Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari spoke to the media Friday morning for the first time since the opening round SEC tournament loss to Mississippi State back in March.

Calipari spoke on the Kentucky Knicks, mental health, confirming the return of Keion Brooks Jr. and Lance Ware and most extensively, the transfer portal and the subject sweeping college basketball: name, image and likeness (NIL)

“We had injuries [last season], we had shortages and a couple transfers. All of a sudden, thank goodness we can tap into that market but it’s not something we’re saying we’re going to live by it,” Calipari said. 

Injuries, among other situations keeping players off the court plagued the 2020 Kentucky men’s basketball team. Brooks Jr. sat out the first half of the season with injury, Cam’Ron Fletcher was sent home during the year, the late Terrence Clarke had a bum ankle for the majority of the season, among others. 

“This year [automatic transfer rule] is good, I’m not sure where it will go going forward but we will be evaluating,” he said.

Kentucky has abused the new transfer rule, bringing in four high-level players from elsewhere this off-season including Oscar Tshiebwe, Kellan Grady, CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler.

“That says a lot about you as a player, which is ‘I’m not worried about that, I want to see how good I can be and be on the biggest stage and see if we can win a championship,’” Calipari said. “You talk about all the kids that came here that could’ve gone other places, that could’ve gone other places, could’ve gone to a place that guaranteed them things and they came here. This is a different place for that.”

What makes these transfers the perfect fit for Lexington, though?

“Sahvir [Wheeler],” Calipari said of the Georgia transfer. “He’s more of a ‘I’m going to get everybody involved in this, I’m going to speed the game up, I’m going to throw the ball ahead.”

“Kellan [Grady] also played point guard, the first year when we played Davidson in the tournament, he was the point guard. He had 16 against us as a freshman,” he said. “CJ [Fredrick] is a scorer, has a shot you must have nowadays .. because he shoots 50% from three he spreads the court.”

With Calipari going hard in the paint in the transfer market, what happens with the top high school recruits he’s known for bringing into the program? Many other programs such as the G League’s Ignite, the new Overtime league and overseas offer kids hundreds of thousands of dollars and endorsement deals to play for them, something college coaches cannot compete with.

With Calipari making Kentucky the recruiting powerhouse it’s been for over a decade now, there’s no second guessing that he’ll have his program in the forefront when it comes to name, image and likeness when the laws are finally set in stone.