4-Point Play: Celebrating a Tennessee win with Drake
It was a weekend to celebrate, Kentucky traveling to Knoxville to take on a top-five Tennessee team to close out the regular season and leaving with a statement victory. And wouldn’t you know it, the Wildcats are playing their best basketball in March. Isn’t that something?
John Calipari talked about how important that is tonight on his call-in radio show while also sharing some insight into his team attending the Drake concert on Sunday and the upcoming SEC Tournament.
Let’s break down some of his comments tonight on 4-Point Play, shall we?
Drake hangs out with the Cats
There may not be a bigger superstar in music than Aubrey Graham, better known around Lexington as Drake. He’s been a friend of the program since John Calipari arrived in Lexington, even joining the Wildcats as an honorary member of the team during Big Blue Madness in 2014 — how can anyone forget his legendary airball in the layup lines?
He returned to Rupp Arena for a tour stop this week, back where it all started a decade ago and even recreating the famous image of his team photo in the meeting room alongside the likes of Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns wearing Kentucky jumpsuits.
“Oh hell nah all my brothers left me,” Drake joked on Instagram.
He even brought out Rob Dillingham to the stage during his concert, telling the crowd he’s been watching the freshman guard since he was a kid growing up in the basketball world.
“Shifty!” Drake said of Dillingham.
Calipari talked about Drake returning to Lexington for the “unbelievable show,” adding that he had the locker room to himself and talked about his journey with Kentucky and Coach Cal during a pre-concert prayer.
“I got emotional. I was, had my head down because he talks about the history, how long we’ve known each other and how when he wasn’t Drake, that we supported him,” Calipari said. “And he knew we were there for him and he said it helped his confidence and all this stuff. He is a superstar who’s never gotten away from who he is. He’s the same guy I met when he was 25 or 24, whatever he was, just getting off DeGrassi. It’s amazing.”
He then told the story of attending Drake’s graduation when he finished up high school after promising to his mother he’d get his diploma.
“He didn’t know I was there until the end. And I gave him a scholarship to the University of Kentucky,” Calipari said. “I said, ‘You might as well do this now that you’ve got your high school thing done. Let’s go.’ He reminded me of it.”
Kentucky visited Drake’s house in Toronto this past summer when the Cats were in Canada for the 2023 GLOBL JAM, a pool party and practice on the star artist’s home basketball floor while he was out of town. Now, he’s invited them back this year — and he plans to be in attendance.
“The team got to enjoy it. And, you know, for me to be able to see him — he invited us back to his home, he said come back this year,” Calipari said. “So maybe we’ll go back to Toronto and do some charity work, do some clinics for OVO, which is his group. Go to his house and we’ll swim, eat. How about that, was that crazy? He said, ‘I’ll be there though.’ I said, ‘We’re gonna have to do it.’”
Back to Toronto the Wildcats go.
The importance of a title in Nashville — if any?
Coach Cal turned some heads after the Tennessee win when he said he only cared about one postseason tournament each year, the big one. Sure, Kentucky earned a double-bye as a No. 2 seed by coming out victorious in Knoxville, but after years of watching the tournament finale be counted as a glorified scrimmage by the committee, there’s not much desire to win the whole thing.
“All that you said is what I’ve been saying. Since we’ve been in on the Sunday games. There are two reasons. One, it makes no bearing, no bearing on your seed. Your seed is before that game. So now you’re playing a game where it’s nothing,” Calipari said. “The second reason I don’t like Sunday, they may put you on a Thursday game (in the NCAA Tournament). So now you get back and it’s Monday, and you played three tournament games in a row.
“Now you’ve got Monday, Tuesday, and there you go. I just wish — I think it’s us and the Big 10, we’re the only Sunday games anymore. I wish they changed it but it is what it is.”
Thats not to say the trip isn’t important — the Cats are coming off a top-five true road win and can add to the resume with a pair of victories on Friday and Saturday, likely to solidify a No. 3 with an outside shot at a No. 2. Building on this momentum is a top priority for Calipari and his staff.
“Everything we do is based on seeding. This tournament, that’s what we’ll use the tournament for: seeding,” he said. “This league this year, oh. We’re probably gonna play one of two teams where one beat us and the other played us pretty good. And that’s your first game. The team that did really well all year ended up finishing No. 5, and they’ve got to play a hard game, then they have to play Auburn if they win that other hard game. I mean, it’s just gonna be a bear to get by.
“And there’s no indicator. I mean, we’ve been to the Final Four and we won the national title by losing the championship game. Then let’s lose the championship game, how about that?
Sunday is irrelevant in his eyes.
Film reveals a dominant team
Kentucky got two days off from practice following its win at Tennessee, then followed it up with a team meal Monday night. There, they watched film and broke down some of the highlights from Knoxville.
More specifically, it was a 10-possession stretch on both ends of the floor that had Calipari drooling ahead of postseason action. Offensive and defensive greatness, exactly what this team needs to be the rest of the month and hopefully into April.
“We showed some video, I showed 10 unbelievable defensive stops we made against Tennessee. Then I showed them 10 plays where we attacked the rim, we’re strong, some of the threes we created,” Calipari said. “10 possessions that we were off the charts and basically said, ‘That’s who we are now. That’s us right there. Let’s live up to that.”
Again, that’s why winning in Knoxville mattered. That’s why Nashville is important this week. Momentum. You want to be playing your best basketball of the season right now and that’s exactly what has happened with Kentucky.
“This is basketball, these are one game shots. We go in this tournament, let’s keep enjoying this team and stay in the moment. Then we’ll worry what happens next,” he said. “You can’t put that on these kids that way, they gotta do this or they gotta do that. For me, all I want them to do is think about each other. You’re playing for each other. You’re playing for our fans, you’re playing for the program. Let’s just go have a ball and show what we are.”
“You’re not screwing us, you’re screwing the people we’re going to play.”
How come the Cats remain No. 19 in the NET with six Quad 1 wins, highlighted by four straight wins in that category and seven victories of eight overall to close out the regular season? What’s the explanation for Kentucky sitting behind Tennessee (No. 5), Auburn (No. 6), North Carolina (No. 7) and Alabama (No. 8) in the NET by 11 total spots?
That’s what Coach Cal wants to know.
“(Tennessee is) going to be a No. 1 seed. They’re a No. 1 seed. I just don’t understand how you can beat the NET 4, NET 5 or 6, NET 7 or the NET 8, then you’re 19?” Calipari said. “You’re winning these road games. I don’t understand it, all I know is I don’t know how you could have someone you beat on the road late in the season three lines above you.”
It’s frustrating, but certainly more so for the poor team paired up in the NCAA Tournament too soon because of it.
“They can do that, but what do I always say? You’re not screwing us, you’re screwing the people we’re going to play,” he said. “They’re gonna look and say, ‘Why would we have to play them this early?’”
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