John Calipari Wants Eight UK Players to Be Drafted…But Does He Mean Something Else?

I absorb as much information as I possibly can about college hoops during its 5-month-long season. Seriously, I'm no casual fan. I'm the guy who'll finish up the Gonzaga/BYU game if it's playing into the wee hours. (And they often do.)

So I try to catch the college basketball talk shows when I can.

Saturday night, I turned one on just as I heard an interviewer ask John Calipari if he told his players early in the season that he wanted them to win the SEC, the NCAA title, all of it.

He told the guy that he told this team that he wanted 8 players to be drafted into the NBA after this season.

Now, when I heard that, my first reaction was, "What will Big Blue Nation think about this?"

Of course, if they're paying attention (and we know they do), they're not surprised that that is a huge goal of Coach Calipari's.

I hope this doesn't take on the tone of someone who is "snitching" because that's not my goal.

Honestly, I have to wonder how Wildcat fans would take a statement like that. You see, I agree with one of the co-hosts of the show during which that interview played. After his on-air partner said that she wished that he'd said, "Yes, I told them we're going to win the national championship," he came back and said that he felt Calipari's honesty was refreshing and that, in a way, he WAS saying he wanted to win the whole thing because why else would 8 of his players be drafted otherwise?

John Calipari has mastered the art of "clever ways of putting things." I believe this was just another one of those occasions.