Tom Crean breaks down how John Calipari should improve roster next season
Kentucky‘s postseason woes continued in humiliating fashion this season, losing to 14-seed Oakland in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament in a loss that threw Big Blue Nation into so much turmoil that it almost lost John Calipari his job.
After the debris settled, it was revealed that Calipari will remain in Lexington — at least for next season. Both Calipari and athletic director Mitch Barnhart have made it public that changes will be made to the staff and to how the roster will be put together.
Before Kentucky makes any moves, former college basketball coach Tom Crean — who notably beat Kentucky three times in the NCAA Tournament, twice at Marquette and once at Indiana — offered his two cents on what Calipari should focus on to see the best results.
“I think it’s just all about balance,” Crean said, via KSR’s Tyler Thompson. “I think the one thing John [Calipari] didn’t have that he used to have this year, that’s so good, is he didn’t have that four-man that changes the game form where he can post them, he’s a three-point threat, he’s a driver.
“If John adds to what he has with that team now and keeps some of that team intact with the freshman that he has, adds some people that can move without the ball, adds some people that can shoot, but truly adds a four-man.”
Crean pointed out Tennessee’s roster as an example, which was led by the addition of Dalton Knecht, the mid-major veteran turned SEC Player of the Year, out of the portal. The Vols still had youth on their roster and made it work to the point where Tennessee won the SEC regular season title, earned a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament and fell one game short of the program’s first-ever Final Four.
While he admitted that Calipari doesn’t necessarily need a volume scorer like Knecht, Crean believes the X-factor from this past year’s roster was at the power forward spot. He had three seven-footers, but Kentucky’s veteran four, Tre Mitchell, missed almost the entirety of February before being shoehorned back into the starting lineup in March.
“Obviously, what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to take away the shooting that he had this year,” Crean continued. “And even if you lose some guys off that team, which invariably they will to the draft, you don’t want to lose the ability to have that spacing and have that shooting. Because I think he’s really on to something with what he’s doing offensively.
“But you need that four-man. You need some veterans that you can put around those freshmen. And I think he can find a way to have a really good balance because he’s got some of the best freshmen in the country coming and he’s also at a place where he can add some of the best people from the portal in the country. So, it’s really a good place to be, I think.”
Kentucky once against will bring in one of the top recruiting classes in the country, featuring the No. 2 recruiting class in the country led by C Jayden Quaintance and PG Boogie Fland — who both rank No. 1 at their respective positions.
Now, it’s all about who Calipari will add to this group. Only time will tell who that is, but in the meantime the Wildcats have reportedly been in contact with multiple mid-major vets since players began entering the portal with the hope that these will be the player(s) to finally bring postseason success back to Lexington.