Calipari: 'I'm Feeling Rejuvenated' for 'Second Tour'

Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari recently sat down with a group of reporters for a lengthy Q and A as the Wildcats begin to gear up for the 2019-20 season. Calipari, who agreed to a long-term contract extension with UK in the offseason, is entering what he’s calling his “second tour” of duty in Lexington after winning more games and more NCAA Tournaments games while appearing in more Final Fours, more Elite Eights and more Sweet 16s than any other coach or school over his first decade. 
 
On golfing with President Obama …
“Met a guy (Robert Wolf) that said – we talked, he was a big basketball fan and a big fan of mine and he said, you know, he told me he was friends with President Obama. And I said, ‘Wow, that is something.’ He said, ‘If you ever want to golf with him.’ You don’t – I am shameless. You don’t say that to me. So then I called him when we were in Boston and I said, ‘Is he still in Martha’s Vineyard? Can I see him?’ He calls me and said, ‘Next Friday, the President wants to play with you.’ I went. Now, Robes (John Robic)
 says that I haven’t played golf in 12 years, 18 holes. That’s some BS. But, it has to be five years since I have had my hip replaced and I have not golfed 18 holes. So, now, would you play? I think I have planter fasciitis too in my foot. My hope was we are not walking because I couldn’t have made it 18 holes. I knew it. But, would you have played? Yeah, you play. So, I had my clubs shipped to me. Get me with a pro for three days to see if I can get a swing.” 
 
On the first tee shot …  
“After the first day, he (the golf instructor) said, ‘You’re probably right, let’s put the driver in the bag and let’s just hit the 3-wood to see if you can get it up.’ So, I get there and he looks unbelievable, by the way. He looks like he’s 35 years old. And he’s a good golfer. I’m watching him swing and hit balls and I’m like, ugh. The great thing is the fourth player was worse than me, so I’m good. It would be like you or I were chased by a bear; I’ve just gotta outrun you. So I’m looking at him and the other guy is like a four handicap. So, I am thinking I’m good. If you’re this, I just gotta beat you. The problem is the first hole. I didn’t sleep the night before. It was like the national championship game. I did not sleep. And now I haven’t started breathing yet so I have a little blue tint to me. OK, so we get up to the first tee box, and again, I haven’t played and I get to stand over the ball and I hear a rustling. I was like, what? Again, we had two out in front of us, the Secret Service. They were there. Two behind us. Two beside us. And I later learn we had two in the woods because I hit one and they said, ‘Fore!’ And I am like, ‘Fore? Why are you saying fore?’ And I see a guy scurry out of the woods. So I’m like, what the hell is going on here? But I’m on the first tee and I hear [making rustling sounds] and I look back and there are all these people on the deck and they’re taking video of me taking  this (first tee shot) and I haven’t breathed yet. I haven’t played in five years and I’ve gotta hit this ball. I go back and … [Reporter: You hooked one?] Hell no! Two-twenty down the middle! And they said, the President said, ‘You are not a 20 handicap.’ ‘I will be a 20 handicap.’ Next tee box, what did I do? With no one watching,, no one around me, they could not see, I rolled it off the tee box. It was a grounder and no one saw it though. So, those guys that took the pictures said, ‘This guy can really golf. He must be playing every day.’ “
 
On if he told President Obama they still blame him for that South Carolina loss to ruin the perfect start in 2010 … 
“No. He was good though. Great guy. Great demeanor. I asked him, ‘How in the world? What are you doing? Are your hips not bad? Are your knees not bad?’ And when I looked at him, I had to ask him, ‘How old are you?’ How old do you think he is? He’s 59. I thought he was like 51. He’s 59. I just looked and said, ‘What are you doing?’ But anyway, it was fun. Glad I did it. And if it aggravated anybody that I did it, then very good.” 
 
On playing with President Trump … 
“I may do it next year. This year the summer is over now. But, if I had an opportunity to play with the President – I would like to play with George W. (Bush). I have been with President Clinton. The president I didn’t get to meet that I really wanted to meet was Ronald Reagan. President Regan, I would have loved to spend time with him. I just liked his leadership, his convictions that he wasn’t budging. It wasn’t always right. I think there were things that were not right, but he believed it and he took a nation and he brought people together and he was a leader. He was Republican.” 
 
On if he read Rick Reilly’s book on President Trump …
“No.”
 
On the book saying that golf says a lot about who you are as a person and that how you deal with adversity playing golf is how you’d deal with adversity in life and how President Trump deals with golf …
“I wouldn’t want him to write about my golf. No, don’t do that. They’d say, ‘This rat.’ But anyway.”
 
On Coach Calipari’s mood this time of year …
“Yeah, it’s summer. I haven’t lost a game. I like the team. We’ve got good guards. We have good big men. I wish we had more big men because you never know how things go. But, great group of kids. They want to get better. We practiced the last two days. We are going to practice today before I leave for recruiting tonight. I won’t see them for eight days. We get back that following week. We will have them a couple of days. We do two days of team and then two days of individual.” 
 
On trying to add a fourth big guy pretty deep in the summer …
“Yeah, I thought it was pretty important.”
 
On how comfortable he is with playing small … 
“I am comfortable. Keion (Brooks Jr.) can be a four man at his size and length. And even Kahlil (Whitney) could be a stretch four because physically he is that guy that can fight and guard and do that stuff. But, this is an opportunity for Nick (Richards) and EJ (Montgomery) and Nate (Sestina). Nate is better than I thought he was. He talks. You can tell he’s played. He’s a veteran. He does basketball stuff without saying it. But I would have liked to do that (add more forwards). But I’ll be honest, the best teams I’ve coached, we have played six or seven guys. The best teams I’ve coached. So, if that’s what it ends up being. But, Immanuel (Quickley) is way better. Johnny (Juzang) is better than I thought. Obviously, Ashton (Hagans) and Tyrese (Maxey). I had them together yesterday. Whew, they were good together because either one – it’s kind of like playing with my guards in the past where either one could be the point.” 
 
On if it’s fair to compare Maxey to De’Aaron Fox …
“Different. Totally different. Better shooter, Tyrese is. They are really totally different. One kid is really fast and the other kid is fast but not as fast as him, but he’s a better shooter. One is a quick-twitch kid, which – and I’m not saying that Tyrese isn’t, but not to that level. But he’s more physical. He’ll bang. He’s probably at this point a better defender the De’Aaron was. But De’Aaron’s, whew. Different players.” 
 
On what Maxey’s specific training before he got to Kentucky to prepare him for this stage …
“His dad was a coach. His dad took on the dribble-drive. His dad did more with the dribble-drive than even I did. His son has been trained with the dribble-drive. So when we do that kind of stuff, he does it, but he still plays fast. His mind is too fast yet. Some of the decision making that comes at you fast has to be more a feel that you have done this 1,000 times and he hasn’t. But, his dad teaching him and that being what they have went with. But the kid can really score. I would compare him more to Jamal (Murray). He’s not 6-5 or 6-6. Jamal was a little bit bigger than him, but more like a Jamal who can play both positions. You can put him under the basket and let him play basketball. You can let him have the ball and make basketball plays. He can do both. Jamal played with two other real point guards and they all played together. Obviously didn’t have any effect but a positive one on Jamal. And I would say that it would be the same for Tyrese. There may be times that he’s solely the point guard. There may be times that we need you to score and get off the ball. There’s times that he and Ashton are together. We’ll try all kinds of stuff.” 
 
On Maxey embracing the spotlight … 
“He does but he’s not – I told his father yesterday that at some point he’ll have to do what De’Aaron Fox did, which is take over, at some point. De’Aaron didn’t do it – I can remember calling him into my office in late January and saying, ‘Kid, it’s time. This is your team.’ With Jamal, it was because we had other guys that could be that guy. It was a little bit different. But, this, with he and Ashton, they’re both – the best thing that I like we know when they are on the ball – and most of you don’t listen to me – but the defense starts on the ball. If you cannot guard the ball, you have no defense. If you can really guard the ball, you’re going to have really good defense, especially if you have shot blocking behind it. Now you can really guard the ball. We don’t have to help. Now all the sudden they are coming in and you’re occupying their eyes before they can make a play and you become a pretty good defensive team. This team, we’ve done no defense to this point. None this summer and the practices we’ve had now, we have done no defense. But, this team should be a good defensive team.”
 
On being a good defensive team because of Hagans and Maxey … 
“Them and we have good shot blockers. We got other physical guys that are long. My worry is, where are we physically if we test somebody that’s 6-5 but the kid is a moose? How does that happen? How do we play? That’s why I would have liked to have one more big guy so you have some room. But, here is what happens. This is the opportunity for EJ and Nick and Nate now gets that opportunity to do his thing. But now there is no ‘He takes me out because I made a mistake.’ There’s nothing. There it is. You’ve got a clean line. Go for it. And to be honest, they are both doing well. Even Immanuel, his mentality, his swagger, he is way better. Now he still has a ways to go shooting the ball more consistent, but he is way better than he was.” 
 
On if he has to rebuild swagger for McDonald’s All Americans who come in immediately succeed… 
“It depends. If they are delusional about what they are, that’s usually where the issue is and we try to deal with that in the recruiting process. Normally they’ll see, ‘Man, I’ve gotta do this.’ PJ (Washington) had an OK year his freshman year. He was good enough but he needed to come back and he put it on himself. Like, I’ve gotta do this.’ And that’s what you want all these kids to do. Like, they’re responsible for them.” 
 
On which returners are embracing that mentality …
“All of them. All four of them. They’re all doing it. EJ’s body doesn’t even look the same. He is trying to be more physical. Nick has more confidence, and I’m stopping him when he is doing things that will take away his confidence. You can’t. Just do this and then if you miss that you’re gonna be fine. If you start doing that, you take your own confidence away. It has nothing to do with me. You just shot a 12-foot floater and bank missed it that had absolutely no chance of going in. You can’t make that play. They’re all receptive. We’ve great kids. They’re here to get better. They know what this culture is.” 
 
On Richards and how plays may impact his confidence …
“He’s trying stuff. He’s more confident than he has ever been so he is trying stuff that is like, why would you do that? You do the stuff you’re doing well. You do that, you’re going to take your own confidence away. Because he is trying stuff. It’s summer. This is still – we’re not even near the season yet. So I like him to do it so we can talk through it. Here is what we are saying: Drive the ball and go do a jump hook. Drive the ball and come to a stop. Don’t drive the ball and spin and try to pass. You are going to knock three guys over, including two cheerleaders and an official. Don’t do it. So then he is doing the jump stop and making it and you stop practice, ‘Perfect!’ Then he does the spin, the throw and knock two managers over. ‘Stop! That is why we are telling you not to do it. And now your head goes down and you look, the doubt.’ The kid started playing when he was 14. He’s not like these kids that were trained when they were 8. So, and he’s a big kid. It happens for them later and it takes time. But I’m going to say this: One of the nicest kids that I’ve coached here is Nick. A good-hearted, starting to feel better about who he is and how he is and more confidence. If it takes someone else to build their confidence, that same person takes it away with just a look. If they build their own confidence, none of it matters. Building your own confidence, you’ve gotta be in that gym and then you’ve gotta carry it over what you’re doing. You’ve gotta limit things that would take away your confidence. Don’t do them. Don’t try them. Just play within what you do. If you want to do more, get in the gym and do it so when you do it in the game it doesn’t take away your confidence. This is kind of like brain surgery here what we do.” 
 
