With Kentucky's biggest recruiting event just hours away, John Calipari spoke about Big Blue Madness and the impact it has on recruiting.
UK is scheduled to have at least 11 visitors at Big Blue Madness, the second most prospects in the event's history, made up of members from the 2017, 2018 and 2019 class.
The recruits will likely encounter the craziness of Big Blue Nation. In past years fans have chanted recruits names, asked for pictures and autographs. Several players, and their families, have spoken about how that made a lasting impact.
But Calipari doesn't necessarily prefer the throngs of recruits all at once.
"Well, most of the kids decide when they want to come here," Calipari said. "I like it when I have a young man by himself, but they all like to come to this event."
Calipari has made a conscious decision to not extend invites out this year to kids he knows won't end up at Kentucky. In the past, the Cats had seem like long shots in some recruitments but the player was invited regardless.
Not this year. Players like Wendell Carter and Gary Trent Jr., both had said they wanted to visit Big Blue Madness but the Cats stopped recruiting the pair.
Instead Calipari is focusing on eight or nine guys in the class of 2017, with a handful on campus this weekend.
Read who will be on UK's campus here.
While Calipari will be pressed for time, he will likely spend most of his time with the 2017 recruits. He admitted that some underclassmen won't get as much time.
"Tomorrow we've got a couple of underclassmen," Calipari said. "Tomorrow I'm going to get the families together and say, this is the only time you're really going to speak to me. I don't have time, but I'm happy you're here. With young people, you just don't have the same time. But you want to have time so that they understand what this is, and I want them to see practice. I want them to see how the team is together."
New full time assistant coach Joel Justus met with the media yesterday. He's in charge of recruiting the underclassmen but didn't give any details about how much time will be spent with each player.
Instead he's focusing on the event as a whole.
"It's going to be a fun weekend," Justus said. "It's going to be a fun weekend and I look forward to our guys being out on the floor. It's gonna be fun. I think it's going to be a great time. I think the fans will be excited. I think all of our coaches are excited, but it will be a fun weekend."
Some players arrived Thursday, which Calipari was "ecstatic" about, and even though he won't be able to spend as much time with each player he understands why kids want to come.
It's a spectacle that also has a game like atmosphere, where they can be entertained but also see UK's home court advantage.
Even if there's no opponent. It's madness.
"By seeing the madness, it's more like a game, like you walk in and say, this is what our games are like, just different people," Calipari said. "It's not -- I wouldn't say it's 25,000 season ticket holders."
