LISTEN: John Calipari talks Oscar Tshiebwe, Shaedon Sharpe, next year's roster

It’s been over a month since John Calipari spoke on the local airwaves. At the end of a very busy week that included Oscar Tshiebwe announcing he is coming back to Kentucky and Shaedon Sharpe announcing he’s testing the NBA Draft waters, Calipari called up “Sports Talk with Dan Issel & Mike Pratt” to talk about it all. During the 20-minute conversation, Calipari touched on Oscar, Sharpe, next year’s roster, and the team’s visit to Dawson Springs yesterday.

If you missed it live (KSR was on, after all), he’s the replay and a complete transcript.

On whether there was ever a point he thought Oscar Tshiebwe might not return to school

Yeah, because he had to go through a process, and most of it — like, when I met with him, he said, coach — like Kellan [Grady] and all these kids, they loved it last year. They had a ball, and Oscar said, I had more fun playing basketball than I’ve had, like ever. And I got better. And so he says, you know, unfinished business is the one thing he said. He said, You know, I gotta pray to God and I’ve got to be — the kids authentic now. Just authentic. And so I knew what he was saying. I said, when you pray, you can’t say, God, please influence me to leave. That’s not a good prayer. You can’t say it that way. And so when he hit me back, he said, I asked God, why did I win every award and do all that I did, and not be a lottery pick? And he said, the answer I got back was because you have unfinished business. Could you imagine?

I mean, he talked to his mother and he just said — now, there were people in his ear trying to get him to leave anyway, up until the end, until he sat in that chair to say, I’m doing this [on SportsCenter]. He did a video, according to our people, the week before that said ‘I’m coming back’ and then another video that said ‘I’m leaving’ in case he changed his mind. So yeah, anybody that said it was this — it was him saying, I want to come back win a championship. And I want to come back and be a lottery pick. And I said, I like those two things. Let’s go for it.

On Oscar’s Player of the Year award tour

When you’re in his company, the phone calls and the texts he gets are nonstop. When I was in LA with him, I was only together with him the night of the award [show]. Like, you know, TJ [Beisner] and Deb [Moore] were with them, but I was not. I was not with them. We went to St. Louis together. And so I was on the plane with them but it was on the plane. He slept. And we did the award and we got back on the plane and came back.

When these kids go through these situations, I don’t want to be the one telling them exactly what to do. I just like to give them the information. You know, ‘Don’t be fooled by this.’ If the NBA — I’ll give you the numbers. Thirty NBA GMs evaluate the players that put their names in. The NBA gives you the information. Whatever it says, they’re 97% correct. So when someone says, ‘Yeah, I don’t care what that thing says, you’re going to be the 20th pick of the draft.’ It’s not true.

You guys both played professionally. In the NBA if you’re a second-round draft pick, 85% aren’t making it. The second thing is the average length of a career of a second-rounder is 100 games. So the point is, go in that league when you can get yourself in the first round. And the better the positioning, you get a better chance of playing and doing stuff if you’re picked early in the draft. You’re picked late, you better be lucky like Tyrese [Maxey] and Immanuel [Quickley], where they should have taken you 12th or 11th or 10th or 9th and you go 20th. You look at those two — but again, our kids, they go in that league when they’re ready, they’re ready to fight and ready to play and all I can tell you is this kid is so authentic, Oscar. In LA, he gave his talk, there were ladies crying. I mean, he’s just so authentic, that you know, his faith, as a teammate, as who he is, what he stands for, it’s just authentic. And I know that you know, the people are loving it.

And it’s been hard because he’s an F-1 visa student, which is a student visa. So this name, image, and likeness (NIL) has been hard. We’ve worked hard to figure out, you know, how do we do anything? Because he can’t work. It’s got to be passive. And so that’s been ongoing and you know, that his reason for coming back, he already said it but you know it’s us trying to do right by all these kids and what we’re doing. Yet, make it about basketball.

On next year’s roster

Well, we have a couple of players that we brought in. We have our freshmen, our returning players, I feel really good about what it is, especially like you said, you have a building block with Oscar. You know, let me say this. I know people — and most of this stuff is a small group — but they were on Sahvir because of that last game. Do you remember Sahvir against North Carolina and against Kansas, how he played? He had a hell of a year until he got injured. And then he gained some weight, he didn’t play as well. But he’s still that guy and I told him, ‘If I can get you right, and get you steady and who you are and keep improving — because he’s improved — I said, ‘You’re the difference in this stuff.’

