Tyler Ulis, Marcus Lee and Alex Poythress are the returning building blocks of a team that lost seven players early to the National Basketball Association.
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Former Memphis AAU coach Keith Easterwood received a call from Jack Britton, the NCAA’s Assistant Director of Amateurism, Complex Case Review, and was asked questions about Gerald Hamilton, who has been Labissiere’s guardian since he moved to the United States in 2010 following the Haiti quake. “A couple of them got cleared a week before the game”.
“(Labissiere) is fine”, Calipari snapped.
“I already answered that stuff”, he said. “We’ll see in the first game”.
The incoming freshman class includes monsters like guard Jamal Murray, who lit it up for team Canada in the Pan Am games, and 7-foot center Skal Labissiere, the top-ranked player in the class of 2015.
Kentucky certainly needs size after losing 7-footers Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson, 6-11 Towns and 6-10 Trey Lyles to the draft. Humphries meanwhile has been a surprise with an inside presence that Calipari compared to Towns, and a nice jumper to boot.
Ulis smiled but shrugged it off. “And he is gonna play this year – so well”, Calipari said. “I can play as many minutes as he needs me to, but I feel like I need to lead this team and just do what I need to do to win”.
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Oh, and a provided a slightly grotesque story on Derek Willis injury and how it didn’t even seem to bother him. “I don’t know yet, and that’s why I said in November it’s going to be kind of ugly”, Calipari said.
