Calipari releases part two of his State of the Program series

@MrsTylerKSR

Last week, John Calipari gave us part one of his three-part series addressing the state of the Kentucky basketball program in which he revisited his plan for the team back when he came on board seven years ago and how he and his staff have stuck to it. (#NoFlipFlop!) Today, he's back with part two, which deals with the immediate future: recruiting and next season. In it, he takes some not-so-subtle jabs at Coach K and Duke and uses an analogy that would make the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife proud:

I refuse to go in a home and paint a picture saying things like, “If you come with us you’ll be taken care of for the rest of your life by the program and by our alums” even though you may only be in school for a year or two. How preposterous does that sound? What if I say that same thing and the young man decides to transfer for one reason or another? Does that still hold true that we’re going to take care of them the rest of their lives? Our approach is to give them the fishing rod and the lures to help them catch fish, not to just give you the fish.

I mean, that whole paragraph is directed at Duke's "set for life" recruiting pitch, right? Cal says a couple of things about the upcoming season, backing up his earlier claim that this group could be "one of the best defensive teams that I’ve had since 2012 and 2015" and because of that, they'll focus mostly on defense early on, which may mean they'll be a little behind on offense; however, this post is about the immediate future, so he couldn't help but get one last pitch out to Marques Bolden:

I say all this with recruiting not quite finished. Why not be the best rebounding team? Why not be the best shot-blocking team? Why not be the fastest team? Why not be an exciting offensive team that spreads the court, throws a lot of lobs and dunks a lot of balls, yet has players who can make shots? I see practices as being wars, as they have been with my best teams. Those practices push every individual player to his limit and helps each player create their best version when they step on that court with a Kentucky uniform on.

Really, this post may as well be a letter addressed directly to Bolden about coming to Kentucky, but hey, that's Cal. In true Cal form, he ends it with a line that tells you just how excited he is for next year: