Anyone who follows college basketball is familiar with John Calipari's perennial roster turnover and the parade of talent departing from and arriving at the Kentucky program.
Until you're part of it, though, new UK assistant coach Bruiser Flint says, it's hard to fully appreciate what it takes from a coaching perspective.
"Pretty much, you've got a brand new team," Flint said. "That's the one thing that sort of shocks me a little bit. You really have one player that you're returning. I've never had that in my career no matter where I've been.
"I talk to Cal about that all the time. I said, 'I don't know how you do it.' When you're dealing with young kids, they get silly, they giggle, and all of those things like that, and you're dealing with that all the time and you've got to put them together. I don't care how talented they are, they're still kids, and they act like it sometimes."
The routine has become old hat to Calipari, who has largely washed, rinsed, and repeated this team-building strategy since arriving in Lexington prior to the 2009-10 season.
This year, the Wildcats return just one player who saw action last season -- sophomore forward Keion Brooks Jr. The only other returning scholarship player is Dontaie Allen, a redshirt freshman wing who sat out 2019-20 as he recovered from knee surgery.
You won't find many rivals feeling sorry for UK, however.
As usual, Calipari reloaded with a stellar recruiting class, a No. 1-ranked haul that included three 5-star prospects and three 4-star players.
Putting all of the pieces together is not as easy as it may seem, though, Flint said. He noted that Calipari has been particularly hands-on with the Cats' early workouts.
"You have to be that way when you have a young team," Flint said. "When you have young players, you've got to be hands-on. THat's how you break them of the habits that he always talks about. If you're not, they're going to continue to do the things that they've been doing in the past, which aren't always good."
Examples: a big man getting too caught up in shooting 3-pointers instead of focusing on what he does best; or a player who dominated to the extent in high school that it became too easy, forgoing the little things that turn a good player into a great one.
But Flint likes the way the Cats have been picking things up. Last week, fellow UK assistant Joel Justus noted that there's a buzz in the Craft Center each day that has only previously occurred with some of Calipari's best teams.
"They’ve had young teams in the past, so I’ve asked those guys how this team stacks up against the other teams in the past," he said. "They say this team has done an unbelievable job at picking things up. This has been one of their better groups in terms of that."
