Calipari doesn’t shy away of talking politics with his players
That Kentucky opens the season on Election Day was not lost on John Calipari. The UK coach said he discusses current events and political issues with his team. Whether the players actually will vote was hard to tell.
“We have talked about the shootings (and) the bombs ...,” Calipari said Sunday. “We had a discussion about far-right, far-left. How these kids are going to be affected by both.”
Calipari said he also shared his views with the players.
“I talked about some of my beliefs that may not coincide with what you all think,” he told reporters, “or what the Catholic Church thinks.”
Calipari, a Catholic who attends mass regularly, said he advised the players on how to judge candidates.
“He doesn’t have to agree on every point” with a candidate’s opinion, he said. “If you want that, then you run.”
Kentucky’s team left for Indianapolis on Monday and will be out of town on Election Day.
Calipari said went to the Fayette County clerk’s office Monday morning and voted via absentee ballot before the team departed.
Bilas favors UK
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas all but picked UK to beat Duke.
“We’ll see what happens, but I think Kentucky is the better team to start (the season),” he said. “Duke’s got more talent one through three. But Kentucky’s got more talent one through 10.”
‘More of a unit’
Another ESPN analyst, Jay Williams, compared season’s Kentucky team favorably compared to the 2017-18 edition.
“Their team makeup is completely different than it was last year,” he said. “They’re more of a unit. They play together. There’s not as many egos at stake for roles.”
Defense, defense
Defense apparently remains a priority as Kentucky begins the season. The straight-line drives surrendered to Transylvania remain fresh in mind.
“It’s very critical because I think all three of those guys can get to the rack at will,” PJ Washington said of Duke’s Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish. “We’ve just got to focus on retreating and get our hands up and know we’re going to have help-side defense.”
Calipari said UK’s defense was better in the Bahamas in August than in the two preseason exhibition games.
“Part of it is maybe we’re stretching the court too much,” he said in reference to full-court pressing. And maybe the exhibition opponents were better on the drive, he added.
Duke will provide insight into UK’s ability to play on-ball defense. “They’ve probably got three or four guys that catch it and they’re driving it,” Calipari said.
One of a kind?
Bilas gushed about Williamson, who combines size (6-foot-7, 285 pounds) and athleticism.
“There’s never been a player like him in college basketball,” Bilas said. “He’s going to be the headliner. He’ll have more eyeballs on him all year long than any other player.”
Bilas scoffed at the comparison some have made between Williamson and former Auburn star Charles Barkley.
“He’s way bigger,” Bilas said of Williamson. “Like he’s bigger. He’s more explosive. You just can’t compare him to anybody.”
Williamson’s vertical leap has been measured at 46 inches. And, Bilas added, “he’s got the feet of a ballet dancer.”
Tre Jones is key?
Even with Barrett, Reddish and Williamson, Williams saw another freshman as the key player for Duke: point guard Tre Jones.
“He is the key cog of how that wheel rolls,” the ESPN analyst said of Jones.
Duke’s Super Bowl?
Calipari likes to say that every opponent views a game against Kentucky as its Super Bowl. Apparently, North Carolina is Duke’s Super Bowl rival.
The proximity of the two schools plays a key role. North Carolina is less than 10 miles from Durham. Think Louisville basketball based in Nicholasville.
Sportswriter Steve Wiseman, who has covered Duke every season but one since joining the Durham Herald Sun in 2010, noted how Duke football coach David Cutcliffe described Duke-UNC as a “grocery story rivalry.”
“That because he walks into a grocery store, he runs into Carolina fans,” Wiseman said.
Contract extension
The State Farm Champions Classic announced that the event has been extended through 2022.
UK will play Michigan State in New York in 2019, Kansas in Chicago in 2020, Duke in New York in 2021 and Michigan State in Indianapolis in 2022.
Etc.
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski has a 5-2 record against Kentucky. Duke has won seven of the nine games since UK beat the Blue Devils in the 1978 national championship game. ... No. 4 Duke is Kentucky’s first ranked opponent in an opening game in more than 20 years. The last: No. 20 Clemson beat Rick Pitino’s last UK team 79-71 in overtime to open the 1996-97 season. Coincidentally, that game was in Indianapolis. ... UK hasn’t opened a season against an opponent ranked in the top five since losing to No. 1 Duke 80-55 in the Hall of Fame Classic to open the 1988-89 season. ... Dan Shulman, Bilas and sideline reporter Laura Rutledge will call the game for ESPN.
This story was originally published November 5, 2018 at 3:14 PM.