How would John Calipari change College Basketball?

Speaking during the Southeastern Conference coaches teleconference, Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari spoke about what changes he would make to the game.

On a personal note, I endorse WDRB sports journalist Eric Crawford’s proposal when it comes to media timeouts.

“I like what he (Jay Bilas) is saying with the shot clock, put it at 30 seconds or lower,” Calipari said during the call. “That wouldn’t bother me. Our teams are shooting at every 19 seconds. Last game, what we did is, my teams historically, if it’s time to grind it out, we finish people off then. That’s historically if you look back. Sometimes I do it earlier in the game. I mean, we played Kansas in the championship game. I did it with 17 minutes left in the half we started grinding it. Coach (Joe B.) Hall said, ‘Why’d you do that?’ I said, “Because I’m trying to win the game. What are you talking about?’ So we’ll use the rules the way they are, but most cases we’re going to shoot it inside of 20 seconds anyway. I think that would be good.

“But I also think if you want to make the college game better, one, you start playing exhibition games – real exhibition games, play two of them. If it’s during the school term, early, do it on weekends. Play whoever you want. Get with that other coach if you want to play your starters half the game and the other guys half the game. You do like the NBA does and you play exhibition games.

“Second thing is, I think you use the summer. College basketball should own August. Should own it. I figured it out last year when we went to the Bahamas and got that television coverage. Well, then why don’t we have like football, and spring football? Why don’t we have 10-12 days of practice in the summer where you can play exhibition games? Teams from Europe can come and play you, or if you want to take a trip, you have time to go take a trip and go do what we did in the Bahamas. And I think that’s some different things I would roll with that, again, I just like to use the term common sense. ‘Well, we’ve never done that.’ I know. I know you haven’t done it. We’re always looking to, what’s next? How do we improve this? What can we do? That Bahamas trip we took was huge for this team. Why should we have an advantage? If you don’t choose to take a trip, practice 10-12 days. Now, you’re not going to kill your kids, but, you know, hey, I don’t want to fall behind because this, that’s all, every year, you want to take a foreign trip two out of every four years, do it, but every year you should be able to practice 10 days and if a foreign team wants to come over – Greece wants to come over – to play 12 of our teams, why not? Let them come over and play. Televise them. Who cares? So, I think those are things that we can do that don’t change what we’re trying to do, just continue to grow our sport.”

A shorter shot clock would certainly help players prepare for the NBA.