John Calipari and Alex Poythress (Getty Images)

Outside the victorious Kentucky locker room not long after the 2012 national title game ended, John Calipari admitted he had even larger goals than merely winning his first championship.

(via CatsIllustrated.com)He told a small group of reporters he wants to coach a team that goes 40-0.

Next year's unprecedented recruiting class might give Calipari his best chance yet to chase perfection, but attaining it will not be easy with the non-conference schedule the Kentucky coach has assembled. The Wildcats will face two teams expected to join them in the preseason top three next year, a third likely top 10 team on the road and a handful of other NCAA tournament contenders either at home or on neutral courts.

The biggest early test is a Nov. 12 matchup in Chicago with a Michigan State team that returns every key player besides Derrick Nix from a team that contended for the Big Ten title and reached the Sweet 16. The Spartans will be much more experienced than the freshman-heavy Wildcats and should start the season no lower than third in the polls.

Among the other marquee games on the non-league schedule are a visit to North Carolina on Dec. 14 and a home game against Louisville on Dec. 28. The Tar Heels have the talent to contend in the ACC thanks to the return of James Michael McAdoo and P.J. Hairston, while the defending champion Cardinals have seven of their top nine back and are the only team besides Kentucky with a legit case to begin the season ranked No. 1.

There are no true road games on the schedule besides the visit to Chapel Hill, but some of the remaining home and neutral-court games will be challenging.

Nerlens Noel is one of nine freshmen in this year's draft (Getty Images)

The official early-entry list the NBA released on Wednesday morning didn't contain too many surprises aside from a handful of low-major and lower-division players who decided to enter the draft. Click here for the full early-entry list and read below for some relevant statistics from this year's list.

77: Early-entry players on this year's list, 45 college underclassmen, 31 international prospects and one post-graduate high school student

60: Number of players selected in every NBA draft

9: Freshmen on this year's list – Steven Adams (Pittsburgh), Anthony Bennett (UNLV), Archie Goodwin (Kentucky), Grant Jerrett (Arizona), Ricky Ledo (Providence), Ben McLemore (Kansas), Shabazz Muhammad (UCLA), Nerlens Noel (Kentucky), Joshua Simmons (Spartanburg Methodist JC)

10.4: Average number of freshmen on list the past five years

13: Sophomores on this year's list

23: Juniors on this year's list

In a dusty box in someone's attic or basement, there may still be video of my sixth-grade talent show lurking on a mid-90s vintage camcorder.

I pray it never makes it to YouTube because I'm sure it's 100 times more cringe-worthy than this classic video of Indiana point guard Yogi Ferrell rapping in sixth grade.

According to the person who uploaded the song this week, Park Tudor School had a business fair seven years ago at which every student had to sell a product. Ferrell's product was apparently the above rap song, and it's probably safe to assume he didn't sell too many copies except to sympathetic family members.

Finding the right adjectives to describe the self-written song is not easy, but I'm going to go with adorably awful. Seventy percent of the lyrics are inaudible, but you can definitely here him say at the 26-second mark, "I wanna play for Duke …"

Thankfully for Indiana fans, Ferrell changed his mind in high school. And thankfully for Ferrell, he chose to focus on basketball instead of music.

Lance Thomas hugs Mike Krzyzewski after 2010 title game (Getty Images)

The NCAA's investigation into ex-Duke forward Lance Thomas ended Tuesday afternoon in the most predictable way possible.

Unable to prove Thomas accepted extra benefits in order to purchase nearly $100,000 of jewelry from a New York jeweler in Dec. 2009, the NCAA wrapped up its inquiry and moved on to other cases. Duke associate athletic director Jon Jackson sent out a press a release Tuesday indicating no evidence of wrongdoing was found and the NCAA now considers the matter closed.

A lawsuit filed by Manhattan-based Rafaello & Co. in Sept. 2012 brought attention to the purchase by Thomas because it raised eyebrows that a college senior from a single-parent home would attempt to purchase $97,800 in diamond necklaces, watches and earrings. The infractions case was especially noteworthy because it had the potential to jeopardize Duke's 2010 national championship that Thomas helped win.

[Also: Steve Alford locked in dispute with New Mexico over $1 million buyout]

Thomas forked over $30,000 for a down payment for the jewelry and initially agreed to pay the rest within 15 days, but Rafaello & Co. eventually sued him almost three years later because it did not receive the money. If Rafaello & Co. awarded Thomas a loan based on future earnings he could make as a professional either in the NBA or overseas, that would violate NCAA rules prohibiting such transactions.

