Coach Cal doesn't seem to be a fan of the Maui Tournament
By Paul Jordan
Coach Calipari spoke recently regarding the Cats’ upcoming schedule this season. And it seems as if he’s not too happy with one aspect of it: The (EA Sports) Maui Invitational. “The Maui thing gets you out of whack. It’s not what I want,” Calipari said in an interview with Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger. The Cats will play three games in the tournament right after playing Portland at the Rose Garden, during Thanksgiving weekend in November. Coach Calipari does not like the idea of having to travel and do so many games because his team is young.
"“The thing I didn’t like about the schedule was Hawaii. We were locked into it (Maui Invitational). It was done before I got here and people had flights. You could have home games. Those are three games for a young team traveling across country, and then coming back.”"
Calipari and UK already had the schedule set before he came to UK, but the schedule is considerably more challenging than last season, considering the non-conference games. Besides playing North Carolina and Notre Dame away from Lexington, the Cats also face Oklahoma, and have the possibility of facing teams such as: Connecticut, Michigan State, Washington, and Virginia. All of the aforementioned teams present some exctiting matchups with Kentucky. Even Coach Cal tends to agree with that part of the schedule:
"“But that being said, the schedule is harder than it was a year ago. We have tougher road games, a harder overall schedule. Our league is better. You have two teams that will be in the top 10 above us, both Florida and Tennessee. Georgia will be way better than people expect or understand, and we have to play all those people twice. That’s six games.”"
What Calipari would like to see more though, is home games, or a home-and-home series with teams like Texas, Kansas, or Memphis, like he has mentioned in the past. It isn’t so much about going to Hawaii, because who wouldn”t want to go there? Big Blue Nation would find a way like they always do to go see their Cats. It is just the fact that there are so many games away from home, Calipari thinks it will take a toll on his yound team to do so much traveling. He says though that if Kentucky were to have more home games, they could schedule in the way Florida does.
"“In general, I don’t like the three road games. You have Florida right now every year playing three (games) at home (in a tournament) and then maybe a fourth at home in a home-and-home. That’s their tournament. They may get four home games and we get three on the road.”"
The Gators have more non-conference home games as well as the Orange Bowl Classic in South Florida, not requiring them to travel much and still have a large fanbase in the area.
"“We could do something like that, but we are being asked to play in every event that is out there. The event we talked about early, the First Four I talked about and then somebody else grabbed that name.”"
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