my mind, they have to face adversity and deal with it. They have to have been beaten out. What do you do? You run or you say that's not -- it's not acceptable, I'm going to keep competing and I'm going to beat him out. Or someone else is working harder. So now you leave because you're not willing to spend that kind time in the gym and you're making every excuse. You're being enabled by people around you. I think the kids need to face adversity before they leave our campuses so that they have a chance to make it. If they've been able to do whatever they want and then they think they're going into that -- NBA stands for "No every step, I would hope, and we're holding them accountable. I'm not -- I'm on PJ as much as I'm on Reid and Keldon and trying to hold them accountable.

Q. You've said for several weeks now this team has added years to your life. Why has this team been so much fun to coach and can you give several examples?

JOHN CALIPARI: Well, one of the things that this team is, they love being in the gym and they're great kids. They've come from great homes, which means they're willing to sacrifice. They're willing to be about each other. Then the third thing is, they're skilled basketball players. It's really fun to coach players that can bounce it, shoot it, have a feel for the game, that have a competitive spirit, that have a will to win. You're not going to win every game. You're trying to. You don't. At the end of the day, you just want to be able as a coach to say every one of these kids has gotten better and improved their skills. But they have to have a basis of that. And this team did. Every day whatever we challenged them with, they were fine. Never have gotten too high, never gotten too low. This has been one of those years that -- you go through one of these years you think you can coach another 20. Then you go through other years and you say why am I still doing this? This is crazy. But this is -- you know, this is a good group.

Q. Reid talked about finding a place where he had one year for accelerating. How do you accelerate that process every year without cutting corners?

JOHN CALIPARI: There's no B.S. We don't have time for B.S. I'm going the tell you the truth, we're going to keep it real. If you don't guard, you're not playing. If you fall behind, you fall behind, I'm playing other people. We're here playing, trying to win. We hold them accountable statistically. Rebound attempts. Every one of them knows what their rebound attempts are. If your rebound attempts are low and you're not rebounding, I'm playing somebody else. That's energy. You're responsible for that. I'm not responsible for that. The other thing becomes when they come here, we're telling them you're not going to take 25 shots a game because you got a team full of guys that are trying to eat, too. Now, you may take 25 in a game. I think Malik Monk had 47 in a game. I would have let him score 57 if he could have. But that's in one game. That's not a season where you're shooting every ball.

Again, there's some that don't want the hear that. Some families that don't want to hear that. So, this becomes -- we're in this together, we're all going to eat. This has never hurt anybody. Number one pick, Karl Towns played 21 minutes a game. Devin Booker -- I think he's still mad at me -- didn't start. Had 59 and 50 in back-to-back games in the NBA, didn't start. Never said one word. All he did is came everyday like Tyler Herro and practiced and put time in the gym. Unbelievable. Anthony Davis took the fifth most shots on our team, was the number one pick. Numbers don't matter. And so you know, numbers matter to some kids and families and I want more numbers. Here it's putting yourself in a position to have success, and I don't think you can just say numbers. I don't think it is. Like I said, we've had a lot of people do well, lot of people score well and rebound well and do well, but it's a group of them.

THE MODERATOR: We have eight minutes to go.

Q. John, you frequently say to Kentucky fans, "You people are crazy." After last night, they're probably saying the same thing about you.

JOHN CALIPARI: What did I do last night?

Q. A lot of head coaches end up losing their jobs because of last shot doesn't go in. And so everything seems so random in these tournament games. How do you sleep at night knowing that the entire collective hopes of Big Blue Nation is kind of resting on your decisions in the huddle and PJ doesn't block a shot, Tyler doesn't hit the 3, then you're going out?

JOHN CALIPARI: First of all, my mother before she passed away used to say, "How do you do this?" She goes crazy watching the games. She did go crazy. First of all, I'm focused on what I'm doing, and I don't look at this as life or death, because if you look at this as life or death, you die a lot. This is what I do, trying to help these kids be the best they can be, put them in the best position to win and be about them. That's what I try to do. I don't take this personal. I don't take it personal with another coach. Anytime that eeks in, I don't coach as well. Like if the other coach wants to make it personal with me, I'm fine. Then he won't coach as well. So, you know, the fans want to win every game, and the Kentucky fans have been great to me. I tell them their they're crazy, watch tapes and -- they'll watch the game three times. I watch it twice. They're crazy. But they love it. They're invested in it. They see these players as their own children and grandchildren. It's a unique and special place, really is. There's no place like this school that I'm coaching at.