But people forgot about CJ [Fredrick]. Like you forget CJ is going to be like Kellan [Grady] last year. And again, I don’t know — if it were one of your children or anybody listening it’s their children, I don’t go publicly talk about kids’ injuries and I’m not worried about gambling and I’m not talking about that stuff. He went on, he had plantar fasciitis, which he was able to deal with. You know, when it really kicked in? When we had the injuries [to TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler] and he had to play 40 minutes a game for three games. He never really recovered from it.

With Sahvir and CJ and Cason [Wallace] and Chris [Livingston] and Jacob and you know the guys that we have, I think, Daimion [Collins], when you talk to Lance [Ware] and Oscar. Wow. You know, we bring in somebody, he’s got to be that guy. He’s got to be one of us. We’ve got great teammates. I mean, I love coaching that team last year. Loved it. And you know what? It makes it all worth it for the players too.

On finding the right players in the transfer portal

Yeah, it is [hard] because what these kids are hearing is, you come in here scoring 25 a game, you’re gonna play every minute, I’m starting from day one, you don’t worry, we’ll build around you. And you come here and it’s, you know, like, this is all of us together in this. Yet, the players that score the basketball will shoot the most. It’s just how it is. If you’re a great shooter, you’re going to shoot more than the guy that’s not a great shooter. It’s pretty simple. Will you start? Well, I’ve started almost 40 freshmen since I’ve been here. Started when guys walk in their first year, I’ve done that. So if you want to start, go start. Take it. But that’s not the message they hear.

I just don’t want to start a relationship on a lie. I don’t want them to think this is easy. It’s hard. If things don’t go right. We have an unbelievably strong fanbase everywhere in this country. But when things don’t go right, sometimes they get mad. You got to be able to deal with stuff. I mean, as a coach, you can’t let a small portion of people sway how you feel about coaching in Kentucky, how you feel about playing at Kentucky. And sometimes people are leading the band to try to drum it up.

But at the end of the day, you know, it’s funny. I’m getting grabbed by people everywhere, like, stop. We love you. I mean, the other thing is, it brings out the best in our fans, knowing what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. How we’ve been about winning, winning championships, how we’ve been about kids. And now, you walk in here as a transfer, it can’t be, I’m just worried about what happens for me. It’s got to be like Kellan [Grady]. It’s got to be like Oscar [Tshiebwe]. When you think about some of the kids that have come here, they fit what we’re about.

On Shaedon Sharpe’s future

Well, he was in class today. And part of the reason I was a little late getting on (the show), I hadn’t seen him in about a week, so I just wanted to — he walked in and said hello. I said, ‘Get in here,’ and we talked. Here’s what I’ll tell everybody: nothing has changed in the last two months about how we’re going about this. I’m talking to his mother and father. And we’re talking once a week, I’m not overbearing with this stuff, but they will play a part in this.

What changed is, he was coming back, that was the plan. Then all of a sudden some circumstances changed and maybe he can be picked in those early, early picks. Maybe he can’t. He signed up for classes, both summer and fall. He put his stuff from his room in the basement of the Lodge because you can’t keep it in there (during the offseason). Kids that are coming back just put it down there, he put his stuff down there. We don’t know.

First of all, would you two expect me to talk about what I’m talking to his parents about, or him? No. Why would people say, he should be telling us what’s being said? What? We’re talking in private. All I can tell you is he may do this, but it’s not done. Now if you were him and everybody got nasty, like my calls now — don’t let that small group affect you making the decision you want to make. I had to call his mom, you know? Another thing, he’s another Canadian kid. We’ve done well with Canadians, right? Wouldn’t you say? I don’t want this to affect any other Canadian kids. I mean, again, our fans are the best. I look at this and they know, like let’s not hurt recruiting. Let’s not hurt it.

I mean, you get angry, I moved on from that (St. Peter’s) game. Did I grieve? What? Did I think it hurt? What? I’ve never had a team do that in my career. We’ve never been in that where we lost to a double seed, but I’m done with it. It’s next. How do we win next year? Winning championships, I said when I was hired that’s the only thing we put on this wall in here. That’s it. For anyone to say anything else, that my team or me, my staff, we don’t care about winning, you’ve got a problem with something else. One-and-done, whatever else it is.

