John Calipari: Kentucky will be 'prepared to go into March'

The Kentucky Wildcats completely turned around their off-season after what was widely agreed to be a roughs start.

Kentucky lost Oscar Tshiebwe to the NBA Draft, a handful of players transferred out, and John Calipari just couldn't find anyone in the transfer in.

Then, the recruiting class, got stronger, the Wildcats returned Antonio Reeves, Tre Mitchell was added, and the team showed out during the GLOBL JAM without two of their projected starters.

Coach Calipari joined SportsCenter to talk about his team's development, and how he believes that the Wildcats have what it takes to make a run in March.

“Our league is way better, so we’re gonna be prepared to go into March," Calipari said. "You’ve got to be healthy. And again, the talent where you have a couple guys that can just take over a game, where you have great rim protection, those have been my Final Four teams. So I’m looking at this group and our whole thing is, ‘Let’s just get better every day. We showed this summer what we can do. Now let’s get stronger, let’s get more consistent shooting the ball, skill-wise.’ Young players are not sturdy enough to be really consistent. That’s why it’s really important, the summer and when they return to campus in the fall. This is a good group in that way. I mean, they love being in the gym. I go into my office, and I look out there, four guys are in there playing. And they play a lot of pickup, which is really important too.”

The ability to travel to Canada and play against some solid U-23 teams in the GLOBL JAM has given Cal and the team confidence heading into the season.

It's going to be a difficult schedule, for sure, but Cal believes that the offense has really shown something this offseason. If the team can continue to get each other the looks the got in Canada? This will be a lethal unit come SEC play.

"The other point that we saw is that we create great opportunities. When you have that you can create space versus plays," Calipari said. "You can do more random basketball, because they understand and they see each other. Court awareness and how we played there, we shot the ball well — Antonio Reeves really shot the ball well. You have to have that.”

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