"Competitive," "Unselfish": Wildcats weigh in on Summer Practices

We get to see the Kentucky Basketball team in action next week at the GLOBL Jam in Toronto. With an almost entirely new roster now set, the Cats have been hard at work in the gym learning about John Calipari’s system and one another.

What have those practices been like? We’ve seen some snippets of footage on social media, but this week, we got to hear about them from the Cats themselves. The reviews were glowing, with the words “competitive,” “unselfish,” and “special” coming up repeatedly. Even though the freshman class is stacked with five stars, the players said there are no egos and everyone is putting in extra work toward a common goal: winning.

Here’s what each Wildcat said about practices thus far, along with some footage from inside the Joe Craft Center.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Reed Sheppard

“We’re going to come out and give it everything we’ve got and I think we have a really special group. We’re connecting really well on and off the court. We love to compete and we love to have fun with each other. Practices have been unbelievable, playing and competing against each other and I think it’s going to be a really special group.”

Adou Thiero

“Everybody’s unselfish. If someone is open, you hear, ‘One more’ and you give it to them. If you see them open, you just get them the ball. Like [someone], he would rather make two people happy than one person if he scores so I think this team is very unselfish.”

On the freshmen: “They compete. They always want to win. We’re in practice playing 5-on-5 and the score is going on the board, everyone’s getting mad, someone gets scored on, someone’s getting mad. Like, ‘Guard your man!’ There’s a lot of competing in there.”

DJ Wagner

“It’s been fun. Very competitive but it’s been very fun and we’ve definitely been learning a lot. Just small things Coach has been showing us, but it’s been competitive for sure.”

“We’re a very competitive team so at practice, we all like to compete against each other and make each other better every day. So it’s definitely been some competitive practices.”

Justin Edwards

“I’m really excited because I’m really confident with our squad this year. I feel like we can accomplish a lot of big things that people think we can’t do so I just want to go out there and show people that we’re ready for it.”

“Just based on how practices are going. We’re all competing and we all want to win as a whole. Nobody’s trying to be selfish.”

“Really competitive. We’ve been playing 5-on-5 the last couple of days and just been talking trash to each other, you know.”

Sign up for the KSR Newsletter to get breaking news and daily headlines delivered directly to your inbox.

Jordan Burks

“It’s a lot going [on]. Like Cal said, you’ve got to move your feet but you’ve got to let your brain — you’ve got to see it and be moving fast. You’ve got to see everything and lock in on the plays, make sure you’re running as hard as you can.”

“You’ve just got to work hard and get through it. You’ve got to stack the days. You’re going to have good days. You’re going to have bad days. You just can’t ever be low. You’ve got to have high mental, and that’s what Cal works on and I really appreciate him for that because it gets you ready for the next level.”

“I like all the older kids, the older players. They’re just helping and guiding and being like floor generals on the court because I’m playing multiple positions so Ugonna is helping me play down low and I’ve got Antonio on my team, he’s helping me. The dudes on my team are helping me. It’s positionless basketball, keeping you mentally stable. With everything, they’re just like your crutches. I’m just glad to have them on my team.”

Ugonna Onyenso

“It’s been really amazing playing with the freshmen. Obviously, there’s a lot of talent and it’s really showing in the way they play. The team chemistry we’ve got, it’s really amazing. How hard we practice because everyone wants to be in the gym so it’s really amazing to see everyone coming together. We’re playing like we’ve been practicing or playing for over a year now. I feel like with this group of guys and the way we’re playing and how hard they want to play, I think we can make a really good run this coming season.”

On the freshmen: “They’re really competitive. They really want to go hard on everything. Even in workouts. That’s how good they want to be, how hard they really want to work or how hard they want to go, every possession they have, even in workouts, it’s really amazing.”

On the freshman backcourt: “It’s really been amazing, playing with guys that find the big, a guy that really wants to play with his fellow teammates. It’s really amazing playing with them because once you’re open, they give you the ball. That’s one good thing about playing with these guys. If you’re open, you’re getting the ball for sure.”

