Matt Jones shares encouraging behind-the-scenes update on Kentucky Basketball

A month and a half ago, Matt Jones voiced his concerns over the state of the Kentucky Basketball program as the staff scrambled to add to a roster that consisted of only five freshmen and two sophomores. Since then, West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell joined the fold, super senior guard Antonio Reeves returned to school, and two more freshmen signed on, Joey Hart and Jordan Burks. The Cats went 4-0 in the GLOBL Jam even without big men Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso, who are both recovering from foot injuries. Time will tell but after a tiring few seasons, it feels like things are finally looking up.

This morning, Jones shared what he’s hearing were the catalysts for the change. Obviously, adding Mitchell — who only left West Virginia because of Bob Huggins’ DUI and subsequent exit — and Reeves was big. But equally important is the addition of John Welch, a player-development specialist who is also in charge of Calipari’s offensive strategy. His impact was on display in Toronto.

Addition of John Welch, change in style of play

“Cal has had an issue for a number of years that he was firmly convinced his way to play was the way to play and if you’re not good enough, then you know what, it’s your fault, not mine and I’m not adjusting,” Jones said. “I think Welch and maybe [fellow new assistant Chuck] Martin is part of this too, but I think Welch is the big one who has gotten Cal to look at basketball a different way. And we saw it in Toronto.”

Obviously, personnel plays a part in that. Thanks to the freshmen class, Kentucky once again has the tools to play a run-and-gun style of basketball. Jones pointed to one of Calipari’s interviews in Toronto in which he said he wants his team to shoot 27 threes per game this year as further proof of the shift in mindset.

“Again, when you say he has the players, would he have said that 27 threes line at any point in his career? No. Clearly, he’s had a change of mindset. He wouldn’t have said that. He just wouldn’t have and now he does. And I think John Welch gets a lot of credit for that.”

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NIL “Reality Checks”

Another significant shift this summer: Calipari’s approach to NIL. After losing some transfer portal targets to other schools — namely Hunter Dickinson to Kansas — and Chris Livingston to the NBA Draft, Jones said he heard that Calipari had a “couple of reality checks.” Since then, Calipari launched the La Familia Club, a group of his friends that are donating to the program’s NIL causes.

“I think it has been very successful amongst the Cal people,” Jones said of La Familia. “And now the key is going to be to get Kentucky donors to be part of it. We’ll see how that happens. But he basically came to realize, I’m gonna have to change how we look at this NIL thing. I think Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell were the first success stories from that.”

Team Camaraderie

Throughout last season, there were rumblings of discontent behind-the-scenes. Jones didn’t share specifics, but said he’s heard a few stories that opened his eyes to how bad things were in terms of mentality and work ethic. Thankfully, with an almost entirely new roster, that seems to have changed.

“I think people kind of got reinvigorated with some of these new guys,” Jones said. “I think a lot of these freshmen have great mentalities and sort of have excited even the older guys and some of that fun. That has been so characteristic of Cal’s program for so many years. It’s kind of back and there’s a new energy.”

“I’ve been told they’ve kind of turned around that there’s a new energy in that building, built in part by the new coaches, but in part by the new players who have come in with a lot of energy, and a lot of those things are better now.”

Again, time will tell, but an encouraging update as we look forward to the 2023-24 season.

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