Kentucky News – 5/14/09

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Here’s the news from Lexington… where John Calipari’s Wednesday press conference got more coverage than a presidential visit:

Calipari offered up a number of big ideas to put Kentucky back in the national spotlight and I, for one, love ‘em.  Whether it’s building in-roads into China (only Nixon could go to China) playing neutral site games or putting the season’s first practice of the year in Commonwealth Stadium, the coach gets high marks for trying to make UK basketball more than “just another program” again.

One big idea is to play bigger name opponents in Louisville’s Freedom Hall.  Here’s the interesting thing about that — Calipari famously did NOT want to play home-and-home with Tennessee when he coached at Memphis.  He did not want UT to get a recruiting foothold in West Tennessee.  Now he’s the one that’s wanting to up his team’s presence in a rival school’s backyard.

Oh, and why does Calipari care about China?  “There’s 1,000 7-footers over there.  A thousand.”

Another big idea is for UK to renew their rivalry with Notre Dame.

At the same time, he did try to temper expectations by saying, “Half of the team (next season) is new players who never played a down of college basketball.  The other half has never played this style.”  There are no “downs” in basketball… but he was on a roll.  I was surprised, however, when he said that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader can’t hide the fact that he’s glad Billy Gillispie is gone and Calipari has arrived.  You’ve got to think his job just became a lot more fun.

Calipari expects Patrick Patterson to a be a leader next season.

The coach met with Kentucky’s governor yesterday… and with — possibly — Kentucky’s NEXT governer, former Wildcat player Richie Farmer.  (Seriously.)

So what will UK’s line-up look like next year?