Antonio Reeves

“I feel like all the freshmen, they work, they compete at the highest level and all have been impressive. Me, coming in personally, I didn’t believe [the hype], you know, I’ve got to see for myself, stuff like that, but when I came in here, everybody was working. Everybody even had their own role that they have starred in so everybody definitely blew my mind when I came back.”

“These guys are competitive. They work really hard and you can just tell on the floor how better they’re getting each and every day…They’re gelling together so fast, that’s what it’s all about, being brothers out there and looking out for each other. I feel like just the maturity they’re gaining each and every day is fast so it’s definitely working out.”

Find out the news as it happens. Text KSR to 41372 to have Breaking News Alerts sent directly to your phone.

Joey Hart

“We get better every day and practices are really competitive and there’s just a lot of talent on the team I think.”

“There’s a highlight reel play every practice. Just a lot of talent out there.”

Tre Mitchell

“We’ve been doing a lot of competing. It’s been a lot of competing. Dudes are hungry, dudes want to get after it every single day and it shows in the way that we play. Dudes are diving on the floor, dudes are going after balls but at the same time, I think we move the ball very well.”

“There are dudes willing to give up a good shot for a great shot and I don’t think there’s really any selfishness out there on the court even though there are dudes that are just got here and just learned each other’s games and are still learning each other’s games, I think we’re on a trajectory to do something great.”

On the freshmen’s unselfishness: “Honestly, I think it just comes naturally. I think dudes notice each other’s talent and when you’re out there playing, it’s okay, this is a good shot but there’s a dude that is a great player next to me that’s wide open so I’m going to give it up and let him shoot it.”

“With these guys and this talent, we have a lot of dudes that can do a lot of things. There’s not anybody on the team that is solely capable of doing one thing. Dudes are very versatile and I think you’re going to see a lot of different lineups out there because we have the depth and we have the ability to do it.”

“I would say the way that these dudes compete has surprised me a little bit. I didn’t know what I was walking into but once I got here and I got to be part of practice and you feel the edge and you feel dudes competing, it’s okay, I can get behind this and I can add to this.”

On his first impressions of the freshmen before coming to UK: “They play fast and they play together. You can tell, every time we’re out there they go hard and they get after it so it’s like, how could you not want to be a part of people that you can see them pushing themselves during games and on top of that, if they’re willing to go that hard during the games, then what are they doing during practice? It’s something I was excited to be a part of.”

Rob Dillingham

On what has surprised him so far: “Definitely just our team. All the players, how everyone meshes together. Everyone expects us to clash because we’ve got so much talent and I feel like everyone has the same goal, we want to win and we’re all meshing together very well to all be stars from our schools and meeting new players.”

On the unselfishness in practice: “That’s what Coach Cal preaches. If there’s a better shot and you yell ‘One more,’ you better throw the ball. Honestly, we’ve been learning from each other, we all have different friendships off the court and we all love each other. We all want to win and we’ve got one goal.”

On finally facing other competition next week: “We’re definitely chomping at it because we’ve been playing each other every day. We’re competitive. Every time Coach Cal tries to stop it, we tell him we want to keep playing. It’s definitely competitive and we all love playing together so we want to play against other teams finally.”

“Because we’ve got a lot of talent and really, just everyone being able to mesh together because you wouldn’t think all of our players would be able to mesh because we have so much talent and everyone comes from a different school where they were the main player. So really, just everyone having the same goal, it’s really surprising because we all want to win and we all have the same goal. We definitely mesh perfectly.”

“Every day, we literally play 5-on-5 after we run out of all the plays and stuff. So it’s just like, even after the 5-on-5 is finished, we tell Coach Cal we want to keep going because we want to keep playing and just get ready for the games and everyone wants to get better. So it’s definitely competitive every day.”

“[Practices are] really great because we all like each other. We don’t really care who’s gonna be the one. Everyone’s gonna have a good game sometimes. We all came from being the best players at our school so it’s just great because I feel like we all love each other and we all want to just win and we’ve all got the same goal.”

Got thoughts? Subscribe to KSR+ to continue the conversation on KSBoard, the KSR+ Message Board.