[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_1_3Wv19hU&w=560&h=315]
Loaded up with a team of future NBA first-round picks, John Calipari isn’t being shy about his goals.
“I’ve said it for eight to ten years. Before I retire, I would like to coach a team that goes 40-0,” Calipari said Tuesday at Kentucky’s media Day.
Kentucky went 38-2 two years ago when it won the national championship.
Will Kentucky go undefeated?
Probably not given its schedule. But we should know a lot more about the Cats after they face Michigan State (Nov. 12), North Carolina (Dec. 14) and arch-rival Louisville (Dec. 28) in the first couple months of the season.
“Every game we play, we play to win,” Calipari said. “We’re not playing any game not to win. The reason I like the mentality of every game matters is you don’t want to get upset by people that you shouldn’t be beat by. That game matters as much as a North Carolina or Michigan State or whoever else.”
Kentucky, Louisville and Michigan State are widely regarded as the top three teams in the nation, but even with his loaded squad, Calipari isn’t sure his team is No. 1.
“I haven’t seen anyone else, so I don’t know,” he said.
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Calipari continues to rave about freshman James Young, saying that NBA scouts tell him Young is the most impressive player in training camp — not Julius Randle, Andrew Harrison or Willie Cauley-Stein.
“Everybody that walks in the building, the guy that they’re saying is the standout is James Young, like every day,” he said. “We’ve had NBA scouts in here every day. They’re all speaking about him.”
He added: “He is really fast. He’s now not settling for jump shots. So you’re seeing a young man get his head and shoulders by people, take contact, and make baskets, which a month ago he was not going in there.
“In transition, he’s kind of like Michael Kidd. If he’s out ahead, you throw him the ball. Something good will happen. And he has a chance of being a terrific defender.”