Q. What do you think about agents having access to elite college players?

JOHN CALIPARI: I thought there's going to be access to high school players. So I don't know where that goes yet. We're trying to all figure it out. But they're going to be able to talk high school player, they will be able to have a relationship with an agent that as long as there's nothing signed or nothing official, you know -- I mean, that's part of where this is all going. So, again, as I go through this tournament, I'm not spending a lot of time on that right now, but that's going to be an issue.

Q. John, I was wondering who you had to tell that your swagger is fake? Who have you had that conversation with?

JOHN CALIPARI: Do you want me to be honest?

Q. Yes.

JOHN CALIPARI: With myself.

Q. What were those conversations like those with kids?

JOHN CALIPARI: Are you spending time? Are you really spending time? I've had guys that their skill set, they were really struggling, but I'd come in the office at night, it's 10:30, 11:00, they're in the gym shooting. Next day in practice, I bring all the team in and said the reason I'm sticking by my men, I came in last night -- I know he was 1 for 10 last game but he was in this gym. I'm with him. As long as they're putting in the time and they're not -- I'm good with it. But if you're not in there and you're not really trying to master your craft, if you're not trying to master your craft and you just want to play, just let me play, let me shoot more balls. Instead of shooting 10, you should have let me shoot 20 I could have got going. What if you went 1 for 20? That's okay, our next game I make them. What? So mastering your craft in this sport that we play, it's everything. If you can't master your craft, which means do you love to grind, do you love being in the gym, does that wake you up everyday, is that your solace? When you're feeling down, you go in and you get some shots up and you feel great leaving the building? As a coach, is it the same thing? You're down a little bit, have a great practice, and makes you feel great. If that's not your mentality, it's really hard to make it at this sport.

Q. John, I wonder, kind of interested in the 3 as the shot of choice and wonder what your thoughts are on building an offense around making that maybe the primary or the first option? And then does Auburn resemble anybody or remind you of anybody from your career?

JOHN CALIPARI: They do a lot of stuff that Wofford does. They're going to shoot 30 3s. They shot 37 last game. There's all kind of ways of doing this. One of the ways is we're going to rely on 3-point shooting. The other way of doing this, we're going to play basketball and if they give us 3s, we'll take them. If we're spaced out there -- I think there's not a college coach right now that doesn't space to the 3-point line. Whether they shoot 30 3s or 20 3s, one of the best teams in the country. One of the best coached teams in the country was Tennessee. They shot about 18, 19, 3s a game. Literally one of the best teams in the country. We played them. They were wars. They were veterans. They didn't turn it over. They created good shots. They moved the ball. They would guard physical, and they only took 18, 19, 3s. There's all kind of ways of doing this. Bruce, here is the other, if you have really good shooters why wouldn't you do it? He has really good shooters. They shoot them, 25 percent are in transition, another 30 percent of them are on pick and rolls, and the rest of them are off drives and extra passes and finding an extra man.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the head coach of Kentucky? Last question, go.

Q. In Jacksonville, even with PJ were hurt, you seemed to be in a really good mood.

JOHN CALIPARI: I'm miserable right now.

Q. Same thing here, did you know something we didn't know? Or is it just that as you said earlier, you really enjoy coaching this team?

JOHN CALIPARI: I think most post seasons -- the season is the grind of it. When you're here, you have a ball with this. Somebody asked me the other day about was it a relief to win. I don't know where I was. No. If it becomes -- winning becomes a relief, you're in the wrong profession, it's time to retire. Winning it fun, it's fun for these kids. You see them come together and the joy it brings because of all the hard work and everything they did together. No, the NCAA Tournament for me personally is the greatest -- you know, you follow us. Everything we do all year is geared --

Q. Towards March?

JOHN CALIPARI: -- towards March. Every game we play, every preparation. I want to play teams that play different ways, shoot 3s, don't shoot 3s. 1-3-1, 2-3 zone, press us, hold the ball, back doors, Princeton. We want to face it all so if we face it here, we're ready for it. This is why we do what we do is to get into this time of the year and try to keep your team going.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, John. Good luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports