How John Calipari used transfers to rebuild UK basketball roster ahead of Duke opener

LEXINGTON – John Calipari is in unprecedented territory for his Kentucky tenure as the Wildcats prepare for the 2021 season opener versus Duke on Tuesday.

With star freshman guard TyTy Washington in foul trouble, at one point in the Wildcats’ exhibition opener versus Kentucky Wesleyan, Calipari turned to a lineup little seen in his 13 years in Lexington: Five upperclassmen playing at the same time.

Even before using the all-veteran lineup in the exhibition, Calipari had quickly noticed the benefits of a roster filled with experienced players.

“I am having a ball every day I walk in because I've got a bunch of guys that want to be coached, that want to challenge each other, that are engaged,” Calipari said. “We've got veterans. When you have veterans, they're on time. Without even saying anything, they lead. That's been fun.

“I haven't had many teams with veteran kind of players on it, so I kind of forget that it takes one thing off your plate.”

The constant in Calipari’s Kentucky tenure has been an annual roster churn that leaves Big Blue Nation trying to learn a new set of players each November.

The current team is no different. Even an embarrassing 9-16 record last season was not enough to stop Kentucky’s annual exodus. Four players left for the NBA draft and two others transferred.

But instead of stocking up on five-star freshmen as usual, Calipari signed just three players from the high school class of 2021. Instead, he made liberal use of college basketball’s new transfer rule allowing most players to change schools once without sitting out a season.

“If you think about my best teams, we had really good young talent, but there was veteran leadership within the team,” Calipari said. “I had one team that went to the final game that started five freshmen. That is unusual. But this is more like a team that we've got depth.”

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From Georgia, Kentucky added point guard Sahvir Wheeler, the SEC’s leader in assists. From Davidson, it added Kellan Grady, a sharp-shooting guard with more than 100 starts and 4,000 minutes of college experience. From Iowa, Calipari landed former Covington Catholic star C.J. Fredrick, a 46.6% career shooter from 3-point range. From West Virgina, Kentucky grabbed forward Oscar Tshiebwe, one of the most physical big men in the country who Calipari had previously tried to sign out of high school.

The transfers bring more than 8,000 minutes of college experience to Kentucky.

That total alone would top the returning minutes total for any of Calipari’s previous Kentucky teams. Add in the 4,733 college minutes of returners Davion Mintz, Keion Brooks, Jacob Toppin, Lance Ware and Dontaie Allen, and the Wildcats enter the season with almost twice as many college minutes than any previous Calipari-coached Kentucky squad.

“It’s a big deal,” freshman forward Daimion Collins said. “Being able to play with somebody that’s been playing and been doing this for a minute, I get to look up to them. They can teach me some things I don’t know.”

'Everything you do is amplified here'

The four transfers took different paths to Lexington, but they share the goal of trying to return the program to its normal spot at the top of the college basketball world while showcasing themselves for professional scouts.

The transfers bring varying degrees of connection to Kentucky.

Fredrick, who grew up in Cincinnati but attend high school in Kentucky, led Covington Catholic to a state championship at Rupp Arena. Tshiebwe called Kentucky his “dream school” as a high school recruit but was ultimately swayed to West Virginia.

Grady and Wheeler both played against Kentucky previously. Grady lost to Kentucky as a freshman in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Wheeler played Kentucky three times at Georgia, assisting on the Bulldogs’ game-winning bucket at the buzzer last season.

But familiarity with the program is not the same as playing under its glaring spotlight. Even the graduate transfers Calipari has added to his rosters in recent years have needed time to adjust to the unique challenges of playing for Kentucky.

“Everything you do is amplified here,” said Mintz, who made the adjustment as a transfer from Creighton last season. “The program, the fan base, you have to find that balance. It’s definitely different. … Being highlighted on ESPN just for losing, that doesn’t really happen at other programs, other than blue bloods. It took a while. It took a few months.”

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Since three of the four transfers come from other high-major programs, they should not have to worry much about a jump in competition.

Grady, whose production at Davidson dipped at times against high-major foes, did struggle early in summer workouts as he faced other top-level talents each day in practice. Since then, Calipari and Grady’s teammates report significant strides from a player who has averaged 17.4 points per game in his career.

If Kentucky returns to the NCAA Tournament, the transfers will not have much more experience than the other Wildcats.

Grady played 39 minutes in the loss to Kentucky as a freshman but did not play in the NCAA Tournament in his final three years at Davidson. Fredrick played 45 minutes across two NCAA Tournament games for Iowa last season. Neither Tshiebwe nor Wheeler played in the tournament at their former schools.

