SEC colleagues back Kentucky coach John Calipari’s summer exhibition proposal

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — John Calipari has completed an unlikely feat: He pitched a grand thought that might impression all of faculty basketball and fairly shortly acquired what seems to be overwhelming help. Calipari revealed the idea for summer season exhibition video games, a model of the NBA’s Summer season League for faculty hoops, to The Athletic earlier this month.

The thought had near-unanimous approval from his teaching friends Wednesday on the SEC’s basketball tip-off occasion. All however one the league’s 14 head coaches enthusiastically agreed that summer season exhibition video games can be a welcomed addition. Even Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams, who declined to weigh in on any potential adjustments to the game after his rant in opposition to the NCAA Match choice course of in March, acknowledged: “I believe it’s going to head that path.”

Calipari has been working with Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s school basketball czar, to convey his imaginative and prescient to life. Gavitt not too long ago introduced the concept to all 32 convention commissioners, and “they had been intrigued conceptually,” he mentioned. A panel of gamers, who might use an annual summer season sequence to launch or improve their title, picture and likeness pursuits, additionally supported the concept. Nationwide Affiliation of Basketball Coaches government director Craig Robinson mentioned: “Anecdotally, our coaches are thrilled.” It’s not simply anecdotal anymore. SEC coaches are prepared for summer season basketball, which tracks with Gavitt’s hope that it might turn out to be a actuality “as early as subsequent summer season.”

For years, Calipari has cracked that if it’s his thought, the NCAA will do the alternative. This new pet mission would possibly characterize a shift in the way in which Kentucky’s 63-year-old coach is seen — a longtime renegade turned sage visionary.