Kentucky’s basketball roster under John Calipari is always loaded. But this year, it’s a logjam.
The Wildcats’ usual exodus of one-and-done talent to the NBA took a year off and eight of the nine potential early draftees stayed in school. Now Calipari is left with not only talent, but depth and experience, which is saying something for a team that last year, comprised mostly of freshmen, made a sprint at the NCAA title before losing to Connecticut in the championship game.
Willie Cauley-Stein and Alex Poythress are back, both forces in the frontcourt. Identical twins, 6-foot-6 sophomore point guard Andrew Harrison and SEC preseason player of the year Aaron Harrison, a shooting guard, are back to solidify the backcourt.
They’ll all joined by four incoming freshmen who were McDonalds All-Americans, giving Kentucky nine altogether.
The Wildcats, who are early favorites to win the national title, play Kansas on Tuesday in Indianapolis as part of the Champions Classic, along with Duke and Michigan State.
“Willie Cauley, after the championship game, the next morning, we met and I congratulated him,” Calipari said. “I tell him, ‘Hey man, I’m happy for you. You’re in the top 15 (in the NBA draft). Good luck.’
“Next day he comes in and says, ‘I’m staying.’ I go, ‘What? Tell me why.’ ‘I’m not ready to have an impact in that league and I know that. I’m going to be able to get my degree and I haven’t won a championship. I want to win a championship.’ Good reasons.”
Calipari has seen the other side of the one-and-done culture too, when players leave before they’re ready. He’s not one to let that bog him down for long either.
“I just have to deal with whatever,” Calipari said. “They don’t make a mistake if it’s their own decision. It’s not a mistake. If you choose to go, then you go.”
This time only Julius Randle went and he was picked seventh overall in the draft by the Lakers before suffering a season-ending leg injury in his NBA debut. Even without Randle, the Wildcats have seven players 6-8 or taller. And it’s not just their frontcourt that’s loaded. It’s the entire court.
Calipari has 10 to 12 players that are worthy of playing time. The trick to finding floor time for them, he believes, is dividing it in half. Calipari plans to try something he’s never done before and employ a two-platoon system. He’ll divide his team into two units of five players and split the minutes between those two. He’ll use two other substitutes — one a guard and the other a post player — but his primary goal will be to get two units into a rhythm together.
So there will be wholesale substitutes, five players at a time, and not just because one unit is playing particularly badly and he wants to send a message, as coaches often do.
“I’m coaching two units, which is why I told our athletic director I should be paid twice,” said Calipari, without cracking a smile. “Because I’m trying to get two units to be cohesive vs. trying to jumble in nine or 10 guys, which I do think is too many.”
Calipari foresees two main challenges with the system. First is getting adjusted to it.
“When I do this and we lose some games early, they’re going to be playing teams that are seven deep that, if I were playing seven, we’d be in good shape,” Calipari said. “But I’m playing 10, 12, so we’re not going to have the same rhythm as they’re going to have.”
Challenge No. 2 is what Calipari calls “the clutter,” referring to the media scrutiny and suggestions from outside the program that one player should get more playing time than another. But within the team, Calipari came into the season believing his players would handle it well.
“All that clutter is the issue, not these kids,” Calipari said. “These kids have bought in. They’re fine. If I had two or three guys (that much more talented than the rest), then you can’t do this. These kids are all within five percent of each other. When we go in practice, there’re no blowouts.”
Judging from the reaction from the Harrison twins, when they were asked about “two-platooning” recently at SEC media day, Calipari was right.
“The amount of talent we have on our team is pretty high, so whatever Coach is going to do, he’s going to do,” Aaron Harrison said. “We’re going to have fun. I know we’re going to have to sacrifice. Everyone on the team is. But we decided to come here, we knew that. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.”
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