Three takeaways from John Calipari’s appearance at SEC basketball media day

John Calipari was one of the first coaches at the podium for Southeastern Conference media day Wednesday, and he was in a jovial mood with the 2022-23 season right around the corner.

Three takeaways from Calipari’s meeting with reporters from around the league …

Oscar will be OK

Obviously, the health of reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe is the hottest topic in the world of Kentucky basketball right now. From the way Calipari spoke Wednesday morning, there’s nothing for UK fans to worry about.

The Wildcats’ coach has played down this injury from the beginning, calling the procedure that Tshiebwe underwent last Thursday a “minor” one to “clean some things up” that would take only 15 minutes. “Not a big deal,” he said then.

Calipari implied Wednesday morning that Tshiebwe is already ahead of schedule on a recovery that wasn’t expected to keep him out of regular-season action to begin with. He said he “busted out laughing” when he saw Tshiebwe the previous day, noting that the 6-foot-9, 260-pound big man was still supposed to be on crutches at that stage.

“He’s walking around showing, ‘Look, I’m fine, and I’ve got no swelling,’” Calipari said.

The fact that the UK coach went into any detail at all about Tshiebwe’s injury is something in itself. Calipari has notably said he hasn’t “seen” injured players when asked in past seasons about their status. Obviously, this season has not yet begun — so Calipari probably doesn’t feel the need to protect inside info on his players that could be used by opposing coaches — but he certainly didn’t sound like someone who expects Tshiebwe to be sidelined for any considerable amount of time.

It’s expected that Tshiebwe won’t play during Kentucky’s preseason schedule, but Calipari wouldn’t even go that far, saying simply that the UK star wouldn’t participate in this weekend’s Blue-White Game. The Cats also have exhibition games Oct. 30 and Nov. 3 before tipping off the regular season against Howard University on Nov. 7.

When one question began by noting that Tshiebwe had decided to come back to Kentucky for another season, Calipari interrupted.

“I’m trying to get him to come back next year, too, but go ahead,” he said.

That offhand comment might get some UK fans hopeful about two more seasons with Tshiebwe in a Kentucky uniform — and he does have two years of eligibility remaining — but it’s the immediate future that’s the focus. And it sounds like Tshiebwe will be ready to go relatively soon.

More from Jacob Toppin?

It’s been clear from the talk around the UK basketball program this summer that a big season is expected from Jacob Toppin, who is entering his third year as a Wildcat and his fourth in college basketball.

Calipari furthered that narrative Wednesday, continuing to talk up Toppin’s more mature approach to the game and his work on the court outside of team activities.

“He is living in the gym,” Calipari said. “Every player that I’ve ever coached that lives in the gym had breakthroughs. They had breakthroughs.”

Toppin was seventh in points and minutes last season — basically playing the role of top forward off the bench — but he’ll be relied upon to be much more than that this time around.

Calipari said the veteran forward has proved himself to be a better shooter and ball-handler going into this season, but he doesn’t want him falling in love with those perimeter-oriented aspects of his game.

“Now we’re trying to get him to more ‘car crash.’ You know what the car crash is? You drive, you create the car crash. You’re not getting T-boned; you’re T-boning that dude,” Calipari explained.

“When he does that, what happens? He plays really good, but what else? Gets hurt and grabs his shoulder, his knee, all that. So he’s got to get through all that to say, ‘Yes, I’m shooting the ball way better, I’m handling better, I’m more confident, but I’m not playing on the perimeter. I’m going to drive this thing and be in some car crashes.’”

To illustrate just how hard Toppin has been working on his own this offseason, Calipari noted that the program now has technology in its practice gym that can chart who’s there and how many shots they’re putting up. Toppin leads the team in that category.

“I’m proud of him,” Calipari said. “I get on him now. I’m holding him to a high standard because he’s here and I’m seeing this. Like, why not be that guy? Why settle for making some jumpers or, ‘I can make a three now.’ So? Go be that other guy that dominates our league.”

Confident Cal

Call it confidence. Call it the latest incarnation of “Swaggy Cal.” Call it whatever you want, but Calipari has come across in these first few weeks of the preseason as awfully bullish on the 2022-23 edition of his Wildcats.

A couple of weeks ago, he let his players go for more than an hour — with relatively few interruptions — in front of NBA scouts at Pro Day. Last weekend, he said very little at Big Blue Madness and offered up a mic drop to signal the tip-off to Kentucky’s season.

Calipari was particularly loose, even by his preseason standards, during his turn at the SEC media day podium Wednesday morning. He went out of his way to give up information on player injuries. When asked about the future of the UK-Indiana series, he actually revealed that the rivalry would indeed be renewed, even putting a start date on it: the 2025-26 season.

And there was plenty of joking around.

Longtime Arkansas reporter Bob Holt pointed out that there were six new coaches in the league and Calipari was “by far the senior coach …”

“No, I’m not. Don’t say that,” Calipari interrupted playfully. “Not by far.”

One reporter noted that there were a few early NCAA Tournament exits by SEC teams last season.

“Who?” the UK coach interrupted, a smile forming.

“Auburn, Alabama …” the reporter responded.

“You can say it,” Calipari shot back jovially. “Saint Peter’s beat us. It happened.”

It’s clear that Kentucky’s team has moved on from that shocking loss in March, turning the page to what could be a special season. SEC media members voted the Cats at No. 1 in the league this week. They got the No. 4 spot in the AP preseason Top 25 poll Monday.

Calipari’s confidence in this season’s team — a blend of returning veterans and star newcomers — has been palpable.

“We have more veterans than I’ve had in a long time, and those veterans are speeding up practice,” he said Wednesday. “Like, we’re doing more than we normally would do in the first couple weeks, because we’ve been there.”

An hour or so later, Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes was at the same podium and became clearly distracted by a fellow coach on the other side of the room who was yelling excitedly about something at the SEC Network’s broadcast location.

“Why is Cal being so loud?” Barnes asked the reporters. “He is starting to distract me again, you know?”

A few minutes after that, the noise from the other side of the room had subsided, and a reporter said to Barnes that it was nice of Calipari to quiet down a little bit.

“That’s asking the impossible,” Barnes joked of his longtime friend.

And, sure enough, a few moments later, Calipari was yelling excitedly once again.

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