Coach Cal chats with SLAMonline about Enes Kanter, NCAA rules and more.

Slam Magazine

by Rodger Bohn / @rodgerbohn




When I was in Lexington in early March working on my Enes Kanter piece for SLAM 150, Coach Calipari invited me to take a tour of the facilities at UK and sit down and rap with him for a bit. It’s pretty easy to see why just about every player in the country has the Wildcats on their list, as their dope Wildcat Lodge (where the players live) and practice facility may very well have the best amenities in the country.


After watching Enes do his thing in front of NBA executives, we chopped it up with Cal for a while. Gotta love how he doesn’t hold back any punches toward the NCAA, keeps it real about DeMarcus Cousins, and gives it to you 100 about Enes Kanter.

SLAM: Tell me a little bit about your experience with Enes in the nine months that he’s been here with you at UK.




John Calipari: If he’s not the youngest freshman in the country, he’s one of the five youngest. He’s the youngest on our team by four months. So you have this big-bodied kid who is basically just a young kid. He works at it, he’s a great kid, and his teammates love him. We had Josh Harrellson offer to give up his senior year for the kid to play. He comes from a family where the father did everything he was supposed to to make sure that this young man could play and the NCAA made its decision early on that this kid was not to play. We jumped all kind of hoops, but this kid was never going to play.


SLAM: You guys got involved with Enes’ recruitment quite late in the game. How did everything come about and get to where things are today?
 
John Calipari: If he’s not the youngest freshman in the country, he’s one of the five youngest. He’s the youngest on our team by four months. So you have this big-bodied kid who is basically just a young kid. He works at it, he’s a great kid, and his teammates love him. We had Josh Harrellson offer to give up his senior year for the kid to play. He comes from a family where the father did everything he was supposed to to make sure that this young man could play and the NCAA made its decision early on that this kid was not to play. We jumped all kind of hoops, but this kid was never going to play.


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