Still, considering no national champion since 2015 has started more than one freshman in the title game, Kentucky’s veteran core figures to be a boost in March even if many of those players will also be suiting up in their first NCAA Tournament games.

“It’s a different vibe,” Mintz said. “There’s a different vibration out there when you’re with guys that are older, want to play the right way and want to win.”

The new normal or a one-year experiment?

All bets are off if Kentucky’s transfers lead the Wildcats to a Final Four this season, but for now, Calipari has downplayed the possibility he will look to the transfer portal for multiple additions every year moving forward.

“In a normal year, like if this (recruiting) class finishes like I think it's going to finish, the only way we take a transfer is if we have a roster of nine players,” Calipari said. “Now, you won't believe this. You need a warmup line. You've got to have like enough where you can have a couple balls. So okay, then maybe we take a transfer. If we miss on a kid, then maybe we take a transfer.”

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Calipari’s new-look coaching staff is built around elite recruiters Orlando Antigua, Ron “Chin” Coleman and Jai Lucas. Even as the staff went heavy on transfers to assemble the current roster, Kentucky coaches were doing their best to return the program to the unprecedented recruiting success Calipari and Antigua built during the early years of the Calipari era.

Kentucky has secured commitments from three of the top seven high school prospects in the class of 2022, including No. 1-ranked prospect Shaedon Sharpe. Talk of a “super” class has quieted since Kentucky lost five-star prospects Dereck Lively and Adem Bona, the Wildcats’ top post targets in the class, but it is clear Calipari is not abandoning his philosophy that adding elite freshmen is still essential.

With no uncommitted high school senior big man holding a scholarship offer from Kentucky, the Wildcats are likely to return to the transfer portal to add a veteran post presence depending on how many players in the current frontcourt leave after the season.

“I think we’re swimming with the current in terms of the transfers,” Coleman said. “The transfer rule is an advantage to Kentucky. I think Kentucky wins in that because a lot of players, they want to play at Kentucky. This is a place that will benefit more than others from the transfer rule, but I think we’re always going to recruit the best high school players in the country.

“…Not only do the good high school players want to come here, but also the transfers. So, we have to take advantage of all that.”

Sharpe is rumored to be considered enrolling early at Kentucky for the spring semester, but his plan is to only practice with the team in order to prepare for next season rather than playing in games.

That leaves the burden of carrying the current team to a deep tournament run on Kentucky’s veteran transfers. It’s a challenge they welcome with open arms.

“When you bring in the best players year in and year out, you have a really good chance of winning,” Wheeler said. “I knew Coach Cal wasn’t going to have two years where it’s subpar, below to the level of expectations. I knew if I was coming here, we were going to have a group of guys that were about winning, about turning this stuff around.

“We had a group of guys that want to prove we are the best. We have a chance to make a Final Four run and win the national championship.”

Why Kentucky basketball transfers picked the Wildcats

C.J. Fredrick: "I just wanted something new. I felt like it was best for me and my career to make this move and just develop more as a player, a teammate, a person. I’m just really excited for this opportunity. Kentucky in no way had reached out to me before the portal. I went through the whole recruiting process when I was in the portal, and I just felt like this was the best opportunity for me. I took my time. I went through all of the information and this was the place that I felt was best for me and my career."

Kellan Grady: "Coach Calipari’s track record of really developing players and giving them a really, really good shot at them becoming NBA players. Putting his players in positions to be put in next-level type scenarios on the court. It’s a very contemporary, pro-style offense. From what I’ve heard and from what I’ve gathered from other people who have gone through the Kentucky experience, Coach Cal really fights for you and advocates for you for those at the next level. It’s an opportunity to be on a really good team, competitively nationally and play at the biggest stage, which is something that I need at this time."

Oscar Tshiebwe: "I do not have a lot of fear. I call myself a warrior. I fight. Every time Coach Calipari told us, ‘You want to be in Kentucky basketball, you want to be successful, you have to fight.’ You’ve got to fight. This place, you can’t come in and get something easy. You have to fight for it. Everybody who decides to come here knows I’m going to fight to help this team the best I can. It helps me. If I give everything I have, this team is going to help me too for what I’m looking for."

Sahvir Wheeler: "From a basketball standpoint I knew I wanted to go somewhere where I could make that next step. I know the biggest thing to make the next step and make it to the NBA is being a player who has a winning pedigree. I know Kentucky is known for that winning tradition. They have a winning coach. They have a winning coaching staff. It’s guys who have been at different places and won."

Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: Transfers aim to lead Wildcats past Duke