But to say that, anybody that knows me, the preparation and what this is, it’s crazy. I get it, when people get mad they say stuff. And that’s fine. Part of the tax you pay to be the Kentucky coach is that right there. And you know what? People don’t have access to this program. They don’t. What happens is, guys get angry. All I can tell you is, we’re on top of stuff.

My hope is, what went on — and I didn’t even know because we were in Dawson Springs. We were down there. I didn’t see all the stuff that was being written, Orlando (Antigua) called me last night. I went to Jeff Ruby’s and had a meal with some friends who are in town for the Keeneland stuff and he said, ‘Yeah, the stuff with Shaedon…’ I’m like what? I didn’t even know. So I called mom this morning just to make sure we’re on top of stuff. I’m telling you he may do this. If he’s the fifth or sixth pick and it’s a guarantee, what will I tell him to do? [Go.] Why would you be mad? I did this with Hami (Diallo). He was going to be a second-round pick. What did I tell him? Come back. Not only did I tell him to come back, he says that was the best decision he’s ever made. I went to the workouts with him to make sure no one fooled him. I’ve done this.

You know what? Shaedon knows I want to coach him. Shaedon knows that Oscar (Tshiebwe) is coming back. Don’t let all of the negative stuff affect your decision. If you want to come back, that should play no part. Let that alone. He’s another great kid. He’s a great kid, man. You want him to be more ‘go’ and all that, but he is who he is. Very talented, great teammate.

On visiting Dawson Springs

Dawson Springs was one of the — their coach Mickey Blue, when we went down the first time [in December] and we went and gave shoes out and met people and heard their stories, Mickey was there. He and his team sent me good-luck videos before every game we played from that game on. When their season was over, he said, would you come down and do our banquet? I said, give me a date. How many people? He said, we’re going to do it at my house. Probably have 12 people, which I was fine with. It was fine. And I said, alright. Give me a date.

So when he came up with a date that he calls me and said, the school wants to know if you’ll speak to the whole student body. I said, I will but if I’m going to do that, I’m gonna bring some of my guys. Sahvir had to leave town yesterday. Shaedon was doing academic work, so those two did not go, but everybody else went. I’m going to tell you, the experience for them and us, what it meant, you could just see it. You could feel what it meant there. We also drove around and saw the devastation where whole communities were wiped out. You see the base of the home, but it was total devastation.

We can’t forget, our government or state government, FEMA, the private sector, charitable, we cannot forget because it’s not that many people. 10,000 people. We can’t go in and rebuild in two, three years, and let’s just go? It’s not 400,000 people. The other thing we did was Samaritan’s Feet, which is, we give away shoes, but we also wash the feet of the students. One young man said, this is the first new pair of shoes I’ve ever gotten. Wow. I mean our guys were touched by this. Like, you’re taking off socks and shoes and you’re seeing, like wow, they need some new stuff here. And there were 30 kids that went through it and my guys walked away like, Coach, wow.

And that community, it’s a lot of poverty. A lot of poverty. And so for us and these guys to go down there and do that — I come back to, none of us should forget. We’ve done things for Haiti and Superstorm Sandy and Houston. This is Kentucky. Our football team, basketball team, all the teams, the coaches, raise money Kelly Craft helped me get matching dollars, and all of a sudden we raised $5.5 million. Well, guess what? We gotta keep going. Whether we do something again next year. For them. We can’t forget. These are our people from our state, from our Commonwealth.

So it was a ball and I’m so happy we did it. But it’s the impact you can have here if you’re not just sitting behind a desk. If you’re not just worried about what everybody’s saying. This is an opportunity here, being at Kentucky. You’re sitting in a seat that can do good. Do you do good? Or do you just sit there and watch tape. I’m hoping when my time has gone, people can look back and not just be about all the winning and all the Final Fours and hopefully more than one national title and all the other stuff, that they say more than that. That program helped everybody within the Commonwealth. So, but it was a good time.

Closing remarks

You guys, like I said, you’re former players here. You know — you both coached. You know Xs and Os and strategy and you’re in my practices knowing what we’re doing to prepare. Like, this is your program. This is as much your program as anybody else’s. You two helped build this thing. Obviously Coach Rupp for 40 years, Coach Hall for his time, and all the other coaches that coached here, but this is about you two and what you did and what this program did for you. It’s still helping you. Still helping you.