Coach Cal was all smiles talking to reporters. I was all smiles at my house.
Coach Cal mentioned several players during the press conference, but my favorite quote was about Richie Farmer. "They tell me Richie Farmer is the Sec. of Agriculture here now. Wow! He was scoring baskets against us and now he's gonna be governor?"
Is the former Cat above gonna become an assistant coach? Many folks close to the program are promoting Mr. Padgett for a job. I have heard that Calipari had an awesome staff at Memphis that will likely come to UK with him, though. Nice to see Bobby Perry lurking in the background and Matt May asking the questions to Padgett. Catspause.com readers will recognize the name Matt May. He's one of their main writers. Maybe even a senior writer(that joke is for Tom).
Click here to buy the new shirt I thought that Coach Calipari really won over the UK fans at the press conference. I know he won over this one. I had many conversations with Kendall during the last few weeks of the Gillispie era, and we kept saying the same thing every time. Billy G just don't "get it". I learned something very quickly during John Calipari's introductory press conference. John Calipari "gets it". Less than 30 seconds in he mentioned Mr. Wildcat, who has now been gone 1 year. I believe the anniversary of his death was either Monday or Tuesday. Coach invited Mr. Wildcat's wife and daughter. He wanted them there because Mr. Wildcat always treated him right. It's awesome to me how many people throughout college basketball have a Mr. Wildcat story. He was an equipment manager. A stinkin equipment manager!! It takes a pretty special guy to be an equipment manager and reach the level of fame and adoration that Bill Keightley reached. Sorry for getting off track. I wish I had kept count of how many names Calipari dropped during the press conference. I bet he mentioned more former players and coaches in 40 minutes than Gillispie did in 2 years. I think it was great that he called all the former coaches to get their take on the job, and I think it's great that they all had nothing but good to say about UK. He has also already been in contact with several former players as well. Everybody had to love the Alan Cutler exchange. Coach Cal said, "Did you chase that guy? Was that you?" It was great and had me laughing out loud. Apparently he knows Cutler from the past. It made me think back to 1998 when me and some of the guys went to Rupp for the NCAA title celebration. We had seats in the lower level and Cutler was walking down by press row. We were maybe 30 feet away, but amongst hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Without planning or mentioning anything to our crew, Blake stands up and screams, "Hey Cutler". We all immediately turn to look and see Cutler stare right up to Blake and say, "How ya doin?". Blake, without missing a beat, screams "You suck". Cutler chuckled and kept going, but our section laughed out loud and some even applauded. I guess most people think Cutler sucks. Getting back to the coach, I also loved how he talked about giving players a second chance, helping out in the community, and promoting the university. I also loved the story he told about 2 years ago when the UK job came open. He said he went home from work 6 days in a row and asked his wife, "did they call today?". He wanted it to be known how special this job is to him. He also mentioned that he would have made more money next year at Memphis. I love the media coverage we are getting. It has me excited. I feel like the Cats are on the way back to the top. The Final Four is this weekend and UK is all you see on the news. I think we got a good one folks. As Jim Rome said yesterday, "The question is not IF John Calipari will win a title at Kentucky. The question is how many." I normally think Rome is an idiot, but I can be a fan for a day can't I?
