Some Awesome Stuff You Should Know About This Year's Newest Cats

We are now in year eight of the John Calipari era of Kentucky basketball which means for the eighth year in a row we will be watching a brand new group of freshman stars take the court for the blue and white. With the start of the season still weeks away this year’s new guys are still, well, new and there is still much to be learned about them. As the season progresses we will gradually become more familiar with these new freshmen as human beings, their likes, dislikes, etc. Nonetheless, after some relatively apathetic research I was able to dig up a few golden nuggets of information to help us get to know these guys a little better. Reading about this new group of freshman was absolutely hilarious and, honestly, shocking. After comparing their personal bios on ukathletics.com to freshman from past years, I’m convinced this is going to be one of my all-time favorite freshman classes of the Cal era. This is really good stuff folks and I promise everything you are about to read is 100% factual information. Brad Calipari Favorite TV Show- Spongebob Squarepants I’ll start this list off with possibly one of the most important recruits of Cal’s tenure, his son, Brad Calipari. If you follow Brad Calipari on Twitter you should know that he plays the “tough guy” role. He barely ever smiles in pictures, his tweets center around his focus on basketball and earning his place on the team. No time for games for Brad. Well, according to UK athletics, Brad Calipari lists his favorite TV show as Spongebob Squarepants. Let me first note that I love Spongebob. I think it’s the funniest children’s cartoon ever created. However, I was not expecting for it to be Brad “All Work No Play” Calipari’s favorite TV show ever. I like Brad more for this, truthfully. He has taken a twitter hiatus (because of course he has) since basketball has started so I have no way to ask him what his favorite Spongebob episode is. Disappointing. (Mine is “The Fry Cook Games). De’Aaron Fox Nickname- “Swipa” It is relatively well known Monk’s nickname is “Swipa” but it was the most interesting personal fact he had. I included it not because it was new, ground-breaking information but because of the possibilities it provides. Fox, Swipa, sorry but this is clearly a “Dora The Explorer” reference. Between Calipari and Fox I’m not sure which is trying to channel their inner child more. Knowing this, I think “Swiper No Swiping!” needs to become a regular chant while De’Aaron is on the floor this year. It would be so ridiculous and unoriginal that I think it would be actually funny. Edrice “Bam” Adebayo Fact most people don’t know about him- his love for Katy Perry Bam is a gigantic, incredibly strong and powerful man that likes to shatter backboards and blare “California Girls” when it comes on the radio. Again, I cannot criticize Bam for liking Katy Perry because I too, am a big fan. A lot of dudes reading this are most likely too macho to admit it, but everyone knows the words to at least one Katy Perry song. Bam admitting his weakness to indulge in the occasional Katy song only proves further he is a man amongst boys. Bam you’re a firework, go on, show us what you’re worth. Wenyen Gabriel Favorite hobby- watching anime Yeah, I promise I didn’t make any of these up. For those that aren’t aware of what anime is let me explain. Anime is Japanese hand-drawn comics or computer animations. Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Speed Racer are probably the most popular examples of anime but since Wenyen lists it as his hobby I’m guessing his anime collection is much more extensive than just those three examples. Anyone I’ve ever met that’s interested in anime has been a, well, interesting cat. They’re usually always carrying around their favorite anime novel, drawing their own anime characters in their free time. I desperately hope this is also true for Wenyen. I want nothing more than for him to play his games in a Dragon Ball Z bandana. Also, if you’re reading this and dabble in anime art, feel free to tweet your best anime drawing of Wenyen in his UK gear to @BarrySliceKSR. The best drawing will win a super secret prize. Malik Monk Favorite hobby- fishing and riding four-wheelers No, this is not from Derek Willis’ bio, first of all. Second of all, Malik Monk is my favorite player on the team. Malik Monk chose Kentucky over Arkansas so he could be teammates with Derek Willis and I will not be convinced otherwise. The Step Brother’s scene pops in my head when I imagine Monk meeting Willis on his recruiting visit. I suppose Willis was watching “Smokey And The Bandit” as Monk interrupted to say how much he loved that movie, Derek then, being the gracious host he is, offered Monk a Mountain Dew, followed by Monk accepting his offer then asking, “Did we just become best friends?!” So to anyone concerned about team chemistry this year, you need not worry while Willis and Monk are on the floor together. The only people who should be concerned are local business owners because their parking lots are going to be seeing many tire marks from victory donuts/burnouts. The Dew Brothers are here and ready to dominate Sacha Killeya-Jones No Fun Facts Sorry, Sacha didn’t have anything noteworthy like the others. However, I bet we will unearth something interesting before the season ends.