What John Calipari said during his radio show on Wednesday night

On Wednesday evening, the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach, was joined by John Calipari for the Kentucky men’s basketball head coach’s weekly radio show appearance. Coming off a 75-66 win over Ole Miss the night before, the team didn’t arrive back in Lexington until earlier this afternoon after icy weather conditions kept everyone in Oxford for an extra night (which Calipari actually said he enjoyed and might continue to do moving forward on late-night road trips — he says he likes the extra time to rest before traveling back home).

Calipari gave us about 45 minutes with Leach during Wednesday night’s show to talk about the victory against the Rebels, provide some minor injury updates, and what’s to come against Florida this weekend. What all did he have to say? Let’s find out together.

Side note: today is his father’s birthday, as Vince Calipari turned 90 years old. So happy birthday to Papa Cal.

Cason Wallace’s status for Florida unknown

Roughly an hour prior to tipoff against Ole Miss, starting point guard Cason Wallace was ruled out with what Calipari is labeling a “knee contusion”. As the head coach describes it, Wallace actually suffered the initial injury during Kentucky’s loss to Kansas over the weekend. Despite that, he fought through it and was going through his regular gameday routine on Tuesday. But during that afternoon shootaround, Wallace “stepped funny” and he was ruled out from there.

“We did not know until really game time that Cason wasn’t gonna go,” Calipari said.

So what’s Wallace’s status for this Saturday’s game against Florida? As of right now, it’s still up in the air.

“I don’t know,” Calipari added. “(Wallace) went and got checked out. He banged knees and so it’s painful but there’s no structural (damage), that’s all good. But we’ll see.”

Antonio Reeves “may” move into starting lineup

After Antonio Reeves played his best game as a Kentucky Wildcat against Ole Miss — 27 points on 8-12 shooting, including a 6-7 clip from beyond the arc — the conversation revolving around whether or not he should move into the starting lineup has sparked quite a bit. While he serves Kentucky extremely well off the bench as a “sixth” starter, he’s typically checking into games with the ‘Cats facing an early deficit.

Leach asked Calipari what his thoughts on potentially moving Reeves into the starting lineup might be, to which the head coach didn’t provide a clear answer. Calipari says there’s a chance Reeves is bumped into the first five, but only if something happens to someone playing in front of him.

“He’s gonna play the same minutes whether I start him or not, and part of this is you’re coaching to make sure you keep building everybody else up,” Calipari said. “If I take a guy out of the lineup — like we need CJ (Fredrick) and Chris (Livingston) is coming along just like we want him to. Why screw that up? It’s not hurt Antonio. Shoot he may have Sixth Man of the Year in the country the way he’s playing. But yeah I may start him, we could. But it would have to be something, some injury, something happened.”

Calipari hints at DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw visits

During Kentucky’s upcoming matchup against Florida, the program plans to honor former Wildcat Mike Pratt with a long overdue ceremony. Pratt, who passed away back in June at the age of 73 following a three-year battle with cancer, will have his jersey retired as a player, coach, and analyst.

“He was a great player in his own right,” Calipari said of Pratt. “I mean he wasn’t like ‘oh he’s a nice player.’ No, no. He was a terrific player.”

Pratt spent two decades serving as Kentucky basketball’s color analyst for the UK Sports Network alongside Leach. Before then, the Dayton, OH native played for the Wildcats from 1967-70 and led the team to an overall record of 71-12 and 48-6 in the SEC. He finished his career scoring 1,359 points, good for 26th in program history, while also earning All-SEC honors as a junior and senior, along with All-America honors his final season in Lexington.

He’s a certified Kentucky basketball legend, and it’s about time he receives his flowers from the Big Blue Nation.

But that won’t be the only reason for fans to make the trip to Rupp Arena on Saturday. Calipari hinted at the possibility of having some “guests” being introduced during the game, similar to how class of 2023 signees Reed Sheppard and Robert Dillingham were brought onto the hardwood during the loss to Kansas, which prompted a massive ovation from the jam-packed crowd.

The likely guests in question? Two more class of 2023 signees: five-stars DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw. The Camden (NJ) High School teammates will be in Frankfort on Friday for a matchup against Combine Academy out of Lincolnton, NC for a head-to-head battle at Kentucky State University. Expect to see them both make the short drive to Lexington to spend some time around their future program.

“The crowd carried us, it was unbelievable. How about introducing Reed (Sheppard)? How about introducing Robert (Dillingham)?” Calipari said. “We may have a couple of guests get introduced in this game because we have some teams playing in here that some of our guys are gonna be in. That environment is what makes this program what it is.”

Improving the pick-and-roll defense

It’s no secret (and hasn’t been for most of the season) that Kentucky struggles to defend against the pick-and-roll. For all the great Oscar Tshiebwe does on offense, opposing teams are picking on him by putting him in constant ballscreening action. Kansas abused Tshiebwe all game long with this simple tactic — “Oscar was not high enough and wasn’t active with his hands,” Calipari said — but the big man was admittedly a bit better against Ole Miss.

There is still clearly work to be done in that regard, though, and Calipari is working on shoring up that major issue. Part of it is having the guard defending alongside Tshiebwe fighting through screens with more toughness, which Calipari said Sahvir Wheeler did against the Rebels.

“The pick-and-roll defense, It’s two guys,” Calipari said. “It’s two guys. Oscar was never high enough and I demanded it. If you’re not up, I’m taking you out, so get up there. And then you have to retreat and we worked on it for two days. Their pick-and-roll did not hurt us yesterday.

“But the other side is the point guard. Do you know who fought through yesterday? Sahvir. He got through the screen, he didn’t get hit every time where we’re now playing five against four. So it’s a combination of both guys.”

You can hear the entire John Calipari Show from Wednesday night below.