Once Thomas and Rafaello & Co. reached a settlement last September, however, the NCAA's hopes of proving the Duke forward did anything wrong instantly became remote. Since a confidentiality agreement was likely part of the settlement and the NCAA lacks subpoena power, investigators would have needed to make their case without any input from either Thomas or the jeweler.

In addition to not cooperating with NCAA investigators, Thomas spoke publicly about the infamous jewelry purchase only once, and he did not shed any light on where he acquired the money for the down payment.

Brian Wardle (AP)Now that former Wisconsin-Green Bay walk-on center Ryan Bross has gone public with a the alarming accusations that sparked an investigation of coach Brian Wardle, what's at stake is finally clear.

Either eyewitnesses must corroborate Wardle's claims that the allegations against him are false, or the university should not let him coach another game.

In a story published Monday night by the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Bross accused Wardle of calling him derogatory and homophobic slurs, interfering with his academic course choices and running him when he was ill during practice to the point where he lost control of his bowels. It's the stomach-churning details of that particular incident that are most galling to read.

When Bross told the coaches he was feeling ill and needed to use the bathroom before the team was to run hill sprints near campus during preseason conditioning in October, the freshman center said Wardle thought he was faking it. Bross said Wardle called him a "baby" when he asked to stop again after one hill and continued to ridicule him when he couldn't control his diarrhea and soiled his pants a few hills later.

“I got down to the bottom (of the hill), and Wardle told me I was a piece of s--- and that he had never seen such a big p---- in his life and that I was the biggest piece of s--- he had ever seen,” Bross told the Press-Gazette.

Steve Alford (Getty Images)

When Steve Alford accepted an offer to become UCLA's new coach 10 days after agreeing to a 10-year contract extension with New Mexico, it left many Lobos fans feeling betrayed and upset.

Expect that tension to only escalate as a result of a dispute over how much buyout money Alford owes the school because of his departure.

New Mexico maintains Alford owes $1 million as stipulated in his contract extension, but school officials told the Albuquerque Journal on Monday evening that the UCLA coach has yet to pay that sum. The Journal obtained an email sent by Alford earlier in the day in which he offered only to comply with the terms of his previous contract and its $200,000 buyout.

The crux of the issue is whether the still unsigned new contract had taken effect yet.

Alford announced he was resigning to take the UCLA job on March 30, two days before his new contract began on April 1 and before he had even signed more than just an offer sheet. Because Alford's previous contract stipulates he will give 30 days notice before leaving, New Mexico maintains that his final day of work was 30 days after his resignation, bringing the $1 million buyout into play.

Barring a change of heart from either side, it appears this contract dispute will likely be settled by an independent arbitrator hearing arguments from attorneys from both sides. I'm certainly no contract attorney, but it would seem Alford has a legitimate case since he had yet to formally sign his new contract, he left before it began and a 30-day notice of termination requirement is very rare in the coaching industry.

Indiana and Illinois fans have long battled over which campus housed the real Assembly Hall.

That argument is now moot.

Illinois announced Monday afternoon that effective immediately, its venerable 50-year-old basketball arena will be known as State Farm Center. The insurance company struck a $60 million 30-year deal for the naming rights.

The name change predictably hasn't been received well by Illinois fans, many of whom are pledging to still refer to the building by its former name.

"I'm totally gonna call Assembly Hall by its new name, State Farm Center" - no one ever

— abby radasevich (@abbyradd) April 29, 2013

A corporate name change to a hallowed building is an easy target for criticism, but Illinois fans would be wise to remember what they're getting out of this deal. The $60 million will help fund a $160 million in renovations to the arena, a project that should improve the fan experience at Illinois basketball games and aid the recruiting efforts of coach John Groce and his staff.

Grant Gibbs (Getty Images)In addition to Doug McDermott, another Creighton standout may be returning for one more year.

Grant Gibbs, Creighton's third-leading scorer and assists leader, told the Omaha World-Herald the school has hired a law firm to look into the feasibility of him petitioning the NCAA for a sixth season of eligibility.

Although Gibbs' five-year clock expired this year, his injury history enables him to make a case to extend his college career. He did not play a minute in two of his five seasons, the first as a result of a shoulder injury as a true freshman at Gonzaga and the second when he sat out after transferring to Creighton in 2010.

“[The law firm] indicated we should have an answer any day now,” Gibbs told the World-Herald. “If they indicate it would be worth pursuing, I would sit down with [coach Greg McDermott] and [Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen] and discuss it.

"If it’s something they would want to pursue, I’d be more than willing."

It's safe to assume Gibbs would have no trouble swaying McDermott or Rasmussen since Creighton would surely be elated to have him back for one more season. The playmaking guard thrived from long range and creating off the dribble this past season, averaging 8.5 points and 5.8 assists and shooting nearly 40 percent from behind the arc.