Kentucky coach John Calipari isn’t going to the NBA anytime soon. He’s too busy raving about his incoming class as he prepares for his eighth season as coach of the Wildcats.
Often mentioned as a candidate for vacant coaching jobs in the professional ranks this time of the year, Calipari is anxious to see what the future holds for his latest recruiting class, considered one of the best he’s ever assembled at Kentucky.
During his annual year-end press conference Wednesday at Memorial Coliseum, Calipari beamed about the incoming freshman class that features De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Edrice “Bam” Adebayo, Wenyen Grabriel and Sacha Killeya-Jones. Another heralded prospect — Marques Bolden — has yet to announce his future plans, but has narrowed his college choices down to Kentucky and Duke.
“I think we’re going to be a pretty good team again,” Calipari said. “You know, you have a big backcourt. Our returning vets have had good experience. You have a beast (Adebayo). We’ve missed a beast for a year. You know, when he gets it, he’s going to try to either dunk it or knock your arm. And then you’ve got those long athletes we’ve always had in Sacha (Killeya-Jones) and Wenyen (Gabriel). They’re different. One’s 6-foot-11, one’s 6-10. But one’s more of a wing, one’s more of a four or five. Bam (Adebayo) is what he is and can dominate a game. But all these guys add to us.”
Calipari said the mixture of youth and experience and the ability to get up and down the court resembles the 2011-12 team that won the school’s eighth national championship.
“This team has that kind of speed,” Calipari said. “Now, they have to get in great shape. I want to be a great team from defense to offense. In other words, when we block it or get that ball we’re flying. Then we’ll worry about how we’re going to play when a team doesn’t let us fly up and down. We’ll worry about that later. Let’s just get that first piece out first. Then you have to be a great defensive team first to be that. But that’s what I’ll zero in on. Let’s really guard. Let’s take great pride in it. Let’s block shots. Let’s gang rebound, and if a guard gets it fly, don’t pass it, run and we’re all running. Lobs, dunks and layups and then 3s if they all fly back there.”
While looking ahead, Calipari also reflected on last year’s squad. Even though Kentucky’s second-round loss to Indiana was Calipari’s earliest exit in six NCAA appearances as coach of the Wildcats, the Kentucky coach said the season was a success. Of course, the loss to the Hoosiers wasn’t easy to swallow, Calipari said the final game of the year is “always a tough one.”
“Again, should we have been playing those guys in a second-round game? No. No, but we did,” he said. “So now it’s kind of like being in a foxhole and you tell your men, ‘If those tanks come over that hill over there, we’re dying.’ Then someone looks around and says, ‘I don’t want to die, so what else can we do?’ If they come over that hill, do you have a plan? We said if those tanks come over the hill, we’re gonna die, and those tanks came over that hill and we died.”
Along with a stellar recruiting class, Calipari has a mixture of last year’s team returning, including Derek Willis, Dominique Hawkins, Charles Matthews, Isaac Humphries and Mykal Mulder. Point guard Tyler Ulis, shooting guard Jamal Murray and center Skal Labissiere won’t be back next season after all three players hired an agent and declared for next month’s NBA Draft. Marcus Lee and Isaiah Briscoe also have entered the draft but haven’t hired an agent, leaving the door open for a return next season.
Murray, Ulis, Lee and Labissiere are competing in the NBA combine that began Wednesday and runs through Sunday in Chicago. Calipari said Lee is serious about forgoing his senior year, but is more open to Briscoe returning. Lee and Briscoe have until May 25 to make a final decision.
“I try to give him space,” Calipari said of Briscoe. “Go work out for these teams and let them tell you and talk to them and I’m here for them. My whole thing is, you gotta get better. You’re coming back to get better.”
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter