Calipari's 'Cats have eye of tiger

Calipari's 'Cats have eye of tiger

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Give John Calipari credit. He keeps finding ways to make you wonder exactly what he's up to.

This time last year, he was about to take the court with five 2010 NBA first-round draft picks. Big Blue fell short of a national title but it was still a far cry from the mediocrity they had grown used to in Lexington. Then came rumors he was headed back to the NBA. Instead, he signed the nation's top recruiting class for the second straight year.

And this fall, while some experts are talking about Florida being the team to beat in the SEC, don't count out Calipari and the 'Cats. If anything, this team could be even better than last year's version.

Why? He's actually got some veteran players who have been around him for a year.

"Needless to say, we're a ways away from being able to play a basketball game," Calipari said at the SEC preseason media event recently. "But I'll say this, I like my team. We're long, not as deep as we were a year ago, but I like my team."

That's bad news for the rest of the nation. Write it down now -- Calipari will have the Wildcats competing for a national title again.

Pulling Brandon Knight out of Fort Lauderdale inked that fact. Knight, also pursued by Florida, is so good he was named to the All-SEC preseason team. And he hasn't played a game of college ball.

"I've been very blessed by, the best players I've had have been good guys. Brandon Knight is no different," Calipari said. "There's one thread that I can tell you right now goes through Derrick (Rose), Tyreke (Evans), John (Wall) and Brandon. And that's at 11 o'clock at night he'll be in our practice facility working out. Those young men all were anxious about how good they were. They didn't ever read the press clippings, they weren't sure. So it drove them by being in that gym at night doing those things and he's the same."

The other three went on to become huge draft picks almost as soon as the college season ended. There's already talk about how high Knight will go next spring.



But the thing that makes Kentucky even better is the veterans coming back. They are hungry.

"I've always said when guys have to go from supporting roles to star roles, that's a hard deal," Calipari said. "So with DeAndre (Liggins) and Darius (Miller) you know what? We're asking them to step up. Will they be catalysts? We don't know yet. The catalyst is that guy when that game is on the line is going to make those plays. It may be a block, it may be a steal, it may be a basket, it may be a pass. Who is it?

"It doesn't have to be one of those two guys. But would we like it to be? Absolutely we want it to be. Because they are veterans. Last year's team, it was John Wall and DeMarcus (Cousins), they were freshmen. It was those guys."

Liggins and Miller are 6-foot-6 and 6-7 guards with big play ability who stuck to minor roles last year on an NBA development team.

"I have to think about being more assertive," Miller said. "I have had to step into the leadership role. . . . I'm definitely comfortable with it and ready for it."

Both are weapons UK, which opens up the 2010-11 season by playing Pikeville in an exhibition on Monday, didn't have room for a year ago. Now the 'Cats need both.

"A great thing happened (last week)," Calipari said. "We do a five-minute shooting drill and in five minutes DeAndre Liggins makes 66 threes. In five minutes. That's the most I've had, whether I was at Memphis or Kentucky. Now it was only two years ago they said he couldn't shoot."

Calipari is the king of drama, it seems, in college hoops. With NCAA investigations, rumors, departures, winning and producing NBA stars there's always something swirling around him. This fall it's the question whether recruit Enes Kanter took inappropriate payments from a Turkey club team he played on before signing with Kentucky.

Calipari insists Kanter did the right things. Now the NCAA is ruling.

"Let me just say this, I would rather have everything running smoothly," Calipari said. "But if stuff is thrown at me, I'm not one to (freak out). When it comes at me, I stand up. I'm not under the desk. I'd rather it not be muddy waters. I'd rather it be smooth and here we go. But what I try to tell my guys all the time I want to know, when adversity is swirling, how are you responding now. . . . When it swirls, I'm not going to get off point. I'm going to focus on my team and my players and what I have to do. It may make me more focused. I really get laser focused. Other people have said, he's better when things are falling on him, when things are swirling."


Calipari leaned back, laughed and shook his head.

"I'm just hoping we're good enough to win enough games to be one of those teams," he added later, of contending for the SEC title.

Don't let him fool you. UK may struggle for a while but it's a title contender.

"I think," says Miller, "a lot of people would be shocked at how talented (the freshmen) really are."

USA TODAY named the 'Cats No. 10 in its first poll. The voters know. But all that's down the road. In the meantime, Knight -- the manchild who will drive the bus at crunch time -- is a work in progress.

"The one thing that's the same (as other rookie point guards), yesterday at practice he goes flying in, he shoots a runner and it goes in and I blow the whistle," Calipari said. "I go, 'Who else was open?' He looked at me and he goes, 'I don't know.' "

Calipari smiles. He realizes he must now educate Knight to look for the open man, to understand when he crashes the lane, defenders leave others open to rush to stop him and he must know where to pass.

Eyes wide, hands moving around the room, Calipari has things swirling again. He's in his element. A young talent making mistakes in October that will be corrected by March.

"Let me say this, Derrick Rose, there was no way he was leaving us after one year," Calipari said. "Then in January I said to myself, 'You better go find another point guard.' Tyreke Evans (like Rose one and done at Memphis), it was late February until I even thought that he would leave. At the beginning of the year I said, 'He'll be there four years.' By the end of the year I said, 'Son it's been nice coaching you.'

"Eric Bledsoe, only in (his hometown of) Birmingham did they know him, no one else knew him. Daniel Orton didn't play his senior year in high school. Did not play. He played 16 minutes (a game) for us. He's the 29th pick of the draft. You don't know."

Oh yes, we do. It's Calipari. It's point guards. Brandon Knight, don't unpack. Kentucky fans, get the frequent flyer miles ready or March. Coach Cal will have it all swirling again.

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