‘The upside of this team is really up.’ John Calipari breaks down UK’s win against UNC.

John Calipari lived plenty of lives Saturday night inside the State Farm Arena.

Kentucky’s 87-83 win over No. 9 North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic was punctuated by emotional moments in what was a superbly entertaining game between the Wildcats and Tar Heels.

Calipari even picked up a technical foul in the first half.

But when all was set and done, Calipari was able to address media members as the head coach of a team that now has a pair of wins over AP top-10 ranked opponents this season.

Kentucky led for more than 37 minutes in this latest triumph, and trailed for just 16 seconds in the game.

Here’s everything Calipari said after the Cats improved to 8-2 on the season with another standout win.

Q. Coach, did you say anything or find out anything different about your team that you hadn’t seen in a game yet?

How about Ugonna (Onyenso)? He just started practicing. He got the flu and could not travel with us. Flew in this morning, went to the shoot-around, had to do what? Went in the bathroom. I can’t play him. He said, I’m going to be fine. He helped us. Aaron (Bradshaw) gets a fourth foul, I’ve got to play him.

I’m happy about him. But the plays he makes, DJ (Wagner) makes, Antonio (Reeves) makes, the rebounds, the stuff that he was doing, the free throw miss, but they balled.

I’m telling you, that is a veteran team that came in with one idea: They were going to be physical with us. That’s what they did. You know what, we held our own. This is a group of young talented basketball players that are still learning. We’re not near where we should be or where we will be, but I’m kind of liking where we are at this stage of the season. But now it’s time to say, OK, let’s go.

A really smart team, too. Like really smart.

Q. Cal, you said you like where this team is right now. Are they ahead of where you thought they would be coming into the season?

Well, we didn’t know — look, you know what’s amazing? We had a big guy, and everybody thought we were going to walk it up the court, somebody told me. I’m like, what are you talking about? This is who we are because we’ve got all — but again, to try to — no.

This is who we are. Now we’ve got a 5 guy that can play like he’s a 3 or a 4, so you play the same way.

I thought Adou (Thiero) did some really good stuff today. Again, this was a game you had to fight. You had to be a dog or you were getting chomped on. We were able to hold our own, make a couple shots. (RJ) Davis made some plays down the stretch that kept him there and gave them their chance. But we’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve got to do. We do. Like I said, I’m giving them today off and tomorrow off, so they’ll have two days off, and then we’ll go Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday to get ready for a game on Thursday.

Q. With Rob (Dillingham), I’m sure he does some things where you want to pull your hair out —

Yeah, he does. All right, so you’re coaching a kid that can create space and get a basket when he wants to. Do you clip his wings? You can’t. You’ve got to let him go. But I give him two a half. The third one you’re coming out. You’re not going nuts. This isn’t the and-one tape.

For you older people in here, you know what I mean, and-one. When I tell them that, they have no idea what I’m talking about. But this isn’t the and-one tape where you got to do five extra things and then pass it.

You saw the one where he drove it, threw it that way to Aaron. Thank God they tipped it out of bounds. Why did you do that? Because I do that sometimes. But I’ve got to let some of that stuff go. Same with D.J. I mean, he’s so aggressive, he got to create contact and score. He’s trying to create space, and that means they’re coming. But that’s all doable.

I thought Justin (Edwards) was better today. He’s just got to get in a rhythm. We played him on the other side of the court so he could get to his left hand a little bit better and if he goes baseline pull up on his right, which he can do. He hit a couple big shots, got some rebounds.

But what happened was No. 3, he went under the screen three different times and the kid got three threes. Then you can’t be in the game. I’m not mad at you. I love you. Do you want to stay with me tonight at my house? Come on, I’ll make you a pizza. But you can’t be in the game right now, and he understood that.

Q. Tre (Mitchell) was really praising Adou saying the second he steps on the floor he’s this huge lift for you guys.

His dad played for me, and Jeremy Hunt and Joey Dorsey were at my room last night from Memphis. Jeremy Hunt said to me, I can’t believe how much better he’s gotten. I can’t believe — now, here’s the issue. He wants to be the point guard. But his dad is 6’9” and built like him, probably bigger shoulders, so he’s probably still growing. I doubt if you’re going to be a point guard. But the way he’s playing right now, he’s got one thing he’s got to improve. You know how you do that? You live in the gym. You can do that.

They wanted to say (Tyrese) Maxey couldn’t shoot. Yeah, that’s true. That wanted to say Cason (Wallace) wasn’t that good a shooter. Yeah, he leads the NBA. I’ve heard it all. You live in the gym, he can improve. The guy is going to make it.