On what the young guys typically don’t get …
“Well, there’s an anxiety about what this is because they don’t know. It’s kind of like you’re running down a dark hallway and you know at some point there’s a wall. How fast do you run? Are you flying, or are you kind of running and feeling? That’s what it is to play here. You think you know, you’re excited, this means the magic wand, it means you’re going to be a pro and all I’ve gotta do, and then you start running down the hallway and you’re like, ‘Oh geez, where is it?’ That’s this. After you realize that you can do this, this isn’t overwhelming. Some guys get it real fast; it takes other guys more time. I try to tell every kid, ‘You’re on your own path. Don’t worry about him. Just be on your path. Do what you do.’ “
 
On how he can tell that Ashton Hagans has improved from Cal’s perspective …
“Shooting the ball better. He’s in the gym more. Still he has to be a better layup shooter, which you’d be surprised that he’s not but he’s better than he was. I mean, there were games where I was like, ‘How’d you miss that?’ So, he’s better there. And like yesterday he just dominated a guy on the ball, and I said, ‘Listen, he’s coming back as one of the best defensive point guards in the country. You cannot mess with the ball. You either get by him or get rid of him. Don’t. If you stop doing this to him, he moves up and then he’s coming at you and he’s physical.’ Now it becomes, is he spending enough time in the gym that he’s comfortable shooting the ball? It was kind of like what I said with the president. If you’re not comfortable over that golf ball, you’re hooking it and hoping no one is over there. If you’re comfortable over the ball, you’re fun. Now, you may not hit it great and you may miss some but over the ball you thought, ‘This is going to be a great shot. I like this, I like how I feel.’ And then if you’re pushing it you’re like, ‘Well, let me get back on that tee box and let me figure this out, and my arms are breaking and I’m not getting this shoulder back. Oh, there it goes, and then it comes back to you. No different in this sport. If, again, if your head moves all over the place, you can’t really play this sport. You can’t shoot with your head moving. You can’t pass, your head is still – most of the time – and in the game of golf it’s the same. If your head moves, you stink. You’re up and down, and OK, he stinks. How many strokes am I going now, you know.”
 
On people comparing Johnny Juzang to Tyler Herro and if it is fair …
“He can really shoot, thank goodness. I told him, I said, ‘Look, what we need is your ability to make shots so don’t ever get away from that. Get in the gym and take more shots.’ But, what we did with Tyler is we demanded that he drive the ball, and similar to Tyler when this kid drives it – like yesterday he was driving and Kenny (Payne) and I could hear him, ‘Pass it!’ Like when you drive, don’t think you have to shoot. Well, he shot it, and it’s like he and Kahlil (Whitney) are in the same boat. We are getting Kahlil to be prepared to make a play before he catches the ball. In high school, you catch the ball and what’s there? A good college player, a guy that’s trying to literally elevate himself has to know where people are before I catch the ball. Do I have a drive? I can’t catch it square and be a ball stopper. Kahlil’s next step is the same. Now he is catching it and he’s really gotten better. In eight weeks, I had people that watched him out at the Nike Skills camp and say that he’s not the same player he was in the McDonald’s game. He is now, his drives, you can’t shoot it on every drive. The ball comes to you, you’re ready, you get in the lane, they collapse, you’ve gotta throw the ball to this guy. We’ll get to that. We’re just not there and we’re not there with Johnny yet, but we’re making him drive the ball. Making him get in the lane. It’s what we did with Tyler.”
 
On if it helps that he played point guard in high school …
“Yeah, I mean I’d play with four point guards that were all different sizes because it would be outstanding. As long as they can shoot a little bit, how are you going to press? What are you going to do? End up having to play zone, and I also think with the line moving back they’re going to play more zone. People are going to have to play zone, and with the shot clock, you kick it out and it restarts the clock. You don’t know how guys are going to play on that. They may bump us into a zone, so you don’t have time. You know, bang, if it’s kicked out let’s go zone. So there’s going to be some stuff that happens, and I like the fact that Immanuelis shooting it way better, Tyrese can really shoot the ball, Johnny can really shoot the ball. The other wings we have, Keion and Kahlil, can shoot it; not as good as those guys but they shoot it. You’re not going to say, ‘Let them shoot.’ And you still have Nate. The best thing Nate does is physical, but he can shoot. He can shoot 3s. EJ is better, Nick Richards can shoot. I mean, after I get them to play together it will be based on how good can we be defensively? Can we be one of those teams that can just maul you to death and then get you to drive and we block shots and run? Can we be that team?”
 
On what things he is confident Nick can do …
“He catches it close to the basket without getting pushed and he shoots a jump hook. You can’t stop it, he’s 7- foot tall. If he catches it out, we’re trying to figure out, OK. If he doesn’t how are we going to play? We’re putting in some stuff that’s going to make it easier for him.”
 
On if he is away from the basket …
“If he’s out seven, eight feet from the block because he got pushed out. If you don’t fight for that position, you’re not shooting it now. Now you’re out here and here’s how we’re going to play. So, we’re trying to do stuff again for his confidence so he can just do the things you do well. Here’s what you do well. He can shoot, he can make free throws. It’s not his game. If he drives it and I want him to drive it. One or two dibbles, jump stop, jump hook. You’re not going spin. I don’t want you to pass. How about that one? Don’t ever pass. I mean, just do this, and when he does it in practice – he missed one and I say great. That isn’t about, ‘He takes me out every time you call out a mistake.’ That doesn’t happen here but that’s a great cop out. Like, ‘I’m afraid to play.’ You’re afraid to play not because of me; this is big here. It’s Kentucky where every game is the Super Bowl. The other team is so excited, you’re like, ‘Why are they so excited?’ This stuff is hard. It takes some guys longer. It’s taken Nick some time based on that he started playing when he was 14. But I’m saying, he’s still – the impact he’s had on games, you’ve seen it. Now, can we get him to be consistent? Well, here’s the good news: He’s going to have every minute he needs to be consistent.”
 
On if you can keep Richards from fouling out …
“I think last year they beat the crap out of each other where he just started saying, ‘To survive, I’ve gotta foul, too.’ And he carried that over into games. But I think he’s going to be fine. I mean, you think, Nick, EJ, and Nate, would you have liked to have one more? Fine, but those three, compare them to other front courts in the nation right now. What? Somebody’s like, you say, ‘Oh they’re way better.’ Who? If they were that good, they wouldn’t be in college. So, I know it’s just that we’re, what you said, foul trouble, injuries; we don’t have a whole lot of room for error there. But we can play small. I started doing it yesterday. I put one of the guys at forward, said let’s try you there today. I’ll put the other guy at forward.”
 
On if Brooks and Whitney are the only two options who can help down low and who the five would be in that scenario …
“Yeah. Any of those guys. EJ. Could be Nate. Nate juts doesn’t have the defensive presence that those other two would have. But all the other stuff? The toughness, rebounding balls. He makes the game – Nate does – so much easier for the other guys because he talks. I showed a tape to them yesterday of an NBA player talking in a practice and say, ‘Let’s over talk.’ The guy was saying, ‘Let’s over talk. Talk more. It doesn’t matter what you say, just talk more.’ And I looked around the room and I said, ‘We’ve got two or three guys in here that don’t feel it’s not your responsibility to talk because you’ve always been into your own thing.’ ‘Well, I don’t like to talk.’ ‘OK, then take this down: YMCA, because that’s where you’re going to be playing. You ain’t playing in the NBA if you don’t talk so you might as well learn it here. Talk, say something, tell a guy, talk to him. ‘But it’s all freshmen. They’ll all the same.”
 
On if talking is one of those maturity things because Reid Travis seemed to do the same thing as Sestina did last year in terms of talking as an older guy …
“Yeah, and Reid was unbelievable. You have to understand, there are times that I’m telling the assistants, ‘Everybody quiet, we’re just watching them in the shell,’ and we’re listening and they’re listening. But then they get in the game and there’s slippage and a guy gets nailed on the screen like, ‘Why didn’t you say something?’ ‘Blah, blah, in the apple.’ ‘What? What are you talking about?’ I mean, so they’re young and they do stuff like that.”
 
