John Calipari has "no idea what to expect" against Michigan State, but knows it will be physical

Even outside of basketball, John Calipari has been close friends with Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo for a while now. The two college legends have met several times on the hardwood over the years (with Calipari mostly getting the best of Izzo over the last decade), and are pretty familiar with each other’s style of play at this point. But things will be slightly different when the two match up again on Tuesday night in Indianapolis for the Champions Classic. Calipari will roll out a veteran Kentucky group consisting of multiple seniors that Izzo jokingly said is “almost illegal”.

Since Calipari arrived in Lexington, this matchup has been headlined by freshman-ladened Kentucky teams going up against older Michigan State squads. This time around, both sides will feature a mix of young and old. This will also be the first time these two teams meet when it isn’t the opening game of the regular season. Kentucky comes into Tuesday with a 2-0 record after drumming Howard and Duquesne while Michigan State is 1-1 after beating Northern Arizona by 18 before falling to No. 2 Gonzaga by a single point.

But even with some games under his team’s belt, Calipari can’t say one way or the other how things will play out against the Spartans. The status of Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, certainly looms large, and other minor absences have mucked up chemistry-building opportunities early on for the ‘Cats.

“I have no idea what to expect, I don’t,” Calipari said during his pre-Michigan State press conference on Monday. “First of all, I don’t know if he’s playing or how much he’ll play, in Oscar. Sahvir (Wheeler) just joined. Daimion (Collins) had two days of practice before he left then we came back. How’s he do? We have no idea. And that’s why I’ve said all along, it’s gonna take us time to get this right.”

While Calipari isn’t sure what to expect out of his Wildcats, he knows exactly what he’ll see out of an Izzo-led Michigan State squad: the Spartans will play with physicality.

“The game is gonna be physical,” Calipari added. “The guys on my team that are physical will have the best opportunity. And in this kind of game, if a guy struggles physically, next game. Cause this is hand-to-hand combat, the way they play. They wedge, they tip out if you don’t grab balls with two hands you’re not getting them. One of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, they fly up and down. They had Gonzaga beat, if you watched the game they should have won that game. Now they’re a top 20 team, which they were at the beginning. They’re big. So, they’re good.”

With all due respect to Kentucky’s first two opponents of the ’22-23 season, the Bison and Dukes weren’t nearly as big or as talented as Michigan State. The Spartans have six players listed at 220 pounds or more. Kentucky has four. MSU’s physicality is going to be felt a lot more than it has so far for UK.

“They’re physical,” Calipari continued. “They do a great job of pick-and-roll, spacing the court, their four can really shoot — (Joey) Hauser is a terrific shooter. Their guard is a downhill runner, he just comes right at you and leads with elbows and knees. It’s a typical Tom Izzo-coached team. When they screen, they screen… It’ll be exciting, it’ll be a hard game for us. I’m gonna say it again I have no idea what to expect.

“If you’re not ready for a war, this isn’t the game. This is gonna be — they fly up and down the court, they get it in quick, they rebound it and run, they’ve got good post-up players at three different positions. All three can post you. They’re good.”

The ‘Cats have been fantastic up to this point at freeing themselves up for clean outside looks and open dunks inside. Those will be much harder to come by on Tuesday night, but it’s something Kentucky is going to have to fight through throughout the season.

“These bumps are different than the other bumps,” Calipari said.