The guy I worried about and he was smiling after the game and I loved it was Jordan Burks. I’ve been playing Jordan as a 3, which he loves because he was playing 4-5 because we were short-handed and that’s not who he is.

But I said, stay with it, man, you’re going to get a chance and you’re going to bust through, but I didn’t play him, and he was fine. He smiled — now, I expect him to be a little bit upset because he’s a competitor who wants to play. But he was happy we won, and it shows what he is. You guys saw what he did at a store. He bought the lady in front of him stuff.

This kid, tomorrow we have 10 families that go to the lodge where the kids live and we have Christmas for 10 families, and part of it is they — from gifts to big screen TVs to food to rent checks to — these kids get to do it and feel that, what it’s about. Again, really smart, good-hearted kids that are willing to share that like each other, that genuinely like each other.

What did we need early? Size. Now we’ve got a little bit. So I think we’ll be fine.

Q. Tre said that he put the decision into the players’ hands whether to foul or not with five seconds remaining in the game. What went behind that decision to allow the guys —

Well, I got in the huddle and I just said, there’s 11 seconds to go. Do you want to foul when they get to half court? Naturally they said, no, that we’re going to switch. Then I saw Cadeau in the game, and I told Reed (Sheppard), when he crosses half court, foul him, so that it doesn’t even go to Davis. But he just said, I decided not to. OK.

Q. Do you recall other players from your past that you would let play through mistakes the way you let Rob?

Yeah. I had this kid named Dajuan Wagner who on defense I turned my back and looked at the coaches, how’s it going down there, and then I turned, we’re on offense, and I said, score that ball, kid, score that ball.

So yes, I have done it. I looked at our North Carolina game two years ago. We played just like we’re playing right now. You would have thought we were playing 1950 basketball. We played exactly how we played today. Now, we got injured that year at the end, but I had a good team, and we could play that way.

There are times that you don’t — like there are teams out there taking 18 to 20 threes. Do you know why? They don’t shoot it real good, and at the two-point line they’re 54, 55 percent, it’s better them shooting more twos. That’s how this is.

I have a team that should shoot threes, that you can space the court. I’ve done this 19 years now. You play to your team. I don’t have a system. I’m playing to win as many games as I can and put these kids in the best position for them to play well and know that we’ve got their back.

Q. I looked in the middle of the second half, kind of looked like the Kansas offense got stagnant but Tre hit shots and Rob got going. Is this team getting more comfortable in those situations —

Yeah. When you’ve got 19-year-olds that stuff happens.

Q. What’s been the trick to getting them more comfortable over the last few weeks?

You’ve got to execute better and create a shot for your teammate. Now, the end of the game you can space it and do what we did because you’re running clock down. You’re not doing that early. We moved the ball. We did. We took some — Antonio took a floater from 12 feet. What would you do that for? Like that’s the stuff — like come on, we’ve got to be better.

Robert had a guy on him. He could have drove for a layup. Why did you do that? It’s stuff we’ll learn. But I thought defensively we did some good things. Davis is really good. Let me say this: UNC is a Final Four level team. They are. And Davis — I’m like, you’re one of the best players in the country right now, three-level scorer, layup, mid-range, and 3.

Now all of a sudden No. 3 comes in, hadn’t been making shots, but naturally against us he makes every shot, and now you still have the other big guys — they’re good. They’re good. Cadeau, he’s good. They’re a good team. We were lucky to win, but I’m happy for this young group because they’ve really worked hard. They’ve sacrificed for each other.

You want them to feel that. But I’ll tell you, on CBS, on national television, to make the plays they made at the end to win the game shows you what they are because it wasn’t plays. This was space the court, go take the guy.

Q. If Carolina is Final Four level, what does that say about your team?

The upside of this team is really up, but let’s see if we can get there. Let’s see. We still have one more big guy to get. We get him eligible, now we’ve got three seven-footers -- I’m sorry, 7’2”, 7’2”, seven-foot. It just looks different. It just does.

We were playing with 6’7”, 6’9”. Now all of a sudden you’ve got a 6’9” and a 7’2”. A little different for us. It doesn’t change how we’re playing. It doesn’t change what we’re doing. We’re still trying to make 25 to 30 threes.

Why that many? Because we can make them. Why would you only take 20? Because we don’t make them. You’ve got one or two guys that can make them. The other guys are 25 percent. I don’t want them shooting.

This team — it tells you, the game is going to this. You’d better have a bunch of shooters. The kids that we’ve recruited, even the big kids, you’ve got to be able to make shots, too.

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