First Exhibition Another Learning Opportunity for Cal, Cats
Think back to childhood. Remember opening the box of a 1,000-piece puzzle, looking at the beautiful picture on the front of the box and wondering how all those pieces are going to fit together?
That’s kind of how John Calipari feels right now.
“This team is a post-up team, it’s got some length, I think we can pressure, looks like we can shoot it pretty good,” Coach Cal said after the Blue-White Game on Sunday. “Now we’re just going to have to figure out and really put some groups of guys out there and get some sort of rotation where everybody’s comfortable playing.”
That’s why they pay him the big bucks – that and the fact that he was able to assemble all those puzzle pieces in the first place. The challenge before Calipari begins in earnest on Friday night at 7 p.m., as Kentucky – second in both major preseason polls – will host Transylvania for its first exhibition game.
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| Kentucky vs. Transylvania | ||
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Fri., Oct. 26 – 7 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: SEC Network |
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| UK | 2017-18 Team Stats | TU |
| 26-11 | Record | 17-9 |
| 10-8 | Conference Record | 12-6 |
| 76.8 | PPG | 82.1 |
| 70.2 | Opp PPG | 77.7 |
| .472 | FG% | .493 |
| .404 | Opp FG% | .461 |
| 38.6 | RPG | 35.3 |
| .357 | 3PT FG% | .348 |
| .301 | Opp 3PT FG% | .365 |
| .698 | FT% | .710 |
| 13.2 | APG | 16.7 |
| 5.6 | SPG | 7.0 |
| 4.8 | BPG | 4.3 |
“When you look at this, we probably have nine guys that could start,” Calipari said on Thursday. “What I’m looking for is some separation and when the game starts. Some guys have got to.”
That’s the reason why Calipari has switched up his approach to practice. Not wanting to peak too early, Calipari pulled back on the reins by limiting how much the Wildcats were scrimmaging. With the start of the regular season now less than two weeks away, the gloves are off.
“We’re spending about an hour on warmups and the defensive stuff that we have to continue on and then an hour in scrimmaging,” Calipari said. “During that hour, I’m rotating like in a game. ‘You three in.’ OK, let’s play with that team. ‘OK, you two go in.’ Let’s play with that team a little bit. ‘You four go in.’ Let’s play with that team a little bit.”
One combination that has already caught Calipari’s eye is a frontcourt with his three veteran bigs: PJ Washington, Reid Travis and Nick Richards. With how well the three are playing and how well they played together in the second half of the Blue-White Game, he’s going to have to use them.
“Probably there’s got to be a point in the game – a certain number of minutes – that those three have to play together,” Calipari said. ” ‘Figure it out, Coach.’ Then I have to figure out how I do that. We’re just working through.”
As Calipari tinkers, the Cats are going with the flow.
“We all try not to look at the playing time,” guard Ashton Hagans said. “We just try to go out there, the teams Cal put together at practice, we just go out there and try to compete. We’re all going to try to fight for the starting spot when that time comes. But for right now, we’re just out there competing.”
Hagans often finds himself competing with Immanuel Quickley, the other freshman bidding to start at point guard. That’s just one such matchup, which might prompt some concern over the Cats coexisting. This story serves to ease that worry.
“We had a player that’s competing against another guy,” Calipari said. “He got up early to go to the gym and he went and knocked on the kid’s door and said, ‘Come with me. Why don’t you come on over?’ That’s where we’re trying to go with all this.”
It’s no wonder, then, that in spite of the enormity of the task before him, Calipari is so excited by the opportunity to tackle it.
“I’ve really enjoyed this because they just – ‘Tell us how you want us to play,’ ” Calipari said. “They come every day and they’re trying. They’re showing us stuff every day that they can do. They’re learning and growing.”
Now, they get to start doing that against players not wearing Kentucky Blue and White.
“Starting with us, we’re just really excited to play against somebody else,” Quickley said. “We’ve been going at each other in practice every single day, so going against somebody else is going to be really exciting. Cal’s really excited about this team. He feels we’re going to be good this year.”
UK-Transylvania to Honor the Late C.M. Newton
C.M. Newton, a national championship player at Kentucky, former UK athletics director and former Transylvania head coach, will be honored prior to Friday’s game. Newton died in June at the age of 88.
Newton was a college athletics giant.
His collegiate career began at Kentucky, where he was a basketball forward and baseball pitcher from 1948-51. He was a letterman on Coach Adolph Rupp’s 1951 national champion basketball team and eventually went on to pitch in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees.
Newton served as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force before going into coaching. He was head basketball coach at Transylvania, Alabama and Vanderbilt, winning more than 500 games and several championships while receiving numerous coach of the year honors.
Newton served as athletics director at UK from 1989-2000. His term as AD was marked by the addition of three sports – men’s and women’s soccer and softball – expansion of facilities and growth in revenues in response to the increasing financial pressures of college athletics.
Arriving at UK during a troubled time for the men’s basketball team, Newton’s hiring of Rick Pitino rejuvenated the program, eventually leading to a national championship in 1996 and then another NCAA title in 1998 under Orlando “Tubby” Smith. Newton’s hiring of Smith and Bernadette Mattox marked the first two African-American head coaches for UK men’s and women’s basketball.
Over the years, Newton became known as a pioneer of racial integration. In addition to the hiring of Smith and Mattox at UK, Newton also recruited the first African-American basketball players at Transylvania and Alabama.
Newton received numerous accolades over the years. In addition to being named SEC Coach of the Year in 1972, ’76, ’78, ’88 and ’89, and NACDA Athletic Director of the Year in 1999, Newton was given the Naismith Award by the Atlanta Tipoff Club for his contributions to basketball; the John Bunn Award by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for his contributions to the game; and finally, was an inductee to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
Newton is also a member of the National Association of College Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame, the College Basketball Hall of Fame, the (state of) Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, the Transylvania Athletics Hall of Fame, the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame, the UK College of Education Hall of Fame and the Ft. Lauderdale Sports Hall of Fame.
Kentucky Picked to Win 49th SEC Title
With a mix of seasoned veterans and another crop of talented newcomers, Kentucky will once again be the hunted. Of course that’s the same mantra every season, but a select panel of media confirmed the standard for 2018-19 when it voted the Wildcats to win their sixth regular-season title under 10th-year head coach John Calipari.
Should Kentucky achieve the feat, it would mark the program’s 49th overall regular-season title.
It’s the 14th time since the 1998-99 season the Wildcats are the overall preseason favorite. Calipari has directed his teams to regular-season SEC crowns in 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Kentucky has claimed the SEC Tournament title in each of the last four seasons and six in all, winning in 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Each school selected media members that cover their team and additional media from across the nation were selected by the conference office to comprise the voting panel. Points were compiled on a 14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Each media member also voted for two All-SEC teams.
Travis, Washington Tabbed Preseason All-SEC by Media
In a league as talented as it’s ever been, Reid Travis and PJ Washington were tabbed preseason All-Southeastern Conference picks by the league’s media.
Travis was picked to the first team while PJ Washington was tabbed to the second team. Both players, along with Keldon Johnson, received at least one vote for the preseason pick for SEC Player of the Year.
Travis is joined by Arkansas’ Daniel Gafford, LSU’s Tremont Waters, South Carolina’s Chris Silva and Tennessee’s Grant Williams. Williams was the choice of the media for the preseason player of the year. Joining Washington on the second team were Auburn’s Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, Florida’s Jalen Hudson, Mississippi State’s Quinndary Weatherspoon, Missouri’s Jontay Porter and Tennessee’s Admiral Schofield.
