Summer fun first step toward Kentucky basketball getting back to being Kentucky

A few media members were patiently waiting to interview Kellan Grady inside the media room at Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday afternoon when a status report arrived from UK’s media relations staff.

“Kellan has been coaching a team and wants to finish the game,” read the text message. “They have one more quarter and then we will be down there!”

The “game” involved a group of youngsters at John Calipari’s summer camp at UK. Sure enough, Grady’s team having proven victorious in a squeaker, the 6-foot-5 forward from Boston arrived and in the course of his conversation succinctly set the tone for Kentucky basketball’s 2021-22 season.

“There’s a common goal it seems like this year, especially for the guys that are returning,” said the transfer from Davidson. “(We want) to re-establish Kentucky basketball.”

Though it may seem like a small thing, how Grady was spending his Tuesday on the floor of the Joe Craft Center is a step in that direction. Over the past couple of weeks, UK players have traveled around the state — via vans and even a train — to help with community service projects and conduct satellite camps. Last weekend, Calipari and his Cats returned to Lexington to play host to a father/son camp on Friday and a father/daughter camp on Saturday.

At the latter, there was a particular moment in a game with the current players in which a young girl, try as she might, could not put the ball in the basket. So Jacob Toppin lifted up the young lady so she could be closer to the rim. She missed again. No problem. Toppin lifted her up again. She missed again. Undeterred, they tried again.

That’s the stuff that was missing from last season. The summer stuff. COVID-19 restrictions canceled Calipari’s camps and his team’s annual summer workouts. COVID-19 canceled most everything most everywhere, of course. That’s why they call it a pandemic. But the autopsy on Kentucky’s humbling 2020-21 season pointed to the lack of summer interaction among the players as at least one determining factor.

That may be an oversimplification. UK’s main 2020-21 problem was a dip in overall talent. But the lack of a get-to-know-you summer for a team that included nine newcomers certainly didn’t help. Instead, it was October before Calipari’s crew was thrown into the blender. The mix never quite worked. The 9-16 record was proof. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Thankfully, it’s a new year in a host of delightful ways. COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted or at least scaled back. At Memorial Coliseum for Friday’s camp session, I was reminded by UK personnel I no longer had to wear a mask. Instead of Zoom sessions, we are actually talking to players and coaches live and in person. And players are interacting with each other.

“In my experience,” Grady said, “the closer you are off the court it almost always translates to success on the court.”

Kentucky basketball has a core four of holdovers

Not every UK basketball player is new. Dontaie Allen, Keion Brooks, Jacob Toppin and Lance Ware are back. Call them the Core Four. We’re waiting to see if Davion Mintz will return to expand that number to five. By Calipari standards, a returning quintet would constitute a windfall.

All eyes are on the newcomers, of course. West Virginia transfer Oscar Tshiebwe, visiting family, is the only Cat not yet on campus. From what we’ve seen in the camps, the new guys appear to fit right in, messing with their teammates, having fun with the young campers.

“A lot of the guys have spoken about how they really feel like it’s a good group of guys and the team’s going to be close,” Grady said Tuesday. “Pick-up has been competitive and you see what guys can do and how they fit in. It’s been good. I’ve enjoyed it. They are great guys off the court and I think we’re going to have a fun year.”

A fun summer is a nice start.

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