John Calipari hits pause on summer basketball idea: "Too many other things happening right now"

After leading the charge on summer college basketball last preseason, John Calipari has decided to hit pause on the idea — for now, at least. The Kentucky head coach initially pushed for a college equivalent of the NBA Summer League, one that would allow each school to play two or three exhibition matchups against Division I opponents in July and August. He pitched the idea to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and was named to a working group that would present recommendations to the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees. Calipari even had the support of Dan Gavitt, who oversees college basketball for the NCAA, discussing the revenue benefits and NIL opportunities that could come with summer hoops.

Recommendations were scheduled to be presented to the DI Oversight Committees in June. When the time came to make a push, though, Calipari says he changed gears. Why? Too many moving parts in the college basketball world during the offseason that need to be handled first.

“You guys know I’ve been pushing for summer basketball. Like, we should be playing some games in the summer,” Calipari said Saturday. “I changed gears and everybody was stunned on the call. We need to pause that. And the reason is, we’ve got too many other things happening right now.”

It starts with the transfer portal and the late deadlines there — grad students can still make moves in August with immediate eligibility if they choose to do so. Then there’s the NIL factor, coaches battling pay-for-play recruiting while learning and navigating current legal guidelines themselves.

Adding more to coaches’ plates before the dust settled on the Wild Wild West of college basketball seemed like a bad idea in Calipari’s eyes — and others agreed.

“The transfer portal, a kid doesn’t play in the summer and all of a sudden he transfers. He says, ‘I’ll go as a walk-on.’ Then you’ve got name image and likeness, you got all kinds of stuff that coaches are dealing with. We don’t need to put one more thing on our plate. And coaches were happy that I came out and just said, ‘Let’s just keep evaluating.'”

His new idea — or at least a starting point? Five players representing each school during the summer league, games hosted at Rupp Arena and other big-time venues.

“Maybe we do it as summer leagues. You could have five guys on a summer league team and let them play that way,” he said. “Like, can you imagine them in a summer league? In Lexington, you could do it in Rupp Arena, play five-on-five with whoever. Any of that kind of stuff.”

The players, Calipari says, were almost unanimous in support. Coaches were a majority. Then the portal and NIL went crazy and momentum stalled a bit.

“The players by the way, when we talked about summer league, it was 90% that wanted to do this. Coaches were 65 percent,” he said. “And then when we all hit this — it hit this year hard. You can’t do this right now, but let’s just keep evaluating. Let’s keep looking and let’s see how we do it. Let’s take care of the players if they want to play in the summer. Let’s do something.”

But if the kids want to make this work, Calipari says he wants to make it work.

“You won’t believe this: what we do is about them. So if they want to play in the summer, figure it out and let them play. How do we let them play, though? Are we involved or not involved?”

The Wildcats are playing this summer, representing the United States in the 2023 GLOBL JAM in Toronto — a gold medal on the line tonight. Next summer and beyond, though? Well, they’re working on it.