On how Richards is coming along instinctually …
“He’s doing well. I mean, if you watched him yesterday you would’ve said, ‘Holy cow’ He caught it close, jump hooks. He drove in, jump hook. He had one spin and he threw the ball way off the wall and I said, ‘Whoop, that’s what takes your confidence away. Nothing that I say. Now you lay on questioning yourself. Don’t do it. Don’t even attempt it.’ He takes a shot, ‘Good, that’s a shot you can make.’ I told them – I watched a little bit of Michigan and Army. How does Army stay in a game with Michigan in the Big House? Were any of the Army players recruited by Michigan or any other Power Five? So I said, ‘You guys tell me. How did they do it?’ Great execution because they had to, and they weren’t delusional about what they had to do to try to win and – you ready – and survive. Do it together. And that means maybe – and I don’t know this to be true – that the other team may be a little arrogant. Before the game, ‘They can’t beat us. They’re not good enough. These guys – we’re all All-Americans.’ My job is to make sure you as an individual and this team never becomes arrogant. That every game we play is a dogfight. Every practice we’re in is a dogfight. Any of you – we went eight weeks and guys all got better. If I see habits that take them back to those first two weeks, that’s arrogance. That means you think you’re good enough playing the way you play. I’m not going to allow it. It’s not happening. So, all this stuff for these young kids is a chance to – they’ve gotta think differently. Their minds gotta process things differently. They’ve gotta look at things differently. I was talking about Anthony (Davis) in an interview. I was talking about Anthony Davis. He was not poisoned spoiled before he came here. Why was that? [Media responds saying he wasn’t great until the end of his time at Kentucky.] At best. He wasn’t spoiled. Who else came here and was not spoiled before they came here? Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander). Jamal (Murray). They weren’t spoiled. They weren’t poisoned and told ‘You’re everything. You’re the best ever. You’re this, you’re that.’ But the thing about coming here, again, the process that we go through with recruiting, they’re not told that you’re going to be the center of attention, they’re going to name the court after you, you shoot all the balls, everything. They’re not told that, but they still think they’re going to come here and do that sometimes. That’s one of those things that they get here and they’re like, ‘Oof, these dudes can play, too.’ Yes, and the culture is a bunch of good guys coming together who are good people and really good players that understand we compete every day, we care about one another, we’re all going to do better. Some of us are on a quicker path, some of us are not, but we’re all going to benefit by this. The guys that come in saying, ‘This is about me. I don’t need to be coached, playing two-three zone, I’m good,’ in the process of recruiting they don’t come here. Or we figure out that’s who it is in the recruiting process, and we kind of shy away. Now, what shy away means is we just don’t call as much, we don’t see them as much. I’m not trying to tell a kid, ‘Well we didn’t think he was any good so we. …’ No, you just see it in the process. I try to tell my staff, we can’t be recruited. We’re supposed to be recruiting, which means you have to get the information. Do they need us to be a hat on the table? And you’re spending my time and money – and the school’s money – for me to travel to see a kid who wants us to be a hat on the table. If a kid doesn’t want this culture – it comes down to three schools, they’re promising them starting positions 30 (shots a game), ‘I don’t care who’s in the program, you’ll start over them.’ This guy’s doing the same and I’m saying, ‘This is a culture. I can’t promise you that.’ We’ve started 35 freshmen. Thirty-five. In the history of our game, no one’s ever done that in a 10-year period. You ready? A 40-year period. Started 35 freshmen. So, if you want it, you come here and take it. I can’t promise you, and if you’re as good as you say, it won’t need to be promised. OK? I can’t tell you how many shots but the most anybody’s taken here is probably 17 so you’re not taking 30. And if someone’s telling you and the other schools are telling you that and we’re still alive, are we the hat or are you serious? So it’s one of the things – we become, we verify. By us recruiting they think that verifies that they’re a professional player. Now they ain’t coming. We’re like Hawaii. Everybody wants to visit; they’re just not coming here. And I get it and I understand it, but it’s our job and my job to really get to the, ‘What is this?’ The kids we’ve gotten are the kids that should’ve been here and the kids that went elsewhere shouldn’t have come here. But the issue is, did I spend – how much of my time and money did we spend recruiting kids that wanted to be told stuff that I’m not willing to say? And believe me, I’m not changing. We’re not offering 30 scholarships, 25. Tell me what happens if you offer 25 scholarships in one class. [Reporter: A guy commits and you can’t take him.] Are they truly binding? Are they binding? They’re not binding. And basically I’m telling 20 kids, ‘I’m only doing this so you are interested in us. I’m not even sure if I want you.’ I’m not going to do that to a kid and his family. I’m not, which means, well – ‘If would’ve gotten on him earlier.’ Well, this kid’s just gotta understand that I’m not going to. It’s just how we go about this. And you know what? It goes in cycles. Here’s the great news for us here: The cycle of telling them anything they want to hear – I talked to a kid the other day who – ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘I want the ball, I want to be the center, I want to be able to do what I want to do, and I want to be able to stay out there and do this and this.’ ‘OK, tell me where you want your life to go.’ ‘Well, I want to be an NBA player.’ ‘Really? ‘Do you want to be …’ ‘I only want to stay in school – I want to be a top-five pick.’ ‘How long do you want to be in the league? ‘Fifteen years.’ ‘Well, why are you talking to these other three? They don’t have any NBA players. So, they’re going to tell you that you’re going to have the ball and do what you want and have everything and that entices you?’ Do you understand that when I get that it becomes, is that really who I want and does he really want this or does he need (us)? I mean, and that’s when you say, ‘What’s changed for us?’ and we’ve had to say, ‘OK, let’s be real and let’s go through this.’ Our recruiting has never – it’s always been where it is, but we just have to – let’s not get recruited. Let’s do a better job of seeing because this isn’t right for everybody. It just isn’t, and that’s not arrogance. It’s like, we put out (a tweet) yesterday because Marcus (Lee) was in town. If a kid chooses to finish his career somewhere else, he’ll (sports information director Eric Lindsey) tell you why. Tell me, ‘How, why, are you sure? Did you think about this and this and this? ‘Yeah coach, this is, you know.’ We hug and, ‘OK I’m going to help you, we’re always going to be here for you.’ There’s no hard – ‘What they hell are you doing? My legacy! And you ruined a championship.’ We don’t and we ain’t (doing that) because it’s (about) the kids. That’s what it is, and so we’re going to help you. And sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes the kids make mistakes, but we don’t make many and I don’t want to make any for them or for us trying to figure out because I want it to work for every kid. I want every kid to come here, grow, become more curious, become engaged in community, think outside of just thinking about themselves, becoming a great teammate, which I told you what Pat Riley said. ‘Your guys come into this league and are great teammates.’ That’s what they learn. I saw Dan Issel and we talked about what this program is about, what it was when Coach (Adolph) Rupp was here and the things that he did. So, like I said, this – I get time to walk (in the summer) and I’m on a boardwalk and that’s when I said, ‘You know what, we’re on our second tour of duty. Those 10 years are done. And you can almost see that I’m feeling kind of rejuvenated. Here we go. Let’s go on another 10-year run. Let’s see how we can do. Let’s see if we can do better. Let’s see if we can continue to change.’ Everything around us is changing. How do we stay on top? How do we do – a told you so in the recruiting. My staff gets mad when I publicly talk about what we’re doing in recruiting because then immediately the other guys start. How do we say stuff and do stuff and how do we? But I’m like, look if the parents are doing their homework, we’re going to get the same kids we would get. But this stuff for the next 10, it’s going to be different. You’re going to have different rules. You’re going to have kids leave out of high school probably in the next three years, two years. You’re going to say, ‘How are we evaluating what we’re going to do and how we’re doing it.’ It’s all – this stuff’s going to be different than it was the last 10. The numbers and what’s happened for kids and this university and all of our staff and the good stuff that’s happened to the people around us, the opportunities they’ve gotten because of how we’ve done this, it may be different going forward. And until we get into – like I just told you, what we figured out was, do we want to be the hat on the table? Are we getting recruited or are we recruiting? Who really wants to be in this situation? How are we going about that? We’re not offering 30 scholarships, but now going forward what happens? Your pool of recruits are going to have to be – because you’re going to have to guess who are the five or six because that’s all that would make it. Are there other kids that would be willing to go to the D-league for a year or two and then not have an education and take a risk and say, ‘My life ends in two years if I don’t make it.’ Hard to make a jump shot when that’s what your case is. Hard to make a play. How about you’re 17, 18 and you’re on your own in a motel with a D-league coach who never was a head coach, was the video guy or whoever he was, or was maybe a former player that’s learning to coach and your 17, 18 years old and you’re in Des Moines. You’re risking that to do this. They may do that, but OK, who are those guys? And it’s not about – all this stuff that they don’t want to go academically, none of us wanted to go to school. We wished we didn’t have to go to school but we went. I mean, I went because my parents said, ‘You’re going to school because it’s the only way you’re making it. You’re going to be the first (to graduate). You and your sisters are going to be the first in our family to get college educations. You’re going.’ I was told from an early age, but some of the kids even told that – I was with an assistant from the Pacers this morning who worked with us at UMass and I said, ‘Billy (Bayno), when you and I were in high school, if they said you can go to the G-league or do calculus, what are we doing? Which one are we picking?’ And what’s happening is, it’s going to be 15- and 16-year-olds making a decision, maybe with not good guidance, about the easy road to the money, the car, the houses, the jewelry, the fame, or you’re going to go through this grind of college. My fear right now is if we don’t do this right we’re going to lose a generation of kids who had a chance for an education. We’re diminishing education if we don’t do this right. And right now, it’s everybody’s only worrying about their own thing, so who gets left out of the thinking? The kids do. And that’s my issue. And I’m going to shout it from rooftops so when, 10 years from they look back and say, ‘We lost a whole generation of these kids, they were delusional, they thought this was going to happen and they’re done.’ Who’s taking care of them? Who? We all know the demographic. Do we need to say it? We know the demographic. Who’s taking care of them? ‘Well, they made a decision on their own. That’s what this country’s about.’ You encouraged them. You pushed them to that decision even though you knew it wasn’t the right decision. How about this one: ‘We’re going to guarantee them education if they come.’ OK, so as sophomores, juniors and seniors (in high school), are they doing academic work? No, because (they think) they’re going to the league and making it. So then they get there and they don’t make it, they don’t have the academic work to go to college. They already know that. [Reporter: All because the NCAA is mad about eight guys a years going pro after one year.] It’s not going to be eight. It’s going to be like three or four or five. One year it may be eight. One year it may be three. And then, I’ll say this: Was Anthony Davis ready to go out of high school to the NBA? No. Was Karl Towns? You saw him early in the year. Maybe John Wall was. Was Eric Bledsoe? Was Brandon Knight? I can go through all of our lottery picks and tell you 90% of them were not ready to go the NBA. So all of this stuff is BS. It’s this group trying to do what’s best for them, this group trying to do what’s best for them. Here’s my solution – really simple – USA Basketball, you want to be a part of it? You’ve got to have academic success or we’re not going to let you be a part of USA Basketball. So as a ninth or 10th grader, you’ve got to meet these kind of standards. If you don’t meet these standards, we’re not going to have you in USA Basketball. Because USA Basketball is the one that’s going to kind of put a group of kids together, 50 kids and then it’s 30, 25, but I’m saying again, only five or six are going to be good enough to go right away. And if they do draft them in the last first round, they’re sticking them in the G-League and they’ll have two years to prove themselves. Now, they’ll have a little more money, but at the late first round, it’s not much. You say that Jerry (Tipton), but half goes to taxes. So let’s say you get two-and-a-half million. Say you get three million, you’re at 1.5. How do you think that dude’s living for those two years? You think he’s living like he has nothing? ‘He’s going to save everything.’ Are you out of your mind? They spend like they’re making 50 million. So now they end, and they have 82,000 in the bank but you’re good. Now, for us, when I grew up, if you told me I’d have 82,000 in the bank after two years, ‘I’m in, sign me up.’ But my point being, it’s an issue. Can USA Basketball say you’re not in this, or is USA Basketball only worried about USA Basketball? This is all going to come out because the NBA is an entertainment behemoth, and it’s down to how do we not – are you ready for this – wow do we not make mistakes with kids? That’s what it’ll be. They’re going to let high school kids – they don’t want to make mistakes, so they’re going to have a big group. My concern is do we diminish academics? The guy from the Pacers, Billy Bayno, said, ‘You know, we need to have these KIP programs. We need to have what LeBron James is doing in these schools.’ And I go, ‘I agree, but you’re also saying kids should be able to do what they want, and all these kids, you’re talking academics is their only way out, but you’re saying when these 50 go to the G-League and don’t make it, you’re OK. You’re not making sense. If you think they should be in LeBron James-kind of schools, and those kids all go to college and that’s their way out, why aren’t we saying the same thing because we’re dealing with the same kids? And, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the academic genius. They don’t have the background. They haven’t been challenged, they haven’t been tested, they haven’t been pushed in that direction.’ That’s me sitting on the soap box giving you what I believe, and I want to be the one that they look back and say, ‘He said this 10 years ago and no one listened to him and said, ‘He’s only doing this because he wants kids in college. He’s only doing it because of himself. He doesn’t care about the kids either.’ Ugh, geez, maybe he did (care). Maybe, it was about that.’ “
 
On the Avenatti investigation …
“I didn’t read it all, but it was kind of amazing. This guy went for two years and was fine. Now all of a sudden he’s in jail and facing 198 years. What the hell happened in two years? I mean, all this stuff. I said it before, you’re not going to let legislate morality. You’re not. And whatever happens from this, all I want to see is fair decisions – that whatever you did for this school, you do the same thing to this school. And if this school got nothing, then that school should get nothing with the same. What the NCAA – if any of you do your homework – they will not allow precedent. So it’s the only law in maybe the world that doesn’t allow precedent. Do you know what I mean by that? If you ask, ‘Can I see that case because they kind of did exactly what we did and can I read what they did?’ You know what your answer is? ‘You can’t, and every case is different.’ No they’re not. No they’re not. Your decisions are different. We don’t know why yet, but they are. Is it to embarrass some and leave others alone? I don’t know, but until we get a fair system where precedent is used, I just think we all go about our business in your own silo and better make sure you’re doing right or you’re going to get fired. I would hope, but you can’t legislate morality. It just doesn’t. What are the penalties? Do they deter what’s going on? Well, not if the penalty here is one and the penalty here, I don’t know. If you have money to go get lawyers and say we’re going to spend $10 million on lawyers, you’re good. What if you’re at a smaller school that has a budget that has $25,000 to spend on lawyers and that’s it? Guess what? You’re accepting whatever they say. You’re going down and you’re getting buried. Let me say this: All the stuff hasn’t come down yet so what I’m saying, let’s see. Let’s see what happens.”
 
On the reported text message exchange between Kenny Payne and on official at Nike and if it bothered him at all …
“No. Here’s what it is and what I’ve found out: You put Kentucky in a headline or you put me in a headline, oh you’re getting eyeballs. So the minute – if they see a case, ‘Boom, gee is that Kentucky?! Aww that’s not Kentucky.’ I mean, it’s what it is. Then somebody called me and said, ‘You know, Kenny was in that.’ And I said, ‘What?’ And, he said, ‘It said his name.’ No. I said, ‘Yeah it didn’t say his name because they wanted it to be me, so they left his name out and they thought it would be me.’ And it was like I’ve got tents in front of my house, media. They set up tent city. But – why are you laughing because you know it’s true. So, when it became Kenny and then you read what it was, something to the effect of, ‘Make sure you’re – don’t get in (trouble).’ He wanted him to do right, which would have been good, but because it’s us, eyeballs.”
 
On whether he’s concerned …
“No. No. How we’re set up here and what – you guys know. I mean, it is what it is and go about our business.”
 
On how to counter that during recruiting when it’s clear some schools are doing things they shouldn’t be doing …
“It’s more you have to do your homework. And I keep telling our guys, it’s about information. You’re creating relationships, but you’ve got to get the information, and you’ve got to dig as deep as you have to, maybe call around them, have people talk to you that they’re also talking to and tell us what is important to these kids and their family. And if it’s something that we’re not we’re willing to do, we walk. Don’t stay in it. You know, you just walk. I’m not saying it’s negative. I had one guy say, ‘Well, Cal, they may not come with you because they don’t want to be one of four. They want to be the guy.’ Yeah, but we need to know that. If that’s what you want, then why would you have me talk to you or why is it – ‘Well, Kentucky hasn’t called me. Are you offering?’ ‘Are you ready to accept?’ ‘Well, that’s not how it works.’ ‘Well, how does it work?’ I like the fact that we’re different. I like the fact that we’re on the tongue of everybody that walks into a home. That doesn’t bother me. My staff gets mad. ‘They said this and they said that, and they say you’re this and they say you do this.’ I go, ‘What do you want them to say? Do you want them to be cheerleaders for us? How do you (counter) 40 kids (in the pros), what’s happening for them?’ Do you know how many guys we have that have max deals right now? Max deals? It’s like six, and that’s with DeMarcus (Cousins) getting hurt. It would have been seven. Seven max deals. I didn’t say how many got drafted; I’m saying max deals. And I see in the pipeline probably four or five more and that’s not with us going forward. So do you what them to cheer about that? ‘Oh yeah, Kentucky, over $2 billion in contracts and 70 percent of their kids get drafted. If you go there, you’re going to get drafted and of that, 30 percent are lottery picks and No. 1 picks.’ They’re not saying that. They’re saying anything they can to put down, which is don’t you think it’s kind of a badge of honor. But the staff gets mad. ‘They said this and that.’ ‘What do you want them to say? I’m the greatest guy and he’s who you want to play for. He never yells at you. He never takes you out. He lets you play through every mistake.’ They show videos of me going nuts. They never show me with my legs crossed and sitting there. What do you want them to do?”
 
On walking away from recruitments where someone has their hand out …
“No, no. It’s not a hand out. I’m not saying that. It is, they’re hearing what they want to hear that they’re not going to hear from me. They’re hearing, ‘You’re going to be absolutely – everything is going through you.’ Let me tell you, I grabbed a coach who did that and beat us on a kid and I said, ‘I’ll tell you why I love you. Because you were honest with the kid and you let him do that. He shot every ball and passed every ball.’ And the guy said, ‘I probably did the kid a little disservice but I did. I did what I told him I’d do.’ And I’m fine. If someone says that to a kid and they do it, I’m fine. If they say it to a kid and don’t do it, shame on the family. Why did you go for that? That would be my comment. But this recruiting is not an exact science. It changes as the ground changes. The style of play you would think has benefitted us. Everybody else says we play just like them, so maybe it hasn’t. I told my staff, I haven’t changed in 35 years of what I do and how I do this, and guess what? We’ve gotten pretty good players every year, and if someone doesn’t want what we do here and how we do it, I’m fine with that. If what we do and how we coach or what goes on around us or what we’re willing and not willing to do, then that’s fine, they go somewhere else. I don’t take this personal. I never have. I shake my head sometimes like, what in the world. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I just don’t want to make mistakes here for kids. I just want to make sure. And if we do and a kid chooses – and not many have but a few have – to finish somewhere else, then we’re for them. We’re not against them. I want them to play well. I want them to be better prepared for where they are because of what happened here and how they were coached and challenged and pushed.”
 
On his new “lifetime contract” …
“Lifetime [says sarcastically]. You know they can fire me whenever they choose to.”
 
On when NBA rumors start if he’s going to be able to say, ‘I’ve got a lifetime contract, back off’ …
“I was (at) the Hall of Fame and one of the guys there came up to me and just said, ‘So, you’re not going to go to the NBA, are you?’ I said, ‘No. I’m at Kentucky.’ If I were at someplace else and I’m in the muck of this stuff, I’m in the middle of all the muck, I would probably say, ‘Enough, I’m out.’ I still enjoy recruiting because I enjoy meeting people. I enjoy hearing their stories. I know we’re not going to get every kid. I just don’t want to be dragged around the country for a hat. I don’t want that. But everything else I’m fine with. Second thing is, this stage that I basically have – I have the ability to put people on this stage and to change the lives. I mean, I’m in those homes. I see how they were raised. I see how mothers were working three jobs. One mother didn’t have a car, walked two miles to the job. Now all of a sudden they can breathe? That is this stage. What comes along with it is I age fast. I don’t even want to know what I’ll look like in 10 years. It’s a pretty scary thought. But you age in this job. I’m telling you right now, I always said you age like you’re the president. He looks better than I look. I thought he was 51. Can I just say, he’s my age and I’m looking at him like, he looks 35. This thing, to stay on top of it is a challenge. But there’s no – and again, I listened because I should listen. Most of the people I’m talking to I know. Most of the time I talk to people, it’s to help other people. So I’m trying to help someone else get something. And you try to make things better for kids. If they ask me how would you do it here? I tell them, ‘You’ve got to do this, this, this.’ Everything I talk about is for kids. What’s your setup? How do you do this? How do they live? How do you take care of them? All the stuff. Do you use camps to help kids work? Get a summer job through your camp or something else. How do you do this? But, I would think anybody that knows me, if you’re talking to me, the chances of me leaving here are nil. But if you want to talk to me, and I know you – if I don’t know you, I wouldn’t talk to them. And this is not – they say lifetime job. Mitch (Barnhart) had a great line to everybody in the department: ‘We’re not firing people here. They leave for better positions or whatever.’ He said, ‘You all have a lifetime position here. Just do your job and do it well and you’ve got a lifetime job here. I’m not going to let anybody go.’ And it’s true, which is why the athletic department is doing things on the level their doing them on and why we just continue to do better for the kids, do better with facilities, which are for the kids. Do better with everything that surrounds them. And I appreciate the fact that they want me to be here. And then my thing was I don’t want to coach until I’m 70 but I still wanted to be paid something so. [Media starts laughing.] Why are you laughing?.”
 
On EJ Montgomery …
“He is a genius in that his mind is sharp, it’s quick, he’s bouncy, athletically. Now, he’s got to get more consistent with his skills. He’s got to basically master his craft. Can I do that for him? That’s where he is. He has to physically mature. I can’t do that for him. It’s not just weight training. Physically maturing is on God’s time, not ours in most cases. You can push it, but it is what it is. Normally if I go in a home and the kid’s skinny and I look at the dad and he’s like this, I’ll say, ‘Um when did you start to mature?’ And he’ll say, ‘When I was 21.’ Well, you’re not going to believe this, he’s going to be about the same age when he matures. That’s how this works. So, him that way. But the rest of it is just master your craft. Get in that gym, and he is. He’s loving it. We had a great meeting individually. I met all the guys. Really learned, especially from the veterans, learned some good stuff that I’m not going to talk about. ‘What’d you learn? What’d you do? How can you be a better teammate? How can I help you?’ And the guys were honest and open, and the crazy thing is they all want, they’re here – and my wife says every time it’s a great group of kids – they come here because they want to get better. They want to get coached. They want to be held accountable. They want to be taught. They want to elevate their game. They want to play against other people. They want to learn to be good teammates. They want to learn, outside of basketball, how do I grow? They come here with that because of the process we go through, and it makes it to where we’re not having to, like, start all over. Everybody thinks he starts all over (each year). Well, we don’t because we’re getting the same kind of kids. So the process, yes, starts over, but it starts about in the same space, which is why, even this team – we do have more veterans back – but even this team will probably take until January before you say, ‘OK, I see it.’ We play some ridiculous games early. We could get banged again early, first game like we did last year and everybody, ‘The season’s over.’ We won 30 and should’ve been in the Final Four, should’ve won a national title, in my mind. But it started like, you get punched in the mouth because you’re so young.”