Preseason Q&A: Calipari previews UK's 2019-20 team

The morning before he hit the airport runway to kick off the fall recruiting period, John Calipari spent an hour talking to the media about his new team and the current state of things as the players returned to campus after their summer break.

The team won’t officially begin its practices for the new season until later this month, but Calipari has still spent plenty of time with his players — the old and the new — and he had a lot to say about their strengths, their weaknesses, and the expectations going into a new year, his eleventh as the Wildcats’ head coach.

Read Calipari’s preview of what’s to come with a collection of the most interesting quotes from the preseason discussion.

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One more big man would be nice, but “we can play small.”

In a perfect world, Calipari would have one more big man on the roster. He said so himself. He and the staff tried hard to land a last-minute addition in N’Faly Dante, but the five-star center who reclassified to the Class of 2019 in August chose Oregon in the end. Once Dante came off the recruiting board, Kentucky’s roster was set with E.J. Montgomery, Nick Richards and grad transfer Nate Sestina as its only three post options.

“I’m comfortable with it,” Calipari said, shaking off the need for a fourth body inside. He acknowledged there is little room for error in the front court, but also sees potential in a small ball lineup. He already experimented with it in practices with both Keion Brooks and Kahlil Whitney rotating over to the four spot.

“Keion can be a four-man at his size and length, and even Kahlil could be a stretch four because physically he’s that guy that can fight and guard and do that stuff.”

He will use any of the other three — Montgomery, Richards or Sestina — as the big man in the small ball lineup, alongside Brooks or Whitney.

“This is an opportunity for Nick and E.J. and Nate.”

With only three true big men on the roster, each of them will get their share of opportunities with a longer leash to play through any mistakes.

“Now there’s no ‘He takes me out when I make a mistake,'” Cal said, meaning he doesn’t have the front court depth to use the bench as a teaching tool. “Nothing. There it is. You got a clean line. Go for it.”

“Nate’s better than I thought he was.”

Sestina has really impressed his coach so far. Calipari bragged on the grad transfer out of Bucknell, saying, “He talks. You can tell he’s played; he’s a veteran; he does basketball stuff without saying it.”

“He just doesn’t have the defensive presence that those other two would have. But all the other stuff — the toughness and rebounding balls — he makes the game, Nate does, so much easier for the other guys because he talks.”

E.J. Montgomery needs to “master his craft.”

Montgomery is following P.J. Washington’s two-and-done model with hopes of elevating his game to an All-SEC sophomore season and potentially a spot in the NBA draft lottery. In order to follow in Washington’s footsteps, Montgomery needs to be more consistent.

“He is a genius in that his mind is sharp; it is quick; he’s bouncy, athletically — now he’s gotta get more consistent with his skills,” Calipari said of his returning five-star power forward. “He’s got to, basically, master his craft. Can I do that for him? That’s where he is. He has to physically mature. I can’t do that for him.”

When Cal says physically mature, it is not just weight training. “Physically maturing on God’s time, not ours, in most cases. You can push it but it is what it is.”

Calipari also said Montgomery is loving the process and his “body doesn’t even look the same.”

“Nick has more confidence.”

For Nick Richards to reach his full potential in a rare third season at Kentucky for someone ranked as high as he was coming out of high school, it all starts with his confidence. Whenever he does something in practice that takes away from his confidence — the example used was shooting a 12-foot floater off the backboard — Calipari blows the whistle to remind him to play to his strengths.

“He’s trying stuff because he’s more confident than he’s ever been, so then he’s trying to do stuff that, ‘Why would you do that?’ You do the stuff that you’re doing well. You do [the other stuff], you’re going to take your own confidence away.”

“The kid started playing when he was 14,” Cal added. “He’s not like these kids that were trained when they were 8. And he’s a big kid, it happens for them later and it takes time. But I’m going to say this — one of the nicest kids I’ve coached here is Nick. A good-hearted, starting to feel better about who he is and how he is and more confidence.”

“Now can we get him to be consistent?” Cal asked. “Well here’s the good news: He’s going to have every minute he needs to be consistent.”

Ashton Hagans is “shooting the ball better,” but “needs to be a better layup shooter.”

Hagans is another returner from a year ago who is back to take his game to the next level. And according to his coach, Hagans has been a gym rat this summer and he is shooting the ball better going into his second season as Kentucky’s point guard. However, he still has plenty of room to improve when it comes to finishing at the rim.

“He’s got to be a better layup shooter, which you’ll be surprised that he’s not, but he’s better than he was. There were games that were like, ‘How’d you miss that?’ So he’s better there.'”

Earlier in the summer Calipari said he thinks Hagans is poised for a breakout year because he “gets it” now. What exactly does it mean to get it?

“It’s kind of like you’re running down a dark hallway and you know at some point there’s a wall; how fast do you run? Are you flying? Or are you kind of running and feeling? That’s what it is to play here. You think you know; you’re excited, this means I’m going to be a pro and all I gotta do — and then you start running down the hall and you’re like, ‘Oh geez, where is it?’ That’s this. After you realize that I can do this, this isn’t overwhelming… Some guys get it real fast. It takes other guys more time. I try to tell every kid, ‘You’re on your own path. Don’t worry about him. Just be on your path. Do what you do.'”

Tyrese Maxey is not like De’Aaron Fox, but “at some point he’ll have to do what De’Aaron Fox did.”

With Tyrese Maxey’s long hair and Texas roots, it is easy to compare him to De’Aaron Fox. But the two are completely different on the basketball court.

“Different, totally different,” Calipari said, when asked about the comparison. “Better shooter, Tyrese is. They’re really totally different. One kid is really fast and the other kid is fast, but not as fast as him; but he is a better shooter.”

Their playing styles may differ, but Maxey will have some of the same responsibilities Fox had during Fox’s one season in UK’s backcourt. Calipari told Maxey’s father that at some point Tyrese will have to do what Fox did, “which was take over.”

Calipari remembers calling Fox into his office in late January of that season, to tell him, “Kid, it’s time. This is your team.” Fox went on to lead Kentucky to the Elite Eight while scoring over 20 points per game in the postseason.

Maxey “can really score… I would compare him more to Jamal [Murray].”

If Maxey isn’t De’Aaron Fox, then who is he?

“I would compare him more to Jamal,” Calipari said. “He’s not 6-5, 6-6 — Jamal was a little bit bigger than him — but more like a Jamal who can play both positions. You can put him under the basket and let him play basketball [or] you can let him have the ball and make basketball plays. He can do both.”

Maxey and Murray are also similar in that Murray played with two other point guards in Tyler Ulis and Isaiah Briscoe, and Maxey will often share the backcourt with Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickley, two of the top five points guards in the 2018 high school class.

“It didn’t have any affect but a positive one on Jamal, and I would say the same is going to be true of Tyrese,” Calipari added. “There may be times that he’s solely the point guard; there may be times that we need him to score and get off the ball. There may be times that he and Ashton are in there together. We’ll try all kinds of stuff.”

The dribble-drive offense will be part of what Kentucky does, and Maxey will fit right in because he already knows the system. Maxey’s dad, Tyrone Maxey, coached him in high school and their team ran the dribble-drive.

“His dad did more with the dribble-drive than even I did,” Calipari said. “His son has been trained with the dribble-drive. So when we do that kind of stuff, he does it.”

Johnny Juzang “can really shoot” and is “way better than I thought.” 

Much like Tyler Herro on last year’s team, freshman Johnny Juzang comes to Kentucky as the least heralded of the new basketball signees, ranked in the mid-30s in his class’ player rankings, to provide outside shooting for the Wildcats. The hope is Juzang will follow a path similar to that of Herro, whose one-year college career ended with an NCAA Midwest Regional All-Tournament Team selection, All-SEC honors, and a seat in the green room at this past summer’s NBA draft.

He already has the shooting part down.

“He can really shoot, thank goodness,” Calipari said. “I told him, ‘Look, what we need is your ability to make shots, so don’t ever get away from that. Get in the gym and take more shots.'”

In addition to taking shots in the gym, Juzang is spending a lot of his time working on driving the ball. The staff is teaching him to pass out of a drive, and it is the same talk they had with Herro at the start of last season.

“What we did with Tyler, is we demanded he drive the ball. Similar to Tyler, when this kid drives it… like when you drive, don’t think you have to shoot. Well, he shot it.”

Overall, though; Calipari likes what he sees in Juzang.

“He is way better than I thought.”

“I like the fact that Immanuel is shooting it way better.”

Immanuel Quickley’s jumper has really improved over the offseason, coming off a freshman year in which he made 30 three-pointers at a 35 percent clip from outside. Matter of fact, the entire team is shooting the ball well, Calipari said.

“Tyrese can really shoot the ball. Johnny can really shoot the ball. The other wings we have — Keion and Kahlil — can shoot it, not as good as those guys, but they shoot it. You’re not going to say, ‘let ’em shoot.’ And you still have Nate and the best thing Nate does is physical but he can shoot. Like he can shoot 3s. EJ’s better, Nick can shoot.”

“Can we be one of those teams that just maul you to death?” 

The team hasn’t spent any time on defense yet — they never do this early — but Calipari eventually wants them to be a defensive-minded team.

“Can we be one of those teams that just maul you to death and then get you to drive and then we block shots and run? Can we be that team?”

He thinks so.

“The best thing I like is we know, on the ball, the defense starts on the ball. If you can’t guard the ball, you have no defense. If you can really guard the ball, you’re going to have a really good defense, especially if you have shot-blocking behind it. Now you can really guard the ball, we don’t have to help, now all the sudden they’re coming in and you’re occupying their eyes before they make a play and you become a pretty good defensive team.”

“We do have more veterans back, but even this team will probably take until January before you say: ‘OK, I see it.'” 

“We got some ridiculous games again early,” Calipari said of the schedule; the most obvious of ridiculous games being the season-opener against Michigan State in Madison Square Garden. Michigan State and Kentucky are the two preseason favorites to win the national championship, and will likely be ranked No. 1 and No. 2 when the preseason poll is released.

“We can get banged again early, first game like we did last year and ‘the season’s over.'”

“We won 30, should’ve been in the Final Four, should’ve won the national title, in my mind. But it started [and] you get punched in the mouth because you’re so young.”