Kentucky Wildcat Basketball – John Calipari: “This lockout really kind of screws everything up”

Kentucky coach had a media opportunity today and he kind of said what everyone is thinking when it comes to the potential NBA lockout.  It’s kind of hard to plan a team with this thing hanging over everyone’s shoulders.  Regardless, even with the lockout, Calipari states that it kind of a “no brainer” for Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones to not declare for the NBA Draft.

Let’s be honest.  We have Knight and Jones for two years max, so why not have them go through the process of talking to NBA teams and finding out where they  may go in the draft and more importantly, what they need to work on and what to improve in the next year at college.  For the same reason, I think it makes perfect sense for DeAndre Liggins and Darius Millers to do the same.  Test the waters and see what they need to work on.

Patrick Patterson did it and came back to Kentucky.  There is no magic rule saying that Jones, Knight, Miller, and Liggins won’t return a more focused player.  And the one thing that may drive them back is that cursed lockout: 

"Unless the NBA Players Association strikes a new collective bargaining agreement with the team owners, the league is set to shut down on July 1. That’s after the draft, but a potential lockout would leave drafted players with no income.They could draw money from agents, Calipari noted, but that money would be loaned and paid back with interest.“What about the workout guy who’s $20,000 a month? Who’s paying for that?” Calipari said. “You’re paying for that, and you’re not making any money.”"

Calipari did touch on other topics during the hour long press conference.  One thing is that he does not expect Doron Lamb to place his name in the draft:

"I think in Doron’s case, all the things he’s done, he is on the board. Now he’s got to get stronger, get tougher. If he gains 15 pounds of muscle weight, in my opinion he’ll be a lottery pick in a year from now. That’s what I think. His feel for the game is as good as anyone out there. He finally took on a defensive presence (near the end of the year), which he had nothing (coming in). I can remember at Mississippi, all they did is whoever he guarded, they drove the ball. By the end of the year he was guarding pick-and-rolls pretty well, he was guarding the ball pretty good. As he gets physically stronger and tougher and rougher, you’re not going to take away his feel for the game. That’s always going to be there – his ability to make shots and all that. You look at him with 15 more pounds on him – how do you guard him? Because what they did this year was try to knock him off point. If he drives, bump him. That’s how they guarded him. And then defensively, what happens in the NBA is, if you can’t guard and the other coach knows it, they’ll go at you 12 straight times. Like, it’s embarrassing. They’re trying to win now. If they know they can score a basket by scoring on you, they’re going at you until the other coach takes you out of the game. And so, he’s learning and getting better. He’s one of those guys that they’ll be talking about him. Everybody will be watching him."

Calipari also addressed those pesky NBA rumors:

"The good news is they can’t say I’m taking other college jobs, which my whole career they’ve been saying. I wasn’t involved with the North Carolina State (job), the Georgia Tech, the Missouri, the Arkansas. Any job that was open (in the past) I was involved in, which I wasn’t, but that would be out there. Now it’s only pro jobs. Part of it is to try to screw up your recruiting. I laughed when the rumors came out. I said, ‘You’re not screwing up our recruiting. We already have the kids signed.’ Those rumors are going to be out there. I’ve got a great job. I’ve got one of the best in our sport. I can’t stop the rumors. I just don’t deal with them."

It was a hour long media opportunity with Cal, and to read more of the quotes, go here: 

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