Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas—Kentucky Hall of Fame coach John Calipari always seems two steps ahead of every coach in terms of college basketball marketing.
Calipari arranged for his team to take a week- long summer tour to Atlantis in the Bahamas last week that included games against the Bahamian national team, Sam Lorenzo and Mega Bemax, two elite international club teams from Argentina and Serbia; and a competitive team from Toronto.
The six-day event, which was orchestrated by Lea Miller, the driving force behind Battle 4 Atlantis, turned into a giant infomercial for the marquee SEC program. Kentucky picked up the travel expenses for the international teams and the cost of the tour was $875,000. But the most of cost was defrayed by the fact more than 1,500 Kentucky fans made the trip and paid $400 for a four-game ticket package plus special VIP packages of 50 elite donors at $6,000 apiece and a fantasy camp that drew 48 players to Atlantis at $8,000 apiece.
All four of the Cats exhibition games were televised by ESPN’s SEC Country and reached 10 countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Canada. The team got to participate in Samaritan’s Feet, in which the Kentucky players washed the feet of local children and then gave them a new pair of sneakers, held an open practice for their fan base, the closest many of them will get to seeing Big Blue up close.
Calipari did not coach any of the games, giving that duty to his assistants while he watched the games from the stands. But he saw enough to know this Kentucky team has the same chemistry and athleticism that existed in 2012 when the Cats won the national championship and the same potential and confidence as his 1215 team that won its first 38 games and advanced to the NCAA semi-finals before losing to Wisconsin.
It was hard to fall in love with last year’s Kentucky team even though those Cats, which lost to Kansas State in the Sweet 16, came ever so close to making a Final Four.
By the same token, it is already Final Four buzz about this year’s team.
But Calipari doesn’t want to get carried away by the hype.
“I really like the way we’re playing, but it’s only August,’’ Calipari said. “So, it’s hard to get intoxicated. At the end of the day, we should be a monster defensive team,’’ We should be a great rebounding team. We should be a team that can fly up and down the court, put pressure on you at both sides of the ball and we should be a team that shares because we have a lot of guys that are skilled enough to play that way. And it seems to me that we’ve got a couple dogs. I like to have a couple dogs.’’
Some 10 NBA scouts thought there was enough big dogs on Kentucky to make the trip to the islands to check out the pedigree of four players—a much more assertive 6-11 sophomore center Nick Richards, versatile 6-5 freshman wing Keldon Johnson, 6-5 long range freshman shooter Tyler Herro and re-sculpted 6-8 sophomore power forward Washington—who could be first round picks.
Calipari is already talking about Johnson as a high lottery pick.
“I wasn’t sure about Keldon when we recruited him, but he was,” Calipari said. “He’s 6-5 and he can play point guard, 2, 3 and 4. If there are five better players in the country, I’d like to know who they are.’’
Sophomore power forward Reid Travis, a 6-8 fifth year graduate transfer from Stanford, could also fall into that mix by the end of the season. The 230- pound Travis, who dropped 30-pounds in a month and is in the process of expanding his game from the low post bully ball he played at Stanford,, had a break out game in the Cats’ final exhibition, running the floor, playing like a face to the basket four scoring 19 points with two threes. He also established himself as Kentucky’s best rebounder with 15 boards as the Cats defeated Team Toronto, 93-60, at the Imperial Ballroom at the Atlantis Resort Sunday afternoon to finish with a perfect record.
The Cats’ most impressive game occurred when they blew away Mega, one of the best junior club teams in Europe with three future NBA prospects, 100-64, Saturday night in front of a crowd of over 1,500 rabid fans who treated the match up like it was a national championship game. Washington scored 20 points and had 12 rebounds against Mega. Johnson had a high flying 16 as did Herro, Kentucky’s best long-range shooter. Richards had 15 points, 9 rebounds and two blocked shots. Quickly had 12 points and Green added 10. Kentucky’s young guards displayed impressive high IQ and combined to play strong enough perimeter defense to limit Mega to 4 for 27 from the three.
The Cats started three markedly improved sophomores—Washington, point guard Quade Green and Richards—with two blue chip freshmen—Johnson guard Immanuel Quickley during the bulk of the games, but gave Herro, Travis, and freshman point guard Ashton Hagans a healthy dose of playing time and at least one start. The Cats should be even better when 6-10 freshman E.O. Montgomery, recovers from a lower back injury that sidelined him from this trip. All nine are capable of upwards to 27 minutes playing time in any given game.
This is a team worth watching. They get along well and love spending time in the gym, spending extra time shooting down here after games. “Quade Green shot 1-for-11 the first game against the Bahamas,” Calipari said. “After the game he spent three hours in the Ballroom, working on his shooting. The next game, he made his first three shots and finished up the tour shooting 11-for-14.”
