John Calipari is juggling a busy schedule between coaching the Dominican Republic National Team, getting to know a new bunch of Wildcats in limited practice time, working camps and recruiting, so he hasn’t had an official media opportunity in a while. However, he’s still finding ways to keep the Big Blue Nation updated.This week, Coach Cal spent some time on the phone with Andy Katz from ESPN.com, leading to this note about next year’s UK team in Katz’s 3-point shot on the College Basketball Nation Blog:
Kentucky coach John Calipari took a brief break from coaching the Dominican National team to come home to Lexington and work out with his newcomers under the new NCAA rule allowing summer workouts if players are in school. It might as well be spring training for Calipari. He’s giddy about what is ahead despite returning only one player who contributed significant minutes in Kyle Wiltjer. The latest player to raise Calipari’s expectations is the least heralded of the four freshmen — 6-10 center Willie Cauley. “He’s so skilled, real skilled,” Calipari said Wednesday night. “I was stunned how good he was.” Calipari is already considering playing Cauley, as well has heralded 6-10 recruit Nerlens Noel together on a frontline with 6-7 Alex Poythress rotating in, as well. “Noel is so good he could guard a three man, too,” Calipari said. Kentucky has had four workouts so far with the team.
That’s all encouraging stuff, particularly for the front court. With Cauley-Stein emerging as a potential sleeper along with stud freshmen Noel and Poythress and returner Wiltjer, UK’s forwards could be a strength of the team. By the way, only at Kentucky can a four-star prospect ranked in the top 40 in his class be considered a “sleeper.”Cal’s comments to Katz follow a series of tweets from last weekend about early team workouts that we have not yet mentioned about here on the blog:
While @UKCoachO is coaching @WeAreTeamDR in Puerto Rico, I stayed in Lexington to have 2 practices with my UK team both Sat & Sun.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) June 17, 2012
I was very impressed on how much we improved on day 2 after teaching a little of the DDM to the new guys. Our returning guys looked good.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) June 17, 2012
Still missing 3 guys. @AlexTheGreat22 & @A1Laflare10 were really good. People are sleeping on @WCS15timefor9, he’s a talented big man.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) June 17, 2012
