John Calipari has Two Significant Advantages in 2023

Instead of continuing to look back at what went wrong in 2022, let’s look ahead to the 2023 Kentucky basketball season. It’s too early to tell what the roster will look like. No matter who’s suiting up in the blue and white, John Calipari has two advantages baked into the schedule.

1. Kentucky has a Summer Trip to the Bahamas

What has made Calipari so successful at Kentucky is his ability to create and build team chemistry with a brand new team in a short amount of time. Every four years the NCAA gives him additional time during the summer to develop that chemistry with a foreign trip. Not only do they get an extra few weeks of team bonding, Calipari can run a dozen or so practices and play a handful of exhibitions against professionals.

Each time a Calipari team gets to take a summer trip, it leads to postseason success. Following the first foreign trip to Windsor, Canada, Brandon Knight and Josh Harrelson went to the Final Four. Prior to the heartbreak against Wisconsin, the 2014-15 team’s only setback was a 63-62 loss to the Dominican team in its sixth and final exhibition in the Bahamas. In 2019 the Wildcats were an overtime period away from going 3-for-3 in Final Four appearances following summer trips.

2. The Yum! Center Hosts a 2023 Regional

It’s imperative that Kentucky turns the summer trip into regular season success. Louisville will host a Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in 2023. John Calipari’s No. 1 goal should be to get the No. 1 seed to earn the opportunity to play a home game with a Final Four berth on the line.

Kentucky is 7-3 at the Yum! Center, with four postseason victories in the Downtown Louisville arena, however, all of those happened in the opening rounds. The Wildcats had one prior opportunity to play a Regional in Louisville. It just so happened to fall on a year when the Cat’s had a summer trip. Unfortunately, in 2019 Kentucky dropped two of their final five games to Tennessee, slipping off the No. 1 seed line and losing a chance to play in Louisville.

Kentucky could end an eight-year Final Four drought with 19,000 screaming UK fans packing the Yum! Center. John Calipari has 365 days to turn that vision into a reality.