Five things we learned from John Calipari at UK Pro Day

Kentucky basketball season is here, the Wildcats hosting the program’s annual Pro Day on Wednesday ahead of Big Blue Madness on Friday. It was our first post-summer look at the 2023-24 roster in a live, competitive setting, this time in front of 52 NBA scouts and front-office personnel. The team started with shooting and agility drills before closing out with 4-on-4 scrimmaging — not enough guys available yet for full 5-on-5.

Our eyes showed us the standouts, Antonio Reeves torching the net from three while DJ Wagner attacked, Justin Edwards and Tre Mitchell showed off finesse games and a bulked-up Rob Dillingham looked much improved from what we saw in Toronto. And how about Jordan Burks and Joey Hart stepping up in expanded roles due to injuries elsewhere? It was a strong all-around performance to open the preseason.

But that’s just what we saw inside Rupp Arena. What did we hear from Kentucky head coach John Calipari? How is he feeling ahead of Big Blue Madness?

No post presence? “Your team is a fraud.”

It starts with the 21-foot elephant in the room — or maybe it’s just 14 feet now? Either way, Calipari expressed the same concerns we all do about Kentucky’s injured big men, Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso.

Zvonimir Ivisic arrived on campus Thursday, a heck of a start in finding frontcourt help. But if the Wildcats are going to reach their title potential this season, the team needs Bradshaw and Onyenso back sooner rather than later.

“How do you define it at Kentucky? Banners. It’s playing for that at the end of the year, you’re one of those teams. We’ve got all these big guys out, three seven-footers,” Calipari said Wednesday. “One should be on campus (Thursday), two with foot injuries who are out another five, six weeks. But you must have rim protection. If you don’t have a post presence, your team is a fraud. Maybe you can sneak by, but to win six without rim protection, that’s really, really difficult.”

ESPN’s Seth Greenberg asked Calipari what keeps him awake at night ahead of college basketball season with this group. His answer?

“That we’re not going to have that big. That keeps me up,” he said. “I know our guard players are really good. … We’ve got a really talented team — but we need a big. Or two.”

Zvonimir Ivisic opens the European door for Kentucky

One piece of the puzzle is in place, though, as Ivisic’s long journey to Lexington is now complete. There was turbulence, but the 7-foot-2 forward from Croatia made it to his new Kentucky home not a second too soon.

And John Calipari is excited. Not just because he’s talented with unlimited potential, but because Ivisic genuinely wants to be here and fought hard to make it happen. There was a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality there, and Calipari is giddy to see how that translates to practice and game production.

“We’ve got Big Z coming in. It took so long to get him here, every week that went by, he got bigger and bigger. ‘Big Z, release Big Z!’ He just turned 20 like three weeks ago, he’s got no hair on his face. He is a piece to this puzzle. I’m hoping he can make these guys better, and they can make him better. And now, we all help each other,” Calipari said. “My best teams here had rim protectors — we have three. Two are out for five to six more weeks, maybe seven weeks. At least he’s supposed to get here (Thursday), it’s a 13-hour flight to get here and it took time. I’m proud of him, he wanted to be here. He never turned away from it. He just, ‘What do I need to do? How do we need to do it? What’s next? What do I have to do? He wants to be here that bad.“

Calipari also values the long-term pairing and what it means for the program’s recruiting efforts of other high-profile European players. And the school can benefit with normal students, too.

“It’s exciting to have him here. My hope is it opens up doors for European students to come here. Forget about athletes, students. This is that step to that,” he said. “My hope is there are a bunch of other European players saying, ‘If Big Z could go to Kentucky, why can’t I go to Kentucky?’ It’s not like I’m gonna have nine European players, but hey, if I find nine who can play [laughs]?”

Basketball players who need to be empowered

Calipari raved about this roster being full of basketball players, guys capable of dribbling, passing and shooting. It was something Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told the team in Toronto during the GLOBL JAM. This isn’t a wrestling match or track meet, this is basketball. Kentucky has a group of players, not athletes.

But there is a level beyond that. The kids can play, but can they play together? Can they be selfless and get rid of old, bad habits? Will this be a player-driven group or will Calipari have to babysit? Those are the questions we’ll get answered when the season tips off.

“We have every player who can dribble, can pass and can shoot. Has a good feel for the game. Shai Alexander told me that in Canada. ‘Coach, I like your team because they can all pass, dribble and shoot, they’ve got a feel for this,'” Calipari said. “Now it becomes getting them together, getting them to share, getting them to take roles, getting them to understand you’re not taking 25 shots here. In a game you may, but you can’t average that because we’ve got a bunch of other guys that are pretty good too. It takes time to get to that.

“If I can get them feeling empowered, that it’s their team and I can step away, we’re going to be fine.”

That’s not always easy with freshmen. It may take time, just as it did with Calipari’s best teams over the years. But they all got there. Can this one?

“Young talent, they can’t lead right away because they just stepped on campus. But Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis, it became their team,” he said. “Antonio Reeves can really play, has gotten better. Tre Mitchell, come on now. He is a guy that makes everyone around him better, yet can still do stuff. Great passer, great creator.

“I’ve got a really smart team. To get them empowered, that means taking over practices, that individual player. He then takes hold of this group.”

More random basketball

When you get dudes, you let them go to work. That’s what the dribble-drive is designed to do: put your best players in space so they can create scoring opportunities. It’s random basketball and it’s hard to defend.

Calipari’s recent teams haven’t had a ton of that, leading to more plays being drawn up rather than organic and instinctive shot opportunities. This group is trying to get away from that.

“Teams like this, you create space more than run plays. That’s what I’m trying to do,” he said. “They’re all playing off of one another, they’re talking to one another. They are getting better.”

Just wait until Kentucky gets its 7-footers in the lineup. Then Calipari can get really creative.

“It’ll be nice when we get those 21 feet of bigs, the three big guys — all 7-footers,” he said. “I’m gonna play a 2-3 with those three at 7-2, 7-1, 7-2 and two guards [laughs].”

He’s kidding. Probably. Right?

SEC commits to winning in basketball

It’s going to be a fight to claim SEC regular season and tournament crowns, let alone a national title being handed over on a golden platter. That’s just the nature of the beast now within the league.

If iron sharpens iron, conference play is going to sting. And it’s because SEC schools have committed themselves to becoming contenders, pouring the necessary time and resources into their basketball programs to do so.

“I think we have really, really, really good coaches. Really committed schools. People get mad. Well, they don’t get mad — they know it’s true. Coaches win ballgames, administrations win championships because they want to and they commit to it,” Calipari said. “When I was at UMass, they were committed. Memphis, they were committed. Here, they’re committed. So administrations win championships. You think we’ll just get a coach and pay the coach? Oh no, that’s not what this is. This league now has committed basketball programs.”

Even as late as 2016 when student assistant Tyler Ulis was racking up accolades as a player, the SEC only had a few teams truly capable of winning league titles. Now just about everyone has a legitimate shot to compete.

“Tyler said when he was first here, ‘You had three or four teams, but not eight or nine.’ So it’s a little harder, but you know what? It’s more rewarding,” Calipari said. “It’s the way it should be, every arena sold out. Now you know when we come to town, it’s t-shirts and cup day, whatever else they do. But this should be fun.”

Kentucky has a team capable of competing both within the SEC and nationally — but Bradshaw and Onyenso have to get healthy first.

“I’m enjoying this team, but need to get the big guy here,” Calipari said. “Need to get the other two big guys healthy. We do that and we’re going to be okay.”