Calipari unsure if he will coach every Canada game, but ready to house-sit for Drake

John Calipari is a firey coach on the sidelines. He uses his loudest voice when telling his players to go, or an official to go somewhere else. He’s animated. He’s old-school. You’ll hear him wherever you are sitting in the arena, and maybe at home too.

But when Kentucky takes the occasional summer trip to play international competition, Calipari keeps his voice and his heart rate down. He didn’t coach in the exhibitions the last three times Kentucky traveled to the Bahamas, instead delegating in-game duties to the assistants in three Bahamas tours, while he sat in the stands to evaluate those new teams in the summers before the 2014-15, 2018-19, and 2022-23 seasons.

Remember that time he ran camera for ESPN while the 38-win team was up big on some team from France?

This summer, Kentucky is in a unique spot with a different type of trip outside of American soil to represent the U.S. at GloblJam in Toronto. With much more at stake–like, you know, good ol’ American pride in July–Calipari is unsure if he will pass off his coaching responsibilities to his assistant coaches at any point this summer.

When asked in his Friday press conference, Calipari replied, “I’m not sure yet. I will coach the exhibition friendly. I can evaluate better when I’m not coaching. It’s easier to evaluate. But, this is a USA team. So, it’s not us going and playing in the Bahamas. So, I may coach the games. I’ll see how all this goes, and if I don’t need to, I probably won’t. But it’s a little different environment than I’ve had in the past.”

Calipari wants to see Drake’s indoor basketball court

If Calipari takes any games off, don’t expect to see Drake filling in on Kentucky’s sideline because (a) he’s Canadian, and (b) he is away while his Wildcats are in his hometown.

“He’s not in town. You know I checked,” Calipari said Friday afternoon.

“Now, I do have keys to his house,” Calipari added. “So, I may drop the team by his house because I want to see the court–it has Toronto Raptors. I will leave some Kentucky stuff there. But believe me, I already called to say, come on, I need you to coach my team and be up here.”

More from Calipari ahead of the trip up north.

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