John Calipari says he never panicked this offseason, Tre Mitchell addition was "fate"

As Big Blue Nation panicked about the offseason with just seven scholarship players signed on to open the month of June, Kentucky head coach John Calipari says he never flinched. He knew the Wildcats were in a tricky spot with Oscar Tshiebwe, Antonio Reeves and Chris Livingston all waiting until the withdrawal deadline to make final decisions on returning to college or keeping their names in the NBA Draft.

Tshiebwe and Livingston stuck with the pros while Reeves was a maybe, opting to return to school without officially committing to a second campaign in Lexington.

Didn’t land Hunter Dickinson or Keshad Johnson, two players the school hosted on official visits. Didn’t seriously pursue anyone else — Arthur Kaluma scheduled a visit, but ultimately committed to Kansas State before he could make it to campus. Fans asked for a plan as Calipari stayed silent.

“Lil Wayne said to me — if you don’t mind me dropping a name — ‘I like how you just keep it in house, what you do. It’s like my lyric, ‘Real G’s stay silent like lasagna.’”

The actual lyric is ‘real G’s move in silence like lasagna,’ but the point remains. Calipari just let things play out, and to his credit, it worked out. Reeves ultimately decided to come back while Kentucky added West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell.

And that’s an 11-man group the Hall of Fame coach is content with.

“We were always in a strong position. I was never panicked about anything,” Calipari said. “Where we are, I’m happy about it. We’ve got veterans. The best teams I’ve coached had really good young players and veterans. Now, those veterans haven’t always been older veterans, sometimes they’re sophomores and juniors. But they were veterans in that they played college basketball.”

Calipari admitted it was difficult to add certain pieces in the transfer portal, specifically due to competition currently on the roster. If a guy is still playing college basketball and entering the portal, it means they weren’t good enough to be a clear first-round draft pick. Why would those guys want to compete against other projected first-rounders on the upcoming roster?

“As a coach, you understand you’ve got guys in the draft waiting to make a decision, which means it’s hard for other guys to (make moves),” he said. “You’ve got the top class in the country with four projected first-rounders, two lottery picks — ‘You want to come in?’ You would’ve been in the draft if you were a first-round pick. You’re not, and you’re looking at them as if they are, eh. It changes the dynamic.”

And then there’s the draft situation. Portal pieces weren’t totally sure who would be back for the Wildcats — Oscar Tshiebwe being a heck of a deciding factor. Between that and the incoming recruits, things got difficult.

“With us, if you’re about players and they’re putting their name in the draft, you have to let them go through the process. By going through the process, especially if they go through the last day, that’ll affect transfers,” Calipari said. “They don’t know if they’re coming back or not. What else affects transfers? If you have the No. 1 recruiting class with five or four projected in the first round. Will that affect things? Yeah.”

And then Tre Mitchell fell into Kentucky’s lap, a player with a countless number of connections to Calipari and his staff. Perfect position, perfect timing — at least on the Wildcats’ end. The UK head coach knows he wouldn’t have gotten Mitchell if Bob Huggins’ time at West Virginia didn’t come to an ugly end, but it did. And Kentucky took advantage.

“What happened with Tre was fate,” Calipari said. “If Hugs doesn’t have his issue — that kid loved Bob Huggins. He wasn’t leaving. Then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s happened? I’m out.’ That’s fate. And what I’m saying, if it wasn’t him, it probably would have been someone else.”

He looked back to Kentucky adding Jamal Murray late in the summer back in 2015, the perfect complementary piece to Tyler Ulis in the backcourt at the time. Fans panicked then too, but things worked out.

“We waited for Jamal (Murray), we waited for different guys and got them later,” Calipari said. “It’s all played out. At the end of the day, you’ve got to come here wanting the competition, wanting what this is.”

Better late than never.