The entire college basketball world is in Phoenix right now, all eyes on the Final Four and a national champion crowned Monday evening. First up, head-to-head battles on Saturday between Purdue and NC State, followed by UConn and Alabama to decide the title matchup. While the real games happen, the big names have swarmed the city for the 2024 NABC Convention — the nation’s premier professional event for coaches with keynote sessions, development clinics and networking events — among other seminars and speaking opportunities.
So if you see pictures of Coach Cal with fans out in the desert, now you know why — beyond watching Antonio Reeves in the College 3-Point Championship and Devin Booker drop 40 for the Suns.
The whole staff is out there, Orlando Antigua even leading a discussion on “leadership, grit and culture” with the NAHREP. And though the players are back in Lexington for class and workouts (some preparing for the draft), the Wildcat Waterboys are out West with the staff looking to bring a championship trophy back to Lexington.
UK Managers to the Championship in Phoenix
It’s been a hell of a day for the Kentucky basketball managers, who have earned not one, but two tough wins in the Elite Eight and Final Four of the Manager Games to secure a spot in the national championship.
First, it was a 31-26 victory over Michigan State to advance to the semifinals, followed by a 41-33 overtime victory over Iowa State to move on to the finals.
Stats were not readily accessible at the time of posting, but I’m here to tell you grad assistant Zach Thomas was the game MVP according to my eye test while Ray Surratt and Darin Minniefield came up with big plays late to push the Cats out front and secure the win.
Now, they get to take on arch rival Arkansas in the title game at 8:05 p.m. ET.
Time to bring home the hardware, boys.
Willie Cauley-Stein appreciated ‘real-life’ experience at Kentucky under John Calipari
Elsewhere, former Wildcat superstar Willie Cauley-Stein has been named the next roster addition for #LaFamilia, Kentucky’s alumni team for The Basketball Tournament in July. He officially joins Eric Bledsoe, Doron Lamb and Reid Travis among participants, with the rest of the team set to be revealed in the coming weeks.
When Cauley-Stein was introduced with TBT, he took part in an interview discussing how excited he is to return to Lexington and play in front of Big Blue Nation again. He also talked about Coach Cal and their relationship, what he meant to his life and career as a basketball player.
His answer was pretty awesome, as you’d probably imagine considering WCS went from four-star recruit to First Team All-American and Defensive Player of the Year over the course of three seasons in Lexington.
“I always like to say about Coach Cal is how diligent he was about teaching us real-life things, real-life situations. Everybody wants to hear about getting cursed out or crazy things he said, but that’s just normal coach stuff. With real life, people don’t expect him to be telling us those things,” Cauley-Stein said of his former coach. “I don’t know how many meetings we had about domestic violence, preventing it, how to prevent it. Police officers come in and tell us how to deal with situations if it ever comes up. Those are the things that stuck with my heart, the financial stuff he taught us. It’s bigger than basketball man, that’s why they call it La Familia. It’s a fraternity once you go there, a family.
“When you go and spend your time there, put your work in at UK, he’s there for you for life after. If you run into a problem after you leave there, he’ll be there to give you some sort of advice or put you in a position to start working your way back up to succeed. I always appreciated that from him.”
The Ringer takes a shot at Coach Cal
On the other end of the spectrum, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wasn’t shy about throwing a jab at the Kentucky head coach when updating his latest 2024 mock draft. Once putting Reed Sheppard at No. 1 on his board, the freshman guard dropped down to No. 8 in this week’s release.
Why? He struggled in the NCAA Tournament — and Coach Cal is partially to blame for that, something Sheppard won’t have to deal with in the NBA, he says.
“Though Sheppard played one of his worst games of the season in Kentucky’s opening-round loss, a coach like Taylor Jenkins would know how to use him and make adjustments better than John Calipari,” O’Connor wrote. “Thanks to his savvy passing and lights-out shooting, Sheppard could provide backup for both Ja Morant and Desmond Bane. He could also play with both because of his off-ball defensive playmaking ability.”
Oof.
Elsewhere, Rob Dillingham dropped to No. 12 in the update, followed by Justin Edwards at No. 40 and DJ Wagner at No. 51 to round out the Wildcats.
Nate Oats says he owns the SEC since taking over at Bama
Speaking of shots and the Final Four, Alabama coach Nate Oats had a lot to say in Phoenix when previewing his team’s matchup on Saturday. When asked about what the Crimson Tide’s trip to the national semifinals is doing for recruiting, the 49-year-old explained that things are pretty darn easy right now.
He said the offense was already an easy recruiting tool, as is the current success within the league. Factor in Bama’s trip to the Final Four, and they’ve got all of the hard stuff covered, for the most part.
“Certainly doesn’t hurt. If kids don’t want to be a part of a winning team, I probably don’t want to take ’em,” Oats said. “We’ve had one of the more – what would I say – modern offenses, one of the more recruitable two offenses in the country over the last five years. We did a study. We improved our guys’ draft stock more than anybody in the country than anybody has over the last five years we’ve been there. We have the NBA deal, more lottery picks than anybody in the country, have the offense going.
“We’ve won at a high level. Since I got to the SEC, they’ve given out nine trophies, I think we have four of ’em. There’s five regular season, four tournament. They didn’t have the tournament my first year. I think we’ve got four. Kentucky has one. Tennessee has two. Auburn has got two. We’ve won those championships. We’ve got an offense. We put guys in the pros. Now we’re competing on a national stage in a Final Four to win a national championship.
“There’s not a lot missing in the recruiting pitch now. Preston is a big-time recruiter. He’s certainly using this Final Four run to our advantage, for sure. We’ll see what type of dividends we can gain from it moving forward this spring and summer.”
Danny Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies will have something to say about the championship part.
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