By Alan Lytle
Lexington, KY – Kentucky Coach John Calipari is re-iterating that Thursday was the best day in UK basketball history. Coach Cal was referring to last week's NBA basketball draft that saw five Wildcats go in the first round.
"It was a two hour infomercial for our league, for the University of Kentucky, and will speak volumes for the next five years, maybe longer", Calipari said.
That sentiment has drawn criticism from some former UK players, including Dan Issel, Kyle Macy, Dwayne Casey, and Kevin Greevey. They all told the Lexington Herald Leader, that the ultimate goal should be to win a national title. The Wildcats won the SEC tournament, but lost to West Virginia in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Tourney. Calipari says with so many young players on his team, overcoming a lack of big game experience, will likely be a perennial challenge.
"Players will win us national titles. Now we ve got to figure out as a staff, with the rules they way they are forty years ago it was different. They all stayed four years. It's not that way anymore. With the rules the way they are, which I don't agree with; kids should be able to go directly to the league and then stay two or three years, but that's not the rules we're playing by, that how are we going to deal with those last three games Elite eight, and the next two with a young team like we had last year. Because it looks like we're always going to have a young team. That's the issue", Calipari added.
Calipari used the weekly SEC media teleconference to also talk about his new crop of incoming players, and reflect on his recent visit to earthquake ravaged Haiti.