Eric Musselman says there’s ‘no one better’ at coaching young players than John Calipari
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Eric Musselman was asked Wednesday at SEC media days if he thought Kentucky, which features 8 freshmen and 2 sophomores this season, can play with the more veteran heavy teams such as Tennessee, Texas A&M and even the Razorbacks.
Simply put, Musselman does think the Wildcats can succeed. Fact of the matter is the Cats have plenty of talent, it’s just a question of getting that talent to form a cohesive unit alongside veteran presences such as Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell.
Musselman sees a some of this year’s Wildcats team in last year’s Razorbacks team, one that he believes could have gone further without a visit from the injury bug.
Check out his full answer below:
“I do. I really do. I think it depends on who those freshmen are. Again, I can just use our team last year. I mean, we started three freshmen. One of ’em was hurt for a good portion of the season. If he’s not injured, we probably have more wins than we did last year. If Brazile is playing with those three freshmen, maybe we have five to six more wins, to be honest with you, when you consider Nick Smith’s talent. Yes, I mean, I think you can win. If we wouldn’t have played UConn and we would play some of the other teams left in the term, we felt like coming off that Kansas win, even with the three freshmen starting, that we could have gone beyond a Sweet 16.”
He continued, calling Calipari the best coach in college basketball at getting the best out of young players.
“Coach Calipari, there’s no one better at coaching younger players. There’s no one better in the country, probably no one better in the history of college basketball, coaching young guys. I don’t think there’s even a close second. So, yes, I do think they can have great success even though they are young ’cause he’s got lottery picks. When you have lottery picks, first-round picks, you’re going to win games.”
These are not just any freshmen, either. Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw all have futures in the league, and Reed Sheppard looked like the real deal over the summer.
Basketball season is almost here, folks.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
