Bon appetit: Calipari tells luncheon crowd what it wants to hear
Even given the partisan setting, Kentucky Coach John Calipari could hardly have sounded more upbeat at the annual Tip-off Luncheon on Monday. He lauded his basketball team’s competitiveness and camaraderie.
And, as he heads into his 10th season as Kentucky coach and nears the finish line he once envisioned for himself, Calipari proclaimed himself eager for more.
“I can tell you, I’ve got my second wind with Kentucky,” he said as the crowd of about 700 applauded.
Besides the winning, which he downplayed, Calipari noted the difference a Kentucky coach can make in the lives of players and their families. When he said that the 31 former UK players currently in the NBA will make a collective $1.5 billion this season, this sparked perhaps the most enthusiastic applause of the afternoon.
Calipari cited days off as an indicator of his current team’s competitive spirit.
“I’m giving them off today and tomorrow,” he said. “Two days in a row. Now, with the normal team, when you give them two days off, it takes you two days to get them back to where you were. . . . This team never leaves the gym. . . . Last week I gave them two days off, we had our best practice when I got back. I was stunned. But we have gym rats.”
Kentucky’s expected wealth of depth and talent has raised the question of how Calipari will distribute playing time. He relied on a familiar line — it’s not Communism — to say the players must earn their minutes.
“If you look at it right now, it’s kind of 10 guys,” he said. “You know, 1-2-3, you’re a little bit above. (And) 4-5-6-7, you’re a little bit above. (And) 8-9 a little bit above 10.
“But all 10 are good enough. But they’re not like the year we had 10 and I played two platoons (2014-15). We’re not there. But they’re all good enough to play.”
In another bit of familiar Calipari shtick, he said he asked players if they were willing to give minutes to a teammate. All declined, he said.
“‘We’re not giving minutes,’” Calipari said he told the players. “‘You have to earn them. (Pause for comedic effect) Will somebody give minutes to Brad?’”
Speaking of the coach’s son, Calipari said Brad is on schedule to graduate in three years next spring.
Calipari also put a positive spin on last week’s announcement that the NBA will offer a select group of high school stars the option to play in the G League for a season and earn $125,000. Those players, who would bypass the one-and-done college route, could enter the following year’s NBA Draft.
This will not threaten Kentucky, which has built its program on a foundation of one-and-done players in Calipari’s nine seasons as coach. He seemed to suggest that players taking the G League option would be too self-centered to play for UK.
“That helps us, folks,” Calipari said of the G League option. “They’ll take three to five players a year. Those players weren’t coming here. The players we’re going to get want to get better, know they have to share (and) want a competitive environment. . . .
“So I’m saying, you’re able to separate Kentucky even more than we’re separated. So I don’t see it hurting us.”
Even with the anticipation of a banner season, perhaps literally as well as figuratively, it took a while for Calipari to give the crowd what it wanted to hear.
He spent the first four minutes of his 24-minute appearance trumpeting the UK football team. He suggested the team’s lone loss — at Texas A&M — included a good sign.
“The culture changed,” he said. “It went from us being all sad to everybody was mad and angry. ‘How did we lose?’”
Important upcoming dates
Oct. 26: Exhibition vs. Transylvania
Nov. 2: Exhibition vs. Indiana-Pennsylvania
Nov. 6: Season opener vs. Duke at Champions Classic in Indianapolis
This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 4:27 PM.