Part 1 with CalQuestion: The new president of the NCAA says he wants the NBA to consider the baseball rule (that you cannot sign in the pros for three years once you sign with a school). Any hopes of that happening with basketball?John Calipari: I hope so. It’s what I’ve been saying for years. And I think the other thing is I think they should give these kids loans. I think the insurance that these kids get – there should be something that encourages them to finish. If they finish, the loan goes away. How about that one? So you take a loan out for your insurance. If you finish your degree, that loan goes away. And we will give you X amount of years to finish your degree. A player that gets that loan for his insurance, why not let him take a loan against future earnings? Not that much, maybe $5,000 or $10,000. What’s the issue with that? And then, I’ll say it again, these billions of dollars – I’m not talking that much money because you’re not talking a hundred kids a year. You’re going to end up talking 20 or 30, that’s it. It now starts to move away from this agent issue that has been around. I had to deal with it with Marcus Camby, which is exactly what just happened at South Carolina and Florida and Alabama. It’s no different. It’s exactly the same. We did some things that we’re going to talk about. We had a committee together that interviewed the agents before they could talk to our players. That was in 1995. It didn’t help, but we did it. The guy that headed it up is one of the most well-known sports management guys in the country. The question becomes, how do you start separating that? Well, you encourage these kids that you’ll have a chance to do this on your own. You don’t need that. Again, my humble opinion.Question: How much did the Canada trip help Brandon Knight?Calipari: You know what was great about it? He was scared to death, nervous as heck, which is like a John Wall and all these kids, and it’s going to be that way the beginning of next year. And then we’re going to end up getting into a meat grinder five games in. You remember last year how shaky we were early in the year? We were shaky at best. And if a team got hot we were really shaky. Well, it’s going to be the same except the schedule is going to be better. And we’re going to be on the road trying to deal with it. That’s how it is. But what he did up there kind of gave us an indication of how we’re going to have to play and what we’re going to have to do, and that was the greatest thing about the trip. It’s what I learned about guys and where they should be playing. Some guys are not where they need to be if they really want to play. And then we were able to do it with five guards at times, which was good. We were able to probably get more of the dribble-drive in during that time than I did for half a year last year. Question: What did you learn about him up there?Calipari: He’s fast. There’s things he has got to add to his game. He delivers the ball better than guys I’ve had. Twenty-five assists and four turnovers, whatever it was, is ridiculous. That’s not a number. It’s not supposed to be that. It’s usually 3-to-1, not a 5-to-1 or a 6-to-1. It’s not supposed to be that way. Again, you may say competition, but one team had a 6-9 guy that wasn’t bad and they had quick guards. It was low Division I is what it was. It wasn’t Division III, which is what I was hoping for.Question: In the practices we saw, Terrence Jones obviously wasn’t healthy because of the ankle and rib. What will we see from a healthy Terrence Jones in this system?Calipari: I told him and I told his mother the same thing. The disappointing thing for me is I didn’t get to really get on him to get him to elevate and understand the culture of how you’re going to practice and what you’re going to do. It went from the ankle, when he shouldn’t have been practicing, to the shoulder, which we find out later (he) shouldn’t have been practicing but we did anyway, which tells me he is a little bit mentally and physically tougher than I thought. For us to be any good, he is going to have to contribute. We’re not going to be as physically imposing. I don’t think we can be athletic as we were. Yet, we’re going to have good size. We’re going to have good players. But we just have to be a little different team. We’re not trying to be last year’s team. Maybe more dribble drive, maybe more of an execution team than last year. Last year, at times, we would just bull you over. We could screw up 12 different ways and still score the ball. Well, this team is not going to be able to do that. The one thing is, when you have coached as long as I have – I have had all kind of different teams. When you look at the run from Memphis to here, we had three guys, I believe, (leave). Rodney Carney, Shawn Williams and that crew, Darius (Washington), they all left. Then we have another team with Willie Kemp and those guys. And then we bring in Derrick Rose, which totally changed those guys, so then we were another team. And then they all leave and we have Tyreke (Evans) and a couple (of other guys). You see what I’m saying? They’re all different. And then we came here and they’re totally different. This year they’re totally different, but we have talented guys, we do.Question: Is Jones a versatile all-over-the court guy?Calipari: He doesn’t shoot it as well as a Darius Miller. I think what we’ve found out with Darius is I’m going to keep him behind the ball instead of in front of the ball. I’m going to keep him like he’s a second point guard, which is what I did with Antonio Anderson. And then I’m probably going to put the other guys up the floor that way. USA Basketball is playing like we play. Now, they’re not going to give us credit that way, but they are playing like we play. They’re flying that fifth guy, which is what we try to do there, bringing him out. So now you’ve got all five out. We’re trying to figure out ways to have all five out. You can play with all guards, you can play all forwards – it doesn’t matter. You take who you have and say, ‘OK, here is how we’re playing with this group.’

Question: As long as the skill level is there, though, right?Calipari: You’re developing it. Patrick Patterson, what did you think about me moving him on the floor? You had to develop him out there because he played under the basket. Eric Bledsoe couldn’t bounce it left handed. John was out of control (and) wanted everything to go right. You have to develop things in them. ‘Well, they came in with those skills.’ No, it’s not true. ‘He just rolls out the ball and says dribble-drive.’ Well, you guys got to watch us teach a little bit and now you’re saying, ‘No, that’s not what I’m seeing.’ But again, if you’re playing against us or recruiting against us, what are you going to say? When you get beat you’ll say anything.