By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky coach John Calipari has coached a lot of young teams in his tenure with the Wildcats. Next year’s squad could be the youngest Calipari has ever encountered at Kentucky.
“We’re going to be really young,” Calipari said Monday during the Southeastern Conference summer basketball teleconference. “Really, really the most inexperienced team that I’ve coached. So, that’s going to be interesting to deal with.”
Despite the team’s youthful makeup, the first glance has Calipari excited about the team’s prospects next season. Kentucky will replace its entire starting lineup from a squad that finished 32-6 before losing to eventual national champion North Carolina in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Next year’s squad could be the youngest Calipari has ever encountered at Kentucky (Keith Taylor Photo)
Gone from last year’s squad are NBA first-round lottery picks De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo, along with Dominique Hawkins, Derek Willis, Isaiah Briscoe, Mychal Mulder and Isaac Humphries.
Only one player from last year’s squad — sophomore Wenyen Gabriel — returns with valuable experience. Gabriel averaged 4.6 points and played 17 minutes per game last season. He joins a crop of newcomers, which includes Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Knox, P.J. Washington, Nick Richards , Jarred Vanderbilt and Quade Green.
“I love the length,” he said. “I love the group of guys. I love that they all want to win. When you talk to them, that’s what they talk about. It’s always fun when you get a group like that. That is fun. I’m looking forward to it. We’ll see. I still don’t know how they’re going to play. I’d imagine we’ll be fast and disruptive, but I don’t – how we’ll do that, I have no idea.”
Two of Kentucky’s newcomers, Washington and Diallo, will compete for Team USA coached by Calipari in the FIBA World Cup set for July 1-9 in Cairo Egypt. Knox was expected to compete with the squad before tweaking his hamstring during tryouts last week.
“Kevin was terrific,” Calipari said. “He was the best player, or one of the best. There were three or four guys who stood out and he was one of them. There were times I just shook my head and said, ‘Wow.’”
The Kentucky coach also was impressed with Washington and Diallo and said the experience of playing overseas with be beneficial for both players going into next season.
“What’s going to happen is, with Hami and PJ I get a chance to be with them for three weeks and they get a chance to be with me,” he said. “I get a chance to watch them closely, to learn more about them so I can do a better job of coaching them. And then they know what my expectations are and it’ll be a little bit easier road. But again, the three or four days I spent with Kevin were great. He’s going to be terrific. Boy, he is really good.”
During the teleconference, Calipari defended the one-and-done rule and added that he was “fine with the baseball rule” if changes are made to the current structure enforced by the NBA, which places a age limit on when players can enter the league.
The baseball rule would give prep players the option to make the leap straight from high school to the NBA or stay in college for three seasons if they opt against jumping from the prep to pro level.
“Whatever we do, I’ll be on record, if we’re trying to get kids to go to the D-League. If it’s a baseball rule and they’re going to get $20 million contracts right out of high school and the NBA thinks they can deal with that, I’m good. I’m fine,” he said. “If they’re trying to get kids in high school to go to the (NBA) D-League, I will be shouting from mountaintops saying what is this going to do to a generation of kids who say, ‘Alright, I’m going to do this.’ You get one or two years to make it and now you’re out without any opportunities. Who’s taking care of those kids now?
“I’m good with the baseball rule, as long as they’re going directly to the NBA, they’re paying them what they deserve to be paid, and then it’s on them to look after these kids and give them a gap year if they think they can do that in the NBA.”
Looking ahead: Kentucky’s schedule has been released with the exception of two exhibition games. Those preseason tuneups are reserved for “family and friends, usually people we know,” Calipari said, adding those teams received between $20-$25,000 per school.
“It’s one of those things that we’re doing it for people we have relationships with. It’s more about helping that other school,” he said. “We give a great guarantee for a Division II, Division III team and we’ve done an NAIA team. We’re kind of forced to do it versus a scrimmage, which a lot of people do. Our fans want to see these kids play, so we just continue to do what we’re doing.”
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today, He can be reached by e-mail at Keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com.
