Calipari: Versatile pieces give Cats many options
John Calipari enters his 14th season on the sidelines at Kentucky. (Jeff Drummond/CatsIllustrated)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
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@JDrumUK
Kentucky's latest No. 1 recruiting class features the No. 1 center, the No. 1 small forward, and two of the Top 5 point guards in America, giving John Calipari as much potential star power as any team entering the 2023-24 college basketball season.
The Wildcats' head coach is quick to point out, however, that the players who may not fit any clear-cut position could be as important as anyone on the UK roster.
"The game is becoming random," Calipari said Wednesday during UK's annual Media Day festivities. "And it's becoming positionless. When you see the kid in San Antonio (rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama) bringing it up and in the pick and roll and 7-2, you understand the game's positionless now.
"I want to be out there with basketball players that can play -- you don't have to run plays every time -- they understand how to space and cut and play."
Enter the lower-profile names on the UK roster.
Stretch-4 transfer Tre Mitchell will likely open the season as Kentucky's center after a strong showing during the summer exhibition trip to Canada. The former West Virginia Mountaineer may also be one of the Cats' most consistent 3-point shooters.
"He's a vet. He's like that, so he calms them down," Calipari said of Mitchell, one of his most experienced players. "But the biggest thing is he is one of those (players) that makes everybody better because of how he plays and who he is... They love playing with him because he makes the game easy for them."
Swingman Adou Thiero, built like an NFL tight end at 6-foot-8 and 222 pounds and seemingly continuing to grow by the minute, could join Mitchell in the starting frontcourt as 7-footers Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso recover from off-season surgery and Zvonimir Ivisic works his way into game shape.
Thiero came to Lexington as a wing and even got some minutes as a backup point guard last season, but now finds himself grabbing some minutes at the 4 out of necessity.
"Accepting roles is going to be big for us," Calipari said after last weekend's Blue-White Game.
Jordan Burks, a 6-9 freshman who flew under the radar in comparison to his high-profile classmates, is being hailed as a Swiss Army knife player who could play almost any spot on the floor.
Calipari lumped Burks in with Reed Sheppard as two freshmen who did not join the program with any priority outside of helping UK win games.
"(Sheppard) is one of those guys and Jordan is one of those guys that don't have that expectation stuff where I have to live up to this or that," the UK boss said. "They are just playing."
Calipari said Burks intrigued NBA scouts as much as any player on the roster during UK's recent Pro Day workouts. And Sheppard showed he could be a "glue guy" with his stat-stuffing line in the Blue-White Game.
"He doesn't have any ego about it," Calipari said of the Sheppard, the hoops-DNA son of former Kentucky standouts Jeff Sheppard and Stacey Reed. "He went up to Northern Kentucky, I think he was 2-for-11 or 3-for-11 (shooting)... But he had the biggest plus-minus. He had seven rebounds, five or six assists, four steals. Didn't shoot it that well, but you walk away saying he had the biggest impact on the game. So, if I'm this team, I want him on the floor with